01. Beware of Phishing Expeditions
02. Office 2008 for the Mac
03. Software Downloads at IRT Computer Marketplace
04. 6th Annual eLearning Conference at Drexel University
05. New Wireless Network in Test
06. Departmental Computer Purchases
News & Notes on Online Learning
07. Mac Users Who Also Use Wimba Live Classroom
08. Announcing Wimba Pronto
09. Trouble Opening Impatica
10. Comments Field in the Bb Vista Grade Book
11. How to Get Bb Vista 4's Internal Mail Forwarded to an External E-Mail Address
12. 2008 Workshop Schedule – February & March
13. Bb Vista Tools, Tips, and Tricks
14. Blackboard Scholar
15. eduGarage
IRT has cautioned users before about email scams which profess to authenticate an account, at a bank or credit card company, and request personal information that can later be used for hacking and identity theft. Another flurry of such phishing has become prevalent recently and merits attention. The new phishing attack is targeting the email accounts at colleges and Universities and attacks are disguised as messages from administrators performing a database update or an email account verification. The messages state that in order to keep their email accounts, the students must 'verify' the accounts by replying to the message with details such as user names, passwords and date of birth. IRT will never send out such a mail requesting confidential information. If you receive such an email, please delete it and do not respond. The rule of thumb should be that email should not be used for transmitting any confidential, personal information to anyone for any reason.
The new Office 2008 for the Mac is now freely available for download from our Computer Marketplace site http://www.drexel.edu/irt/services/comp_mark/index.html. IRT has tested Office 2008 and has found many new features and capabilities which improve performance; including, better Entourage interface with Exchange and faster overall application launch.
Microsoft Office 2008 for the Mac requires Mac OS X version 10.4.9 or later; in addition, you will not notice any differences in performance over Office 2004 if you are using a pre-Intel Macintosh. If you have any questions regarding Office 2008 or Windows running on a Mac, please contact IRT at consult@drexel.edu or check the IRT section of AskDrexel http://ask.drexel.edu.
All Drexel licensed software is available for download on the IRT Marketplace site. Choose the "Get Software" option and log in with your Drexel ID and password. When you find the application you are looking for, you can download it directly; however, please read the accompanying Read Me files before you download. These files contain special instructions to help you avoid any problems or issues when downloading and installing applications so please read them before proceeding.
On March 20, 2008 Drexel’s Office of Information Resources and Technology (IRT), Drexel eLearning, and Villanova will together host the annual Drexel eLearning Conference at Drexel. This year Dr. Mark David Milliron (http://www.markmilliron.com) will be our special luncheon speaker. Dr. Milliron is an award-winning leader, author, speaker, and consultant best known for exploring leadership development, future trends, learning strategies, and the human side of technology change.
Conference attendees will choose from over 20 presentations related to technology tools and pedagogical options related to online instruction. Attendance will be limited to the first 200 registrants so register early at http://www.drexel.edu/irt/eLearningConf2008/
If you are interested in presenting at this year’s conference, you have until March 5 to submit a proposal at the conference site. This conference is an opportunity to share best practices and creative approaches to online teaching and learning. Last year attendees came from 50 different institutions! Join your colleagues from Drexel and beyond to learn how to enhance the online learning experience for your students.
Responding to both advances in technology and student requests for faster and more secure wireless networks, IRT is conducting field tests of new equipment from several companies and encouraging students in two of our newest residence halls to help gauge the effectiveness of the equipment. Residents of Caneris Hall and the Race Street Residence are able to access 'dflytest' while inside the residence halls.
The new equipment provides a 6x increase in radio power and makes it easier to get and hold a signal. The equipment also provides compatibility with 802.11a, which is less prone to interference. In the coming weeks, 802.11n support will be added in a portion of Race Street.
After initial testing during February and March, IRT will survey the students involved in the test for their feedback as to how the equipment compares to DragonFly and how well the extra 802.11a and 802.11n features work. Student participation along with IRT's technical evaluation will help decide which equipment Drexel will install for the next generation of wireless computing on campus. DragonFly is available throughout the rest of campus during this limited testing period.
As the fiscal year comes to a close many departments make plans to purchase computer equipment with year end funds. IRT will be working with vendors to secure favorable pricing for desk-top and laptop computers both Mac and PC; and departments are invited to take advantage of the discounts afforded by volume purchasing. Specifications and pricing for the computers are posted on the IRT site at http://www.drexel.edu/irt/services/comp_mark/upgrade.html .
If you have any questions regarding the opportunity, please contact Procurement @ procurement@drexel.edu.
News & Notes on Online Learning
We have just received this new information related to individuals using Wimba Classroom (formerly known as Live Classroom) - with the Firefox browsers - on Intel-based Macs:
Due to a bug in the way Java is handled by Firefox on Intel-based Macs, Wimba Classroom applets may cause the browser to crash. This is a known issue and Mozilla is currently working to resolve this bug. Firefox will still work with all non-Intel, or PowerPC Macs. This should be resolved in a future release of Firefox.
Solution: Currently, only the Safari Internet browser is supported for use with Wimba Classroom on Intel-based Macs.
During the term break, we have activated Wimba Pronto in the Bb Vista environment at http://learning.drexel.edu . Wimba Pronto is a free instant messaging and voice chat tool that allows students and instructors to spontaneously meet live online at any time to discuss their coursework. Wimba Pronto integrates with Bb Vista to automatically populate student and faculty contact lists each semester with their course rosters, thereby making it easy for users to collaborate live online. Anyone logged into Bb Vista can follow the link on the My Bb Vista Home page to create a new Pronto account or instructors can add the tool to their sections from the Add Content Link drop down menu.
