college

Editor's note: This is the first story in an ongoing series profiling college graduates throughout the United States as they hunt for technology jobs. Check out CNET's special report, "Wanted: A job in tech," for a story tomorrow on MBAs making their way in tech world.

TROY, N.Y.--The rain is coming down heavily this spring morning at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, one of the nation's top technical universities. But as seniors prepare to enter the work world, there's far less gloom here than in recent years.

"A lot of seniors I've talked with have something lined up," said William Jones, a mechanical-engineering major, who will graduate May 28. Jones, too, has something lined up: a position with the Engineering Leadership Program at General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems in Pittsfield, Mass. It's a three-year opportunity during which Jones will rotate through three or four different technical posts.

If you need more signs that the economy is turning, albeit slowly, Jones and his fellow engineering majors offer some hope. Without question, many are still looking. But unlike the last few years, when the global recession kept many employers away from college campuses, jobs, particularly technical ones, are there to be had.

Just look at the data. A recent survey of 4,600 employers by the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University found that hiring of new graduates with bachelor's degrees will climb 10 percent this year, the first increase in two years. Given that 1.7 million students will receive bachelor's degrees this year, according to the Education Department, a double-digit boost is significant.… Read more

Apple's iPad could prove to be a must-have tool for colleges around the country, a new study from Oklahoma State University has found.

During the fall 2010 semester, five sections of two courses on two campuses used Apple's tablet as part of the university's iPad Pilot Program. The goal was to determine the impact the iPad would have on both students and faculty, and decide if it should be rolled out across the university at some point in the future.

According to OSU, it found that student expenses went down in the classes featuring iPads, since students were able to use cheaper electronic textbooks, rather than hard copies. Moreover, the university found that if all the students' textbooks were available electronically, they could save enough over two semesters to cover the cost of buying the iPad, which retails for between $499 and $829, depending upon storage requirements and connectivity options.

Students also benefited greatly from Apple's App Store, OSU found. They were able to find "thousands of educational software possibilities" in the App Store to help complement Web-based tools they employed. Students also used Apple's tablet as a "substitute for paper and pen."

The iPad's touch-based functionality has proven useful in other educational institutions around the U.S., as well.… Read more

Today's the day, sports fans. The NCAA men's basketball tournament slams into high gear, with 16 second-round games kicking off at noon ET--and 16 more lined up for tomorrow. Our nation's productivity is about to take a two-week nosedive.

This probably won't help, but I don't care: NCAA March Madness On Demand for iOS streams every single game, live, free of charge. That's a pretty nice change over last year, when you had to pay 10 bucks for it.

The app works on iPhones, iPods, and iPads (sorry, Android users), and can stream over … Read more

When you think of environmentally friendly transportation on college and university campuses, you usually think of bicycles. But in cold winter weather, or when going off campus for errands or hauling more than the average backpack around, a Zipcar fits the bill.

For $8 per hour or $66 per day, and an annual fee, 1.7 million students, faculty, and staff have 24-hour access to Zipcars. The company now has ride-share programs on more than 225 campuses.

"We know that college students quickly embrace the concept of car sharing. This is the same generation that buys music by the … Read more

A group of Vermont college students has come up with a soccer-centric video game that teaches boys how to pass, dribble, tackle, score--and, hopefully, respect girls.

If that seems like an unlikely connection, students from the Emergent Media Center at Champlain College in Burlington would disagree. They've spent two years developing Breakaway, a free interactive online game that manages to impart lessons about violence to boys 8 to 15--while tossing them some lively gameplay.

"Breakaway is a game experience that offers youth the chance to discover how to become a champion both on and off the field," said Ann DeMarle, director of Champlain's Emergent Media Center.

The game--which debuted at the World Cup in South Africa this summer and today saw the release of its third and latest chapter--has attracted 1,000 registered users from 95 countries including Ghana, Mali, Tunisia, Indonesia, and Azerbaijan. In the early days of the game's creation, student developers journeyed to the townships of Cape Town, South Africa, as part of their research into social conditions that can lead to abuse.

The outgrowth of a United Nations-supported initiative aimed at using games to teach respect for girls and women, Breakaway has been endorsed by Cameroonian soccer star Samuel Eto'o, who also appears in the game as a virtual football mentor.

The title presents interactive storylines, each featuring new characters, that have players bouncing between skill-building mini-games focusing on speed, strength, agility, and timing, and narrative challenges that require collaborative decision making on social issues such as gender equality and racial stereotypes.

In one instance, a team captain who's talented and popular but tends to be a bully becomes progressively verbally abusive toward your sister as she stands on the field. In another, a member of your all-boys' team moves away with his family, and a girl replaces him.

Who you choose to side with during such situations--those team members who defend the girl being bullied or excluded or those who contribute to her ostracization--influences the caliber of soccer training you get, and thus, your chances of advancing as a player. … Read more

When the iPad first launched, we heard a lot of talk about possible uses for it in school settings. There was talk of downloading books (instead of carrying a heavy backpack); taking notes (even though the onscreen keyboard is less than ideal); and someday watching online lectures on the device (if sites would start using HTML 5 instead of Flash). So far, while the iPad has been a huge success with users, things that would really help students haven't quite come to fruition.

A new note-taking app called Note Taker HD ($4.99) for iPad might be the lecture … Read more

When a nearby college, Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., started offering classes on Star Trek's place in popular culture years ago, the old guard shook their heads in confusion and disgust. Had I a starship and a wormhole, I'd perhaps go back and offer up a new course that will be available at the University of Baltimore: Zombies 101.

As part of the advanced English course, students will learn about zombies from Arnold Blumberg, a renaissance geek who already teaches about comic books at the University of Maryland and has written or co-written books on Doctor Who … Read more

Credit for today's 404 Podcast show goes to the random madman in The 404 Live chat room this morning, who popped in only to shout "COLLEGE IS EXPENSIVE" before getting booted for using all caps. See you tomorrow, phantom screamer! Today's episode of The 404 takes a closer look at Blackberry's new Torch smartphone, Facebook's ethnicity trend study, regional gadget trends, and why it's never a good idea to sing John Denver at karaoke.

Tech Web site Retrevo recently conducted a gadget survey to find out which states buy up the most consumer … Read more

Frat parties and free music have been among the perks of attending college in the United States during the past decade. But now the days of using fat campus bandwidth to download movies and music via file-sharing networks appear to be coming to an end.

Thursday is the deadline for colleges and universities that receive Title IV federal aid to have implemented antipiracy procedures on their campuses as part of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008.

HEOA, which was backed by the movie and music industries, addresses a lot of different facets of higher education, but tucked in … Read more