CEAP Technology News

Data Security

2008-02-28T15:28:00.002-05:00

Yes, this blog is back.Saw two interesting items on data security. The first is about security of physical devices - particularly Flash drives.A second one is on hackers getting in to systems to steal information.The security of our data is everyone's concern. Do not leave flash drives lying around. Do not have easy passwords. Do not put passwords on a sticky note on your monitor.Basically:

WCU Campus IT News

2008-01-14T15:04:00.000-05:00

These items were in the Provost's e-mail newsletter.The student computer lab in Hunter is now on the ground floor rather than the main floorThe PAWS server is being upgraded - be in touch with IT Services if you have materials you use on the PAWS serverA CMS Review Task Force has been established to review the various course management system alternatives (e.g. Blackboard, Moodle, Sakai, etc.)

Training Opportunities in January

2008-01-11T17:15:00.000-05:00

HR has a new website to inform us about training opportunities AND to register for them:www.wcu.edu/hr/trainingThey have Technology and Classroom Training in the near future, including:Introduction to SchoolVueBLOGSHow to Use the Electronic Classroom HardwareI'll be in the Blogs class myself.

Teaching and Learning: What does Technology Have to Do with It?

2008-01-10T10:14:00.000-05:00

[I like the perspective on "technology" and education, and it sounds like an interesting training/workshop opportunity. -Lee Nickles]Teaching and Learning: What does Technology Have to Do with It? Ray SchroederDirector, Office of Technology-Enhanced LearningProfessor Emeritus, University of Illinois at Springfield When most people think about teaching and learning, they conjure up images of

Book Review: Digital Portfolios: Powerful Tools for Promoting Professional Growth and Reflection

2008-01-04T17:00:00.000-05:00

This book provides a very surface level look at using digital portfolios as a professional development tool for teachers. The chapters covered the use of portfolios in professional development of educators (very broad and jargon-y), the need to have a digital portfolio (5 pages to say what you could in one paragraph), defining a personal vision (useful), specific steps in creating a portfolio (

Book Review: Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms

2007-12-22T14:15:00.000-05:00

This book gives an introduction to a number of Internet-based tools and how they can be used by teachers. The focus tends to be on K-12, but the principles are applicable (generally) to other settings, including higher education.The author covers blogs, wikis, RSS, social bookmarking, Flickr, and podcasting. Some strengths of this book include:-Solid introduction to each tool for those not

Training from the Faculty Center

2007-12-18T10:36:00.000-05:00

As you plan for 2008, check out the following CFC events and resources:1) Macintosh Refresher Course, January 9 from 1:00 to 3:00 in the Cordelia Camp Building, Room 143 The Coulter Faculty Center is offering a workshop to get you familiar with using a Macintosh Macbook Laptop. These laptops are going to be used for the Digital Campus Academy (see #2 below). If you have not used a Mac laptop

Forces Affecting Education

2007-12-17T14:57:00.000-05:00

Map of Future Forces Affecting EducationI'm passing this on both as an interesting Web application AND as an attempt to forecast the forces likely to affect K-12 learning. Drag, click, browse around and see the categories of things they've come up with.

Seminar on Online K-12 Professional Development Scheduled

2007-12-14T10:41:00.000-05:00

*Seminar on Online K-12 Professional Development Scheduled*(From NC DPI Web Highlights)NCDPI in cooperation with the United Star Distance Learn Consortium is conducting a special seminar on online K-12 professional development, Thursday, Jan. 17, at 1:45 p.m. The seminar will be transmitted to various video locations throughout the state and via live Webcast. This video conference will use

Training Opportunities This Week

2007-10-29T08:27:00.001-05:00

Some training opportunities from the Faculty Center:Introduction to Content and Services Available in My Cat 10/31/07 - 1:00-2:00 pm - Hunter 156Introduction to Web Design with Macromedia Dreamweaver 11/2/07 - 11:15-1:15pm - Hunter 156WebCat Office Hours: sign uphttp://

