blogs.swarthmore.edu

Argos Open Forum

rryan1 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:07:15 +0000

ITS is offering monthly training workshops to help further develop your Argos skills. All interested parties are invited to join this open forum to discuss and learn about Argos. Since all levels are invited, the content of each class will be driven by the participants, their abilities and their curiosity. Classes are being offered the last Wednesday of every month through April (excluding December). Register on the campus calendar for these events.

Academic Technology Fair: Nov. 19th

mkappel1 — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:56:58 +0000

All faculty and staff are invited to visit the Academic Technology Fair this Thursday. The fair is a showcase of a variety of software and hardware resources that you can use for teaching, research, and administration.

The theme for this year’s fair is “Innovation Is Recession-Proof.” All of the technologies on display are available for you to use today without any additional cost to you or your department. Everything is either free or currently licensed/purchased by the College for your use.

Scheuer Room
Thursday, Nov 19th
10am-2pm
Light refreshments served.

Some of the things you’ll see at this years Academic Technology Fair include:

Swatfiles

Securely access your documents from another computer or location
Send multiple large files as attachments
Share files for a committee or team with multiple contributors or readers, colleagues outside of Swarthmore
Post a file to make it publicly available to the web

SwatCal

Create appointments and schedule meetings
Create different personal calendars
Share your calendars with others
Delegate mangers access to others
View multiple calendars and do group scheduling

SwatSurvey

Check out the Swarthmore-hosted survey system

Web Editing

Introduction to new Ingeniux editor features:

Embedded video
HTML templates
Training information

Digital Storytelling

See examples created by members of the Swarthmore community

High Performance Computing

Xgrid (distributed computing)
Teragrid (supercomputer)

Revolution

Learn about various exercises developed to test language production.

Augmented Reality

Integrate 3D models with real time video using ARToolkit

New Operating Systems

What’s new with Windows 7 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard
Information on compatibility

New in Media Services

Tablet Pc
Marantz portable digital audio recorder
Sony “webbie” tapeless HD video camcorder

Have a Great Idea?

Make sure to stop by and share your thoughts, questions, and suggestions with us. We’re eager to hear what you have to say!

New Operating Systems

bmckinn1 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:26:05 +0000

Although new Mac OS and Windows OS are entering the market, ITS does not recommend upgrading to the new operating systems at this time. ITS will make an announcement in the near future about upgrades, but at this time, faculty and staff should not upgrade their office computers to the newer operating systems. In addition, if faculty/staff connect to Swarthmore networked resources from home, they should also not upgrade their home computer’s operating system until further notice. Current operating systems we support are, Mac OS X 10.4, 10.5, and WinXP SP 3.

ITS Welcomes the Class of 2013!

sfrisbi1 — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:27:46 +0000

Since Move-In Day on Tuesday, students from the entering Swarthmore class of 2013 have registered quite a few new devices on our network.

421 individual computers were registered to the entering class in their first 24 hours on campus.

Stats as of 8/27/2009:

494 total devices registered by the class of 2013
261 Mac OS X computers
165 Windows Vista computers
43 Windows XP computers
25 iPods and iPhones

Over 450 new Virus Scan installations successfully installed over the three Operating Systems.

Seth Frisbie-Fulton
Restech Coordinator

Blackboard Content Manager

Andrew Ruether — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:09:21 +0000

ITS has recently updated the Blackboard course management system to include the Blackboard Content Manager. Similar to Swatfiles but for course related materials, the Content Manager allows faculty and staff to store material online for use in their courses.

Some uses for the Blackboard Content Manager:

Group file exchange: a course folder can be set up to allow all members of the course to add or modify files.
File Sharing: Permissions on files can be set to any user or group of users within Blackboard. This makes it easy to share files with all students in a course, colleagues, or all members of a project group. Files can also be made public which means that anyone with an Internet connection can access material.
Web Publishing: Each file uploaded to the Content Manager has a URL that can be shared with others. To publish a set of web pages or files, put the files in the Content Manager, make them viewable by the public, and publicize the URL.
File Updating: If the same file is used in many courses, it can be uploaded into the content system and linked to from each course. If the file needs to be changed, the change can be made in one place. Linking a widely used file also reduces the storage required for the system.
Portfolios: Students can create portfolios through the Content Manager and publish them online.

To get started, click on the new “Content Manager” tab in Blackboard. You will be able to upload content to your personal content area (”My Content”) or your course areas.

There is more information available on the TriCo Blackboard Wiki.

For more information, contact Andrew Ruether (aruethe2 or x8254).