Technology's Impact on Higher Education Subject of Eminent Lecture Series
Today's college students are armed with blogs, cell phones, iPods and numerous other modern communication devices – a technological advancement that is changing the concept of higher education as we know it. John L. King, the vice provost for Academic Information at University of Michigan, gave an IT Eminent Lecture Series on behalf of the LSU Center for Computation & Technology Thursday, May 3 to discuss the transformation and future of higher education. King described the evolution of universities, saying the modern education system has its roots in Islamic culture, when the Umayyad Dynasty began translations and collections of classic texts. Throughout the European monasteries, education began to take hold, then flourished during the Renaissance. As universities such as Oxford and Harvard came about, institutions of higher learning were considered refinement for young men and led to the rise of scientific studies. Beginning in 1875, infrastructure, particularly development of the U.S. railroad system, led to creation of many land grant colleges and universities. After this point, universities were seen less as a luxury for wealthy young men and more as a vehicle of strength for the states where these institutions were located. This mentality lasted until around 1990, when the rise in other kinds of infrastructure, particularly advances in information technology, began changing the concept of colleges and universities. “We are not the same,†King said. “That leads us to ask, ‘who is in today's learning population?'†King cited examples in how the current college student population differs from those of previous generations. Older students are participating more often, and students are more likely to commute to school rather than attend residential colleges. Students also are paying a greater share of tuition costs than in previous years, leading today's college population to view itself as customers rather than students. However, the biggest change affecting today's college students are the social changes of modern technology. “Infrastructure is becoming ubiquitous,†King said. “People are always in touch.†King believes that extended communication leads to extended social networks, which means more people are learning by extension. For example, students who learn something today can text message that information instantly to friends and family, sharing their knowledge. King concluded by noting that technology is causing drastic supplemental effects, and colleges and universities will need to change with the times to avoid becoming obsolete. “We will still have universities, but the model is changing,†King said. Lecture Explores Evolutions in Graphic Design
CCT hosted an IT Eminent Lecture Series on Friday, May 4, featuring Turner Whitted, Ph.D., of Microsoft, who discussed Procedural Graphics. Whitted presented an overview of Microsoft's work on new procedural representations and architectures that are changing the conventional graphics pipeline. Since programming has become an integral part of graphic design, designers are more often turning to procedural models to represent shape, size and texture in their graphics. In procedural graphics, the data is created with computation as well as artistic design. “Procedural graphics are the key to overcoming limited bandwidth in current graphics displays,†Whitted said. This method of using programming technology to create art is becoming more common, especially in video game design and other such applications. Since graphic designers have an increased need for agile representation, Whitted believes that although procedural graphics must be refined, their use will become more and more common. “This format allows for convergence between the artists and the programmers,†Whitted said. CCT in the News
LSU Student Workshop Focuses on HPC and CFD
4-26-2007/Supercomputing Online
LSU researchers with the National Science Foundation's Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship, or IGERT, program and the Center for Computation & Technology, or CCT, hosted a workshop Friday, April 20, for more than 30 high school students and their teachers. http://supercomputingonline.com/article.php?sid=13598 Pats on the Back
• CCT Professor Joel Tohline recently was honored as a 25-year employee of the University. • CCT Professor Rudy Hirschheim was featured as Flagship Faculty in the March 23 edition of LSU Today. • CCT Professor Lance Porter will be honored today at the Distinguished Faculty Awards Reception with a Tiger Athletic Foundation Undergraduate Teaching Award for his work in the Manship School of Mass Communication. • An image by CCT Researcher Werner Benger was selected for the front cover of a book on Petascale Computing, Algorithms and Applications to be published by Chapman & Hall / CRC Press through Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Lectures This Week:
• Joel de Guzman of Boost Consulting will discuss “A Cookbook Approach to Parsing and Output Generation with Spirit2†in a Special Guest Lecture on Friday, May 11, at 11 a.m. in Johnston 218. • The CCT Colloquium Series will not take place this Friday, May 11. Please Note:
• If you have any news for the CCT Weekly, please e-mail PR Manager Kristen Sunde directly at ksunde@cct.lsu.edu. Upcoming Grant Deadlines:
NSF Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement NSF CCLI May 08 2007 5:00 pm A Portion Of $ 34,000,000.00 available http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf07543/nsf07543.htm NSF Graduate Research Supplements (GRS) to Current ENG Awards to Broaden Participation NSF GRS May 15 2007 10:15 am At Most $ 1,050,000.00 available http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf07023/nsf07023.jsp NIH Biomedical Technology Resource Center Program May 25 2007 10:00 am At Most $700,000.00 available