Unable to Upload Files to WebCAT

2007-10-16T08:16:00.000-05:00

From IT Services:As of Tuesday, October 16, there is an issue with the WebCat server that is preventing users from being able to upload files. This affects mail, discussions, assignments and any other tool that is used to upload or attach a file. We understand that this is a critical feature and are working with Blackboard to find a solution as quickly as possible. We apologize for the

Live Blogging of the Ed-Tech Conference at WCU

2007-10-12T08:07:00.000-05:00

Introductions are starting...Michael opened us up emphasizing the importance of the WNC EdNet.Currently introducing Dr. Willard Daggett -has been consultant and in school district, author, researcher, speaker-few attendees (by show of hands) have heard him before9:10 am - Dr. Daggett takes the stage-Claims that America has the finest education system in the World-Notes that the public school

ScanTron Machine

2007-10-11T10:06:00.000-05:00

From Colby Deitz, our IT Consultant:The Scantron equipment used for test scoring and scanning forms has been relocated from the Forsyth building to the following locations:College of Education and Allied Professions – Reid 100 College of Health and Human Sciences & Kimmel School – Belk 208 College of Business – Belk 293 College of Arts and Sciences and the rest of the campus – Hunter Library

Banner Downtime

2007-09-04T09:14:00.000-05:00

Be aware that Banner will be off-line starting at 5:30 pm on Thursday, September 6. It will likely be off-line until 5:00 pm on Friday, September 7. Please take care of any business in Banner (and the many related systems) before then.

Important Training Opportunities

2007-08-31T14:49:00.001-05:00

Here are some training events offered through the Faculty Center (and others) that may be of use to you (quoting straight from an e-mail from Kathy Wong):Tuesday, September 4WebCat Fundamentals and Certification Workshops (online)Time: OngoingLocation: OnlineInstructor: Robert CrowDescription: 1 Week Online Workshop (September 4 - 10). This workshop meets online and prepares you to teach a fully

Student attitudes to technology

2007-08-23T08:36:00.000-05:00

In case you missed it, The Chronicle ran a panel discussion with some students on their attitudes toward current teaching styles and uses of technology in higher education.http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i18/18b01001.htmInteresting to see their responses. My personal concern is that the students seem to feel the need to be entertained in class. They did point a bit toward active learning (which

Tech Tip #11 - Features in Word You Should Know: Styles

2007-08-22T13:49:00.000-05:00

Tech Tips are back. This time, we're taking a look at Microsoft Word and a number of features you probably don't use but should. If you want the shorter version, I'm heavily borrowing thoughts from this page.First, Styles.What is a "Style?" A style lets you define a format for a block of text. That format may include font, font size, bold, margins and indentations, line spacing, and nearly

Office 2007 Compatibility

2007-08-22T11:43:00.001-05:00

Some of our students are arriving on campus with Microsoft's new operating system, Vista, and Office 2007 installed. Our campus is not going to upgrade our faculty/staff/classroom computers to these until next summer. Until that time, we will have some overlap when our computers use the older version of Office and some students will have the newer version.The problem is that files created by Word

Updates to Classroom Technology

2007-08-17T12:01:00.000-05:00

William Frady sent this out for general distribution:Good morning. I wanted to touch base with each of you and let you know that Educational Technologies, IT, has completed a massive classroom technology upgrade this summer. With this upgrade, we now have over 90 E-Classrooms and demonstration classrooms that function in the same manor. Each room has a control unit on the desktop that controls

One Post Introduction to Blogs

2007-06-26T10:53:00.001-05:00

So you may have heard the term "Blog" but don't know what it means. A Blog (shortened form of Web Log) is "a website where entries are written in chronological order and displayed in reverse chronological order." (Source: Wikipedia entry)This website is actually a blog. A couple major features of blogs:Posts. The main content of blogs are individual "posts" (like this one) about whatever topic

