MS, Google battle over students

With the recession taking a bite out of university endowments and public school budgets alike, the competition between Google and Microsoft to convert US colleges, universities and schools to the companies' free e-mail and other IT services running on the Internet "cloud" has only grown more fierce, writes MecuryNews.

Microsoft reported in November that Live@edu had signed up more than 5 000 schools and universities around the world over the previous four months and now has student users in more than 100 countries.

Both companies offer a menu of software that includes e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, storage space and the ability to create student Web sites.

Biotechnology software and product providers Vernier and Bio-Rad Laboratories have formed a partnership to provide enhanced biotechnology curricula for high school and college science courses, states The Journal.

Vernier will bring to the venture its instructor-friendly data-acquisition equipment, including the Blue and White Digital Bioimaging Systems and Logger Pro Software, in conducting Bio-Rad's in-class experimentation activities with a variety of complex biotechnology topics, including bacterial transformation and DNA electrophoresis.

The partnership combines the expertise of both organisations to create lab experiences that are easy for instructors to implement, says a spokesperson, who added that scientific concepts such as those covered in Bio-Rad's lab activities require first-hand experience using real-world tools and methods rather than simply lectures and demonstrations.

The College of Charleston has unveiled an app designed as a supplement for students looking to tour the university, says The Herald Online.

Calling it "the very first interactive and self-guided university campus tour app," the College of Charleston has released an app intended for potential students looking for more information on the campus and its history.

The app features over 20 locations in and around the Charleston campus with accompanying text, pictures, and video for each. The 'College of Charleston Tour' app also uses GPS assistance to show the distance to and location of each of the places of interest around the university.