Today's college students are armed with blogs, cell phones, iPods and numerous other modern communication devices – a technological advancement that is changing the concept of higher education as we know it. John L. King, the vice provost for Academic Information at University of Michigan, gave an IT Eminent Lecture Series on behalf of the LSU Center for Computation & Technology Thursday, May 3 to discuss the transformation and future of higher education. King described the evolution of universities, saying the modern education system has its roots in Islamic culture, when the Umayyad Dynasty began translations and collections of classic texts. Throughout the European monasteries, education began to take hold, then flourished during the Renaissance. As universities such as Oxford and Harvard came about, institutions of higher learning were considered refinement for young men and led to the rise of scientific studies. Beginning in 1875, infrastructure, particularly development of the U.S. railroad system, led to creation of many land grant colleges and universities. After this point, universities were seen less as a luxury for wealthy young men and more as a vehicle of strength for the states where these institutions were located. This mentality lasted until around 1990, when the rise in other kinds of infrastructure, particularly advances in information technology, began changing the concept of colleges and universities. “We are not the same,†King said. “That leads us to ask, ‘who is in today's learning population?'†King cited examples in how the current college student population differs from those of previous generations. Older students are participating more often, and students are more likely to commute to school rather than attend residential colleges. Students also are paying a greater share of tuition costs than in previous years, leading today's college population to view itself as customers rather than students. However, the biggest change affecting today's college students are the social changes of modern technology. “Infrastructure is becoming ubiquitous,†King said. “People are always in touch.†King believes that extended communication leads to extended social networks, which means more people are learning by extension. For example, students who learn something today can text message that information instantly to friends and family, sharing their knowledge. King concluded by noting that technology is causing drastic supplemental effects, and colleges and universities will need to change with the times to avoid becoming obsolete. “We will still have universities, but the model is changing,†King said. Lecture Explores Evolutions in Graphic Design
CCT hosted an IT Eminent Lecture Series on Friday, May 4, featuring Turner Whitted, Ph.D., of Microsoft, who discussed Procedural Graphics. Whitted presented an overview of Microsoft's work on new procedural representations and architectures that are changing the conventional graphics pipeline. Since programming has become an integral part of graphic design, designers are more often turning to procedural models to represent shape, size and texture in their graphics. In procedural graphics, the data is created with computation as well as artistic design. “Procedural graphics are the key to overcoming limited bandwidth in current graphics displays,†Whitted said. This method of using programming technology to create art is becoming more common, especially in video game design and other such applications. Since graphic designers have an increased need for agile representation, Whitted believes that although procedural graphics must be refined, their use will become more and more common. “This format allows for convergence between the artists and the programmers,†Whitted said. CCT in the News
LSU Student Workshop Focuses on HPC and CFD
4-26-2007/Supercomputing Online
LSU researchers with the National Science Foundation's Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship, or IGERT, program and the Center for Computation & Technology, or CCT, hosted a workshop Friday, April 20, for more than 30 high school students and their teachers. http://supercomputingonline.com/article.php?sid=13598 Pats on the Back
• CCT Professor Joel Tohline recently was honored as a 25-year employee of the University. • CCT Professor Rudy Hirschheim was featured as Flagship Faculty in the March 23 edition of LSU Today. • CCT Professor Lance Porter will be honored today at the Distinguished Faculty Awards Reception with a Tiger Athletic Foundation Undergraduate Teaching Award for his work in the Manship School of Mass Communication. • An image by CCT Researcher Werner Benger was selected for the front cover of a book on Petascale Computing, Algorithms and Applications to be published by Chapman & Hall / CRC Press through Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Lectures This Week:
• Joel de Guzman of Boost Consulting will discuss “A Cookbook Approach to Parsing and Output Generation with Spirit2†in a Special Guest Lecture on Friday, May 11, at 11 a.m. in Johnston 218. • The CCT Colloquium Series will not take place this Friday, May 11. Please Note:
• If you have any news for the CCT Weekly, please e-mail PR Manager Kristen Sunde directly at ksunde@cct.lsu.edu. Upcoming Grant Deadlines:
NSF Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement NSF CCLI May 08 2007 5:00 pm A Portion Of $ 34,000,000.00 available http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf07543/nsf07543.htm NSF Graduate Research Supplements (GRS) to Current ENG Awards to Broaden Participation NSF GRS May 15 2007 10:15 am At Most $ 1,050,000.00 available http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf07023/nsf07023.jsp NIH Biomedical Technology Resource Center Program May 25 2007 10:00 am At Most $700,000.00 available
Publish Date:
05-08-2007