Wireless Access for Guests

2007-06-26T10:41:00.001-05:00

This from Bill Stahl's email. I'm posting it here for future reference for us all:Because of recent network upgrades, Western Carolina University now has the ability to provide visitors with wireless network access. If you have a contractor, vendor, a conference group or other visitors on official university business you can request a guest wireless account for them by visiting http://www.wcu.edu

Book Review: What Every Teacher Should Know about Media and Technology

2007-06-20T14:31:00.000-05:00

Title: What Every Teacher Should Know about Media and TechnologyAuthor: Donna TilestonISBN: 0761931252Rating: 1 out of 5 StarsWhile this book has a good aim and a general structure that could be beneficial, it falls far short of being a good resource for educators.The Good: The focus was more on how to use technology well, not on the technology itself. The book first examined some research on

Telephone Outage

2007-06-18T10:25:00.000-05:00

An "older technology" announcement:Due to necessary repairs, telephone service in Reid and Breese will be out for 1-2 hours sometime between Monday (June 18th) at 10am and Wednesday (June 20th).

WebCat Update

2007-06-18T09:30:00.001-05:00

Key points of the WebCat E-mail sent out recently by Kevin Sisson.WCU will be moving our WebCat course management system from NCSU to Blackboard, Inc. during the coming weeks.The BIG SWITCH to having our WCU courses on WebCat hosted by Blackboard should have happened on June 16 (this past Saturday)Important - If you are teaching a summer course that is a June, active, in-session class and do

Massive Education Grant List

2007-06-05T13:24:00.000-05:00

I recently found this page:http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/grants/index.htmlIt has a massive list of education grants. Many are targeted for K-12 schools, but some would be applicable to us. Since this is a large list, I will highlight a few on occasion.First up this week: the Best Buy te@ch program. Information here from last year:http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/grants/grant_info.html?

R25 and Webviewer Training

2007-06-04T09:31:00.000-05:00

If you already have the R25 client software installed on your computer, you can ignore this. If you ever need to request to schedule a room on campus (e.g., scheduling the Killian computer labs, conference rooms, or 104) then the below training is for you.(quoted from e-mail):Webviewer Training ClassLooking for the space you need for an event on campus? Need to book multiple repeating event

WCU Website Redesign Update

2007-05-30T10:47:00.000-05:00

Here’s the short version:Web services is making progress on getting the college-level sites in the new system (Kimmel School will be the last to switch, all others are done)Web services is starting “round two” – getting the departments switchedThey plan to have ALL department websites switched to the new system "by fall."Some significant changes to pages in the new system will happen in

Tech Tip #10 - Three Rules of Computer Troubleshooting

2007-05-28T14:00:00.000-05:00

We've all been in a situation where we're about to start class or give a presentation and the computer crashes or doesn't work for some reason. Here are three things that will solve the majority of problems.1. Restart the computer. Especially if you're having weird problems or things are crashing, try this first. It is always best to have the computer shut itself down, but don't be afraid to

Tech Tip #9 - 10 Excel Skills You Need

2007-05-28T13:32:00.000-05:00

I discovered this page recently: Become an Excel ninjaIt's not for the very beginner in Excel, but if you have successfully gone through the Gradebook Tech Tips you are likely ready for it. The page has an excellent list of features in Excel that can either save you time or accomplish tasks you didn't know you could accomplish (in Excel).The author also has the page in an easy to download PDF

Compilation of the Gradebook Tech Tips

2007-05-28T13:23:00.000-05:00

This post is intended to list all the Tech Tips in the series on the Gradebook so you have a convenient place to reference them, bookmark them, and share them with others.Part 1 - Formatting a GradebookPart 2 - Some Grade Formulas (e.g., drop the lowest grade)Part 2a - More Detail on Grade FormulasPart 3 - Calculating Final Grades and Assigning Letter GradesPart 4 - Calculating Statistics on