Once an account is created students and faculty can communicate without even logging in to the Vista system. Using the free downloadable software (Mac OSX and Windows only), members can Instant Message, Voice-over IP, Group IM and VoIP, see who else is online, add avatars, and create personal contact lists. Learners benefit by being able to instantly ask available classmates for help and to learn from each other. Since accounts are pulling info directly from the BB Vista system, instructor and students can clearly tell who is contacting them and know that they are a member of the Drexel Community. If you want to learn more about Pronto, please contact the OLT@drexel.edu or visit the Wimba Pronto site at http://www.wimba.com/product/wimbapronto
If you have downloaded Impatica from IRT's Computer Marketplace website and are having trouble opening the application, you probably have to upgrade your QuickTime. Go to http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/ to get the latest version. It's free! If, after installing the QuickTime upgrade, you still cannot get Impatica to run, please contact IRT at x2020.
The new Grade Book in Bb Vista enables instructors and TAs to make comments when they enter new grades or change existing grades there. This Comments area can NOT be viewed by students. The purpose of the field is to let instructors and/or TAs make a "note to self" about why they changed a grade, for instance. These entries create an "audit history" in the grade book which can be reviewed later by instructors and TA's.
This Comments area is especially helpful in team teaching instances or where there are multiple TAs working with instructors in a given section in Bb Vista.
In the Assignments tool there is also a Comments field where instructors and/or TAs can provide feedback to students on their work, and these comments students CAN see, of course.
- When you log into Vista , the My Settings link appears in the upper right-hand corner of your Bb Vista Home Page. Click on that link to go to the My Settings page.
- You need to modify your profile so that your external e-mail address is indicated. Click on the "Edit Profile" button under the "My Profile" tab.
- Make sure your first name, last name and your e-mail address are public. You can even add a picture of yourself or another (appropriate) image. Click on the "Save" button when you have made your modifications.
- Now, click on the middle tab ("My Tool Options"). Near the middle there's the "Mail" category, where you can check off "Forward all mail messages to the e-mail address in my profile." Once you have made that modification, click on the "Save" button. Click on the "Bb Vista Home" tab to get back to your home page.
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Bb Vista Workshops for New Vista Users - in Korman 116
Friday, March 14, 2008, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Bb Vista Refreshers for Experienced Vista Users - in Korman 116
Wednesday, March 19, 2008, 9 a.m. - noon
Brown Bag Lunch Sessions - in Korman 116
Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - NetSupport (manage classroom PCs)
Thursday, March 6, 2008 – Pronto! (an instant messaging application)
Impatica Demo & Training - in Korman 116
Tuesday, March 11, 2008 - 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. - Impatica Fundamentals
Camtasia Demo & Training - in Korman 116
Tuesday, March 11, 2008 - 2:45 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. - Fundamentals
Thursday, March 13, 2008 - 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. – Intermediate
Dreamweaver Training - in Korman 116
Tuesday, Feb 19 - 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. - Basic Dreamweaver
Tuesday, March 4 - 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. - Intermediate Dreamweaver
Tuesday, March 18 - 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. - Advanced Dreamweaver
- Check out the My Tool Options tab in the My Settings area. There you can establish universal defaults for yourself that will cascade through all your Sections in Bb Vista. For one example, you may want to have new Mail messages from students appear at the top of your in-box items.
- Use the new Grading Forms tool to link to other tools and to create customizable rubric sets. You start with three criteria and a five point Likert scale and alter it to suit your own purposes. Create as many Grading Forms as you need for your Section in Bb Vista and use them to create columns in the Grade Book. Students can see the Grading Form details beforehand, giving them a clear picture of your expectations.
- The Goals tool allows you to record the goals for a course and to create categories to organize them. Associate the following content with any goal: assessments, assignments, chat rooms, learning modules and others.
Scholar is a new enhancement that Blackboard, Inc., launched last year as part of its Blackboard Beyond initiative. It works like a social bookmarking site (think del.icio.us), but is an integral part of your Blackboard or Bb Vista section.
Scholar meets three objectives: individual, faculty, and class needs for a student-centered approach. With Scholar, you can:
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Classify bookmarks via user-defined tagging (AKA, "Folksonomies")
- Share resources among peers and colleagues
- Discover relevant, reliable resources more easily
- Evaluate the quality of resources
- Update courses automatically with dynamic content streams
- Contribute resources to courses, whether you are instructor or student
Watch a demo of Scholar at:
http://media.irt.drexel.edu/MediaSite/Viewer/?peid=3001ee00-e577-4d16-9335-55efeee402dd
The Blackboard Developers Network (BbDN) is a community of nearly 2000 developers from academic institutions and commercial vendors. They gather and collaborate online at EduGarageTM. EduGarage is the wiki-based central repository for resources, information, collaboration, sample code, getting started information and more for developers of Blackboard Building Blocks, Blackboard PowerLinks and Blackboard Language Packs.
Open, collaborative development is the foundation of the Blackboard Developer Network. This community born in 2001 relies upon the open, standards-based APIs and web services available for the Blackboard Academic Suite and documented in the freely available Software Development Kit (SDK). This technology enables developers at academic institutions and commercial vendors to develop customizations and integrations with the Blackboard Academic Suite to enhance online teaching and learning experiences around the world. These open, standards-based Java-based APIs and web services allow for the sharing of valuable data between Blackboard software and other systems and tools through development of Blackboard Building Blocks (for Blackboard) or Blackboard PowerLinks (for Bb Vista).
You can get additional information here: http://www.edugarage.com/display/BBDN/About+EduGarage
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IRT Technology Update, go to
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