New Guide to Using Copyrighted Material in the Classroom

American University’s Center for Social Media has issued a new guide to using copyrighted materials in the classroom. The authoring of the guide involved over 150 educators and a review by experts in copyright law. Overall, the publication stresses the flexibility of the “fair use” provisions of copyright law which may allow for more legal use of copyrighted materials in teaching than many educators believe. Read the Chronicle of Higher Education’s brief coverage. Read the guide: The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education Continue reading New Guide to Using Copyrighted Material in the Classroom

Network Update – Fix for Remaining Problems

The restart of the Beardsley core at 12:50 PM today did fix a number of problems including wireless access in the academic/administrative buildings. The wireless network should be working normally except for Guest Wireless which we expect to have operational shortly. Computers directly connected to a network jack were also fixed at that time. However, we have another residual problem with computers connected to a Cisco phone. In many cases, these computers are still not able to obtain network access. In those cases, a simple procedure will correct this problem. If your computer is connected to your phone you can … Continue reading Network Update – Fix for Remaining Problems

Blackboard Upgrade and Training in August

This summer, we will upgrade our Tri-College Blackboard Learning Management System to the latest version, and offer several workshops on old and new features. If you have immediate questions about Blackboard, please contact any member of our ITS/Library Support Team. In order to carry out the upgrade, Blackboard will be off line for a few hours. Planned Blackboard outage: Monday, August 11 8AM-12PM New features and training: The newest version of Blackboard brings two major feature enhancements: the Grade Center and Self/Peer Assessments. The Grade Center is a redesigned version of the old gradebook, with several notable improvements to the … Continue reading Blackboard Upgrade and Training in August

Mathematica Unlimited

New passwords for 2008-2009 are available on the data-software server, including a new unlimited, network-independent license for students to install on their own computers. Detailed instructions on updating your system can be found for Mac and PC on the data-software server. For faculty and staff, when you launch Mathematica, you may be prompted to enter a new password. To get the password for your platform, browse to the data-software server and look in the faculty_staff folder for Mathematica. The Mathematica 6 readme file contains the new password you need for Mathematica 6. The Mathematica 5.2 readme file contains the password … Continue reading Mathematica Unlimited

Blackboard – end of semester reminders

Here are some important tips for managing course availability, preserving seniors’ data and more. Note that a maintenance outage is planned for August. Graduating seniors will lose Blackboard access — back up now to preserve student data! Students lose their Blackboard account during the summer (mid-June) after they graduate.  Not only will they be unable to log in, uploaded files (assignments) and grades will be permanently deleted from their Bb past courses and organizations.  ITS saves an archive of all Bb sites each semester, but we may not capture every site at the right moment to guarantee recovery of individual … Continue reading Blackboard – end of semester reminders

Academic Tech Fair – Highlights

The Spring 2008 Academic Technology Fair had something for everyone, especially our three iPod raffle winners. Crowds gathered throughout the day at our eight tables filled with gadgets, widgets and multimedia displays. Lots of interesting conversations came up as faculty and staff shared their ideas and experiences with technology for teaching, research and collaboration. Congratulations to the three winners of the iPod Shuffle raffle! They are Tom Stephenson, Professor of Chemistry, Tami Gura, Animal Facility Manager in Biology, and Bronwen Densmore, Reference & Instruction Intern in McCabe Library. Eric Behrens and Mike Bednarz of ITS draw a winner from the … Continue reading Academic Tech Fair – Highlights