Tech Tip #8 - Making a Gradebook in Excel, Part 5

2007-05-24T12:20:00.000-05:00

In our fifth and final Tech Tip on the Gradebook, we'll cover some tips on how to print out a spreadsheet.While there are many good reasons to go to a paperless system, sometimes you just need to print out a spreadsheet. Let's look at a few aspects of printing a spreadsheet and how to format them to come out in a decent way.Let's assume we would like to print out the whole gradebook. To get a

College Website Changeover (UPDATED)

2007-05-24T11:51:00.000-05:00

Very soon, possibly this afternoon or tomorrow (next Tuesday at the latest) our college website will be switched to the new Content Management System that the university has decided to use for all web pages. This means that the main university web site will link to the new pages, not the current ones at http://www.ceap.wcu.edu. I do not have the final URL yet, but once the changeover

Tech Tip #7 - Making a Gradebook in Excel, Part 4

2007-05-22T08:06:00.000-05:00

We've looked at the main things you can do to get a working gradebook for your course. In this Tech Tip, we'll cover how to calculate some interesting statistics on the grades for your information and/or to share with your class. While 45.7% of all statistics are made up and not useful (Yes, I just made that up), they can help you see trends in grades to help guide your teaching.In the

Technology in grades 6-12 Social Studies

2007-05-18T14:43:00.000-05:00

This in from NC DPI:Integrating Technology in the 6-12 Social Studies ClassroomAre you interested in various types of technology including software and hardware? Have you considered becoming a school and/or district-level leader in the integration of technology into the Social Studies classroom? The NC DPI proudly announces its call for participants in its year-long professional development

Elluminate: Officially for Our Campus

2007-05-18T14:22:00.000-05:00

As announced recently by Bob Orr & Kevin Sisson, WCU has signed a contract with Elluminate for 50 seats, effective July 1. Elluminate and Centra are similar products. This means we have a set solution for teleconferencing via the Internet. You can share video, audio, the computer screen with students; you can have live lecture and discussion; you can have students respond to questions through

Cabell's Directory

2007-05-15T10:58:00.000-05:00

I've just received this from Cabell's Directory, which you may recall we purchased recently.We have recently updated our database. The Educational directories are substantially larger. In addition a new directory has been added Educational Technology & Library Science. This directory will now be included in the Educational Set. As a courtesy to our current subscribers, we are adding a

Tech Tip #6 – Making a Gradebook in Excel, Part 3

2007-05-15T10:56:00.001-05:00

We continue creating a gradebook with this Tech Tip. This time, we will cover:Using a formula to calculate the final gradeAutomatically calculating and assigning a letter gradeHere is our spreadsheet with some more grades filled in. We have 6 homework assignments (averaged and lowest score dropped), four tests (to average), and one project final grade. With what we have learned so far, I

WebCT & WebCat Going Down for Maintenance

2007-05-14T15:38:00.000-05:00

This from our WebCat folks:WebCat will be removed from service from Tuesday, May 15th at 9:00 pm through Wednesday, May 16th at 8am. This will allow us to create a complete backup of the entire database which will be used to test our migration to the new Blackboard hosted system.We apologize for the short notice and will do everything we can to limit the amount of downtime associated with the

Tech Tip #5 – Making a Gradebook in Excel, Part 2a

2007-05-14T15:37:00.001-05:00

Let me revisit the very last thing I covered in the previous Tech Tip - dropping the lowest score. I worry that the explanation was spotty. Let me show the concept in a different way. I labeled some more columns as you can see in the screenshot below. Basically, I'm going to calculate each component of the "Average all but lowest score" formula in separate columns.To calculate the sum of the

Technology Grants for Rural Schools

2007-05-08T12:21:00.000-05:00

Thank you to Kim Elliott for passing on this grant opportunity.Deadline Date – September 14, 2007Grant Resource – Foundation for Rural Education and DevelopmentCategory – Technology GrantsDescription – The Foundation for Rural Education and Development (FRED) in cooperation with the Rural Telephone Finance Cooperative (RTFC) created the Technology Grants for Rural Schools program to help meet the

Tech Tip #4 – Making a Gradebook in Excel, Part 2

2007-05-08T10:31:00.000-05:00

In this Tech Tip we’re going to continue creating a gradebook in Excel. We’ll go over the following points:Taking averages for a set of gradesA note on blank cells and averagesDropping the lowest grade and then taking the averageFirst, let’s look at calculating an average homework score. Let's assume we have six homework assignments in our course, and that we want to average them so that the

Quicktime Vulnerability - Update Now!

