5 ITS Recommendations for the iPad

Over the last month, ITS staff members have been getting familiar with Apple’s iPad. Here’s a quick round-up of some of our recommendations: Evernote Never forget anything again with the help of this free service. Evernote allows you to archive information of all types, including text, image, and audio files. Want to record your brainstorming session? This is the app for you. Evernote offers a wide range of methods for navigating your archived information, from conventional keyword and date searching, to placing the notes on a map based on GPS information from your location at the time the information was … Continue reading 5 ITS Recommendations for the iPad

Trico to transition from Blackboard to Moodle

As you may be aware, the Tri-Colleges have been conducting a major product review of our Learning Management System (LMS), Blackboard, and a popular alternative, called Moodle. Blackboard is the dominant commercial software company in higher education. Moodle is free, open source software that has been adopted by many institutions of higher education, including most liberal arts colleges. At this point, we are prepared to announce that the three schools decided to undertake a project to convert from Blackboard to Moodle over the next two academic years. More information will follow in the coming months as the full project plan … Continue reading Trico to transition from Blackboard to Moodle

Swarthmore’s Software Revision Control System available to Faculty, Staff, and Students

Are you working on a project that involves software development?  You may be interested in Swarthmore’s software revision control system.  Called gForge, this service is now available to the Swarthmore community. The biggest reason to use gForge is its revision control features.  It provides a Subversion (SVN) repository for each project that you can use to control the revision levels of your software.  Instead of relying on renaming files to indicate versions, you and any collaborators can always have the latest version of your software handy while also keeping every revision from the very beginning of your project. gForge also … Continue reading Swarthmore’s Software Revision Control System available to Faculty, Staff, and Students

Over 2,000 World Bank Statistics Now Available at data.worldbank.org

With the launch of data.worldbank.org, the World Bank Group is now offering more than 2,000 statistics, which were previously only available to paid subscribers. Experts say the Bank’s open data initiative has the potential to stimulate more evidence-based policy making in developing countries by bringing more researchers and innovative analysis into the development process. The move is also likely to stimulate demand for data and increase countries’ capacity to produce it, they say. The site also aims to share information by breaking down language barriers. The launch will include 330 indicators that, for the first time, will be available in … Continue reading Over 2,000 World Bank Statistics Now Available at data.worldbank.org

Important Backup Information for Community Members Who Have a College-Provided Macintosh as Their Primary Work Computer

To all community members who have a College-provided Macintosh as their primary work computer*: It is especially important that faculty have their computer backup software up-to-date before leaving campus for the summer. A new Macintosh client has been released for the College’s backup software (LiveBackup from Atempo).  This release has been in testing by ITS staff for several weeks and is now available to campus. Typically, software notifies you when an update is ready and all you have to do is follow the instructions on the screen. This release of LiveBackup is different and is only activated when you restart your … Continue reading Important Backup Information for Community Members Who Have a College-Provided Macintosh as Their Primary Work Computer