George Lillig Polycom, Inc. VP, U.S. Education Sales george.lillig@polycom.com
Welcome to the Summer Semester 2010 issue of the Education newsletter.
After months of research and development, I am very pleased to report the immediate availability and full-scale operation of E2Bconnect! This Education to Business professional and social networking program is designed to facilitate fast communications and collaboration between academic communities and enterprise/corporate organizations. Please click on the E2Bconnect link and take it for a test drive.
Also in this issue is key information about two significant product releases for the Education Segment. CMA Desktop for the MAC OS X platform and the announcement of the breakthrough, standards-based H.264 High Profile Bandwidth Reduction capability.
We do our very best to highlight new items of interest and sincerely hope this newsletter content is helpful.
Please feel free to contact me anytime I can be of assistance.
Best Regards.
FEATURE STORY
Polycom and Internet2 Partner on Professional Social Networking Site for Video Conferencing
Polycom and Internet2 officially launch E2Bconnect, a free, online professional networking program designed to facilitate collaboration between higher education institutions and businesses using visual communications to address business challenges and foster joint projects such as research, and to improve educational and career opportunities.
Challenges Conquered: Curriculum Needs Met Through Pittsburg Public Schools Distance Learning Program, students hone their foreign language skills by playing Spanish Jeopardy with their counterparts in other schools, debaters face off with teams from across town or in another state and math students test their knowledge in video-based contests.
French University Pushes Teaching Boundaries University of Paris-Descartes dramatically enhances activities such as inter-lab seminars with Harvard, meetings with companies, selection panels for the recruitment of teaching staff and researchers, and governance meetings for several regional and European projects.
Breakthrough Video Quality Innovation Cuts Bandwidth Requirement in Half Polycom boosts standard features on room telepresence systems delivering the industry's only UltimateHD user experience at half the bandwidth across entire HDX product line.
Desktop Video Collaboration for Apple Computers A great way to increase the quality of your online blended learning program and network is the utilization of the Polycom CMA Desktop video collaboration application for both Windows and Mac OS X platforms.
It's Easy to Save Millions with Mobile VoIP! Universities and schools find significant savings through implementing unified communications including VoIP with handheld devices that act like a cell phone but without airtime charges and the added benefit of push-to-talk capabilities.
Latest Research on Effectiveness of Video-based Distance Learning Unequivocally, two-way interactive video conferencing technology can be an extremely effective medium for delivering quality education to a broad, geographically dispersed student population.
Locate Funding Resources through Polycom Grant Assistance Program The Polycom Grant Assistance Program will help you find and secure funds for technology from ARRA Stimulus, federal, state and private funding sources.
Internet2 and Polycom Go 4,850 Feet Below the Earth's Surface! - The closing keynote event at the Internet2 Spring Meeting featured a live high definition connection to South Dakota Governor, M. Michael Rounds, and the DUSEL, Deep Underground Science and Engineering Lab via telepresence.Learn and see more.
Women Executives Interviewed for Women's History Month! - Michigan students taking economics, management and business classes had the opportunity to hear from and interview executives during a recent Polycom Special Event. Read more.
Top Honors Gained at USDLA and ACUTA conferences - This Spring we celebrate with University of Pennsylvania who received ACUTA's Institutional Excellence in Information Communications Technology Award for their PennNet Phone Project, Texas A&M University receiving honorable mention for their CALEA Compliance System deployment, and University of New Mexico who received the prestigious 21st Century Best Practice Award for Distance Learning from the U.S. Distance Learning Association (USDLA) for Project ECHO.
Dr. Stephen R. Covey Continues His Polycom Telepresence Success - When Dr. Stephen R. Covey talks chances are that hundreds, if not thousands, of people are listening. And now, more often than not, they're listening-and seeing-Dr. Covey courtesy of Polycom telepresence. Learn More.
Events
NETC - May 23-26, Auburn University, Auburn, AL Educomm - June 7-9, Las Vegas, NV EDEN 2010 - June 9-12, European Distance and E-Learning Network Conference, Valencia, Spain ISTE - June 27-30, International Society for Technology in Education, Denver, CO DIVERSE 2010 - July 6, Portland, ME
International Corner
Unified Communications Empowers University in Milan, Italy Campus IFOM-IEO uses wireless telephony solution to provide comprehensive roaming telephony coverage throughout the campus.
Nova Scotia Community College Realizes Its Mission A large Canadian college builds the province's economy and quality of life through education and innovation-isn't just standard community college boilerplate.
