Contact: Maridith Geuder
What kinds of technology will be needed to provide effective learning over the next decade? How can colleges and universities in Mississippi and other rural states identify their needs and be prepared?
These and other questions will be the focus Sept. 9-11 of a Mississippi State University conference titled "Dynamics of the Networked Academy." Information technology researchers from MSU and other academic institutions, as well as government and industry, will examine the challenges and opportunities of Internet2, web-based instruction, network infrastructure, and other technology issues.
Mississippi State is a charter member of Internet2, a consortium of more than 100 major research universities formed to establish a high-speed network beyond the current Internet for research and instruction.
The university's Information Technologies Oversight Committee is sponsoring the conference in cooperation with the Southeastern Universities Research Association and the University Consortium for Advanced Internet Development.
"This will be an opportunity for educators, information technology specialists, systems administrators, and others to learn more about networking capabilities and needs of the future," said Frances Coleman, MSU dean of libraries and a member of the technologies oversight committee's planning group.
Among conference speakers will be state Commissioner of Higher Education Thomas Layzell, MSU President Malcolm Portera and Vice President for Research Robert A. Altenkirch.
"Universities in non-urban areas such as Mississippi face significant cost differentials for high-bandwidth connectivity compared to their urban counterparts," said conference co-chair Joe Thompson. "This meeting will raise awareness of the potential for information technology in education and will call attention to some of the problems as well."
A Giles Distinguished Professor of Aerospace Engineering at MSU, Thompson serves on President Clinton's Information Technology Advisory Committee. Earlier this month, the committee issued a report calling for high-bandwidth access, especially in traditionally underrepresented areas.
Others making remarks at the conference include Kay Howell, director of the National Coordination Office for Computing, Information and Communication; Ron Hutchins, director of the Southern Crossroads Internet2 Project at Georgia Tech University; Michael McRobbie, vice president for information technology at Indiana University; Southern Universities Research Association President Dennis Barnes; and John Toole of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois.
Also participating will be representatives of the National Science Foundation, Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Syracuse and Tulane universities.
For more information about the conference, visit the event web site at http://nt.library.msstate.edu/itoc/itoc.htm.
Thompson may be reached by telephone at (601) 325-7299 or by e-mail at Joe@erc.msstate.edu. Frances Coleman's telephone number is 325-7661; her e-mail, fcoleman@library.msstate.edu.