2007-05-03T09:59:00.000-05:00

If you have QuickTime installed on your computer, you need to upgrade immediately.In Windows:Run the QuickTime Player (typically: Start menu-All Programs-QuickTime-QuickTime Player)In the player, go to the Help menu and select "Update existing software..."Follow the instructions in your player to update the softwareIn Mac OSX:If you are connected to the Internet, you should be automatically

Tech Tip #3 – Making a Gradebook in Excel, Part 1

2007-05-02T15:42:00.000-05:00

One popular use of Excel among faculty is to keep your own gradebook of your students’ grades. This is an excellent way to look at several useful features in Excel, so I’m going to step through this exercise in several parts.In this part, we will look at how to format your gradebook.Open a new Excel file. We’ll make some column headings for student names and the graded assignments in your

Tech Tip #2 - Intro to Functions in Excel

2007-05-01T08:17:00.000-05:00

You can look through the "functions" available in Excel to do many powerful, time-saving tasks.Excel is an amazingly powerful tool, partly due to its large number of functions. A "function" in Excel is a command that does specific tasks to the input you give it and outputs the result in the cell where it is typed. For example, to calculate the sum of a group of numbers, you click on the cell

Current Training Opportunities - Summer 2007

2007-04-30T13:22:00.000-05:00

There are some good technology training opportunities courtesy of the Faculty Center.I highly recommend that if you are currently using WebCT and not WebCat that you take their WebCat - Migration from WebCT to WebCat course. Why? Because the old WebCT is going away approximately January 2008. The sooner you can transition the better. Start this summer if you have classes, but I recommend you

Floppy Disks are Going Away

2007-04-27T14:54:00.000-05:00

PC World, a major computer seller, has announced that they will use up their remaining stocks of floppy disk drives and order no more. This is a good time to mention that floppy disks and Zip disks are going away. If you still have important files on either of these, I HIGHLY recommend that you move them to your hard drive or CD. If this is important archival information for you or your unit,

Resource25 and Room Scheduling

2007-04-24T09:05:00.000-05:00

Here’s the “This is what I need to know” bullet points:Resource 25 is the official scheduling mechanism/calendar for all rooms on campus. If you are interested in scheduling ANY room on campus, including Killian 104, 218, 268 (computer labs), etc. you need to request it through Resource 25. You no longer need to directly contact the individual that schedules that room.Use the web viewer at: http

Tech Tip #1 - Spreadsheets and Databases

2007-04-23T16:54:00.000-05:00

Spreadsheets are for crunching numbers and making graphs. Databases are for storing, manipulating, and reporting on information.Many of us (including myself) have spreadsheets that are actually databases. This is fine when you have a very small amount of very simple information to track and don't need to do a great deal of analysis and reporting on that information. Excel is so simple and

CEAP Tech Committee - April, 2007

2007-04-23T14:33:00.000-05:00

The CEAP Technology Committee met today. Some highlights:Making a recommendation on the blackout times for Killian 268 A & B for the Fall (more to come)Noted that the changeover of our web site to the new CMS is going on nowBriefly discussed our college's strategic plan for technology and our stakeholders with respect to that planWe are in the process of moving to having Blackboard host WebCT

Welcome CEAP!

2007-04-23T14:00:00.000-05:00

Greetings to all folks in CEAP,This is where I'll be posting various items ranging from "how-to's" to news and commentary that I think are relevant to our college. If you are not familiar with blog, here is an article on Wikipedia to get started. Feel free to access this blog's feed - if you need assistance with that, let me know.I welcome guest submissions - so feel free to contact me if you