NJEDge.Net - The New Jersey Higher Education Network

I. NJEDge.net Update - George Carroll
Sept 24 DLAAB Notes

George Carroll provided an update on the status of NJEDge.Net. He noted that Kathleen Ciociola of Verizon has become a Project Manager for both Access New Jersey and NJEDge.Net. This change will benefit both organizations and provide another communications path between higher education and the K12 community in our State.
George reported that there are weekly planning meetings of Verizon and NJEDge.Net where a wide range of technical and administrative issues are discussed, and tasks are assigned. Currently a number of colleges and universities are changing over to Verizon for Internet service in anticipation of full NJEDge.Net service. Their status is tracked weekly.
George Laskaris has obtained Internet addresses, which are an important asset to our network. They are being made available to members that do not now have their own addresses or need more for expansion.
George Carroll recently attended an NJEDge.Net Advisory Board meeting because of their interest in DLAAB, EATF and the VRG. The Board wanted a report on the integration of these NJIN service groups into NJEDge.Net.

II. EATF Update - Ron Loneker
At the September EATF meeting, the following items were discussed:
· NJEDge.net needs to standardize its terminology (conference, workshop, colloquium, symposium, etc.) to better classify its events.
· Ethics and Legal Issues Conference is cancelled this year since the NJEDge.net Annual Conference was tentatively scheduled 2 months away. Also, a number of the planning members on the Ethics planning committee are also on the Annual Conference planning committee.
· Discipline-specific Faculty Showcases are scheduled over the next couple of months. Dates and locations are on the NJEDge.net website.
· Like the other service groups, the EATF is looking to increase its membership. Currently the number of participants is very small.

III. UMDNJ Project - Yini Zhu
As a member of UMDNJ's Microcomputer Utilization Committee, Yini Zhu reported that UMDNJ on how the library orientation is being integrated into each WebCT course since accessing library databases is very important for distant students. Over the past 9 months, it has been working very well. Proxy accounts are created to allow students to access material as if they were onsite.

IV.NJVCCC - Diane Campbell
Diane Campbell reported this update about NJVCCC. Challenges to NJVCCC include:
· Supporting students on-line.
· Smart Thinking on-line content tutorial service being tested on some community colleges. Service is offered in real time.
· Getting books on-line. There are varying levels of support now and one challenge is financial aid issues. The community colleges are attempting to create 1 on-line bookstore to service all of the community colleges, targeted to be functional for the spring semester. Brookdale is taking the lead. Regular bookstores (such as Barnes and Noble) do not have the books that on-line students need.
Other items discussed:
· A marketing effort is underway that should be in place within 3 weeks. NJN spots are going to be run.
· The NJVCCC is looking at faculty training and looking at math and sciences with labs and how to accomplish these courses. There were probably 5,000+ students who took on-line courses last year.

IV. DLAAB Meetings - Ellen Spaldo
The DLAAB meeting scheduled was distributed. Meetings this year will be a combination of in-person and ITV. Requests for suggestions for topics and speakers solicited.

VI. DLAAB Colloquia - Ellen Spaldo
The DLAAB colloquia schedule was distributed. The following items were discussed:
a. The October 12 colloquium will include Montclair State University.
b. The November 16 colloquium has Dr. Vicki Cohen from FDU as a speaker. Ellen would like another or others. Thomas Edison State College was suggested as a possible source (an idea for a luncheon speaker would be a discussion on Thomas Edison State College itself). EDUCAUSE might be another source for a presenter.
c. February 8 and April 12 colloquia might include people from the Faculty Showcases who would be asked to participate more in-depth.
d. March 8 and May 3 colloquia would help begin a more formalized dialogue with K-12 (especially once the network is functional). Stevens' CIESE is working on collaborative projects with K-12. Hunterdon Central, Bergen Academy and Union Catholic are 3 high schools who are using technology and could possibly be sources to explore. A question was raised as to whether these institutions were doing collaborative work with higher education. This needs to be the focus whenever possible
e. Webcasting and webstreaming are being explored by Bernie Solomon.