 |
|
help me if you can |
We
have a moderate amount of download and update
activity to report on this week.
David's Blackboard feature of the week topic is "The
Horizon Wimba Live Classroom." Haydn's
Teaching with Technology segment is "Ideas for
using the Discussion Board." My tech-talk-topic will be an
interview with Chris Norcross of our staff who has
been reviewing help desk software so that we might
pick one for our department. We have a winner,
and Chris will be here to report. The
gizmo of the week is dedicated to my wife, but I
won't say what it is at this point.
The trivia answer from last week is, nine of
diamonds. Enough said.
Palomar Tech and Download News
- We made a minor fix to the Blackboard system
that corrected a course copy problem that we
observed this semester. The fix was as
simple as it gets, replacing a couple of java
runtime files. No down time was
experienced.
- Microsoft has finally released "Expression
Web," formerly called "Expression Web
Designer," its replacement for FrontPage, in
beta.
Click here to download. Note that .NET
Framework 2.0 must be installed before the
Expression Web Beta 1 product, and that betas of
Office 2007 must be uninstalled first.
- Also from Microsoft, the
XML Paper Specification Essentials Pack is
now available in Beta 2. "With the XPS
Essentials Pack, you can quickly begin reading
and generating XPS Documents. It contains the
XML Paper Specification Viewer to read XPS
Documents and the Microsoft XPS Document Writer
to output files to the XPS Document format."
For more information, go to the XPS
team blog or visit the
XPS home page.
- Microsoft has also released what they are
calling the
HD DVD Interactivity Jumpstart Package,
including:
-
An HD DVD Interactivity Programming Guide
-
An HD DVD simulator
-
An HD DVD content validator
-
A tool for creating ACA archive files for
more efficient loading of your resources
-
A tool for creating Discid.dat files, which
contain disc, provider, and content GUIDs
Further information is available at the MS
HD DVD home page.
- Adobe has announced the impending release of
Captivate 2, and have set up a series of web
eSeminars to learn about the new product,
being held in September through November.
Release date has not been announced, but there
is a 30-day free trial period and a pre-order
option, so it is probably imminent.
- Google now as a "News
Archive Search" where users can search 200
years of news archives from free and
subscription based newspapers. Heads up,
history profs. Stories are grouped
together, in descending date order, similar to
Google News.
Training Opportunities
- Academic Technology Training
- On Monday, Sept. 11, Chris Norcross will be
presenting "FrontPage
1: Creating Your Own Web Site" from 2-4pm in
room LL-109.
- On Tuesday, Sept. 12, from 2-4pm in LL-109
Terry Gray will be presenting "PowerPoint
2: Creating advanced presentations with
PowerPoint."
- On Wednesday, Sept. 13 from 2-4pm in LL-111
Haydn Davis and David Gray will be presenting "Using
the Horizon Wimba Live Classroom in Blackboard."
This one is limited to 10 participants.
- On Thursday, Sept. 14 from 10-11am in LL-111
Terry Gray will be presenting "Using
Audio and Video with PowerPoint."
Limit: 10 participants.
- On Friday, Sept. 15, from 10am-noon in room
LL-109 Terry Gray will be presenting "Outlook
Calendar and Scheduling Skills,"
a sequel to the Email skills workshop offered
last week.
Register for all Academic Technology workshops
through the
Professional Development web site.
Click here to access our entire training
schedule,
here to access the new "competencies"
approach to our workshops, and other training
information.
- The @ONE system fall training lineup was
announced this week, featuring online,
instructor facilitated, multi-week courses, and
1-hour "lunch-n-learn" seminars.
Click here for more information.
- Horizon Wimba offers
ongoing online seminars in their Voice tools
and Live Classroom.
- Microsoft webcasts:
- From Adobe,
Captivate eSeminars, Sept - Nov.
Blackboard Feature of the Week - David Gray
David's topic this week is the Horizon Wimba Live
Classroom in Blackboard. Live Classroom
permits synchronous, online meetings with VOIP
support (phone optional as backup audio), chat,
whiteboard, presentations, even desktop sharing.
Dave describes the setup options, suggests possible
uses, and plugs his workshop on this product which
will be held next Wednesday.
The Horizon Wimba Live Classroom, as it appears
to an instructor:
Live Classroom settings:
Resources:
Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time =
14:28]
See
the index of Dave's previous "Blackboard Feature
of the Week" segments.
Note: To get to David's vodcast site,
click here.
Teaching with Technology - Dr. Haydn Davis
Haydn's topic is "More tips for teaching
online -- Ideas for using the Discussion Board."
He makes three very practical suggestions for
encouraging and guiding students in the use of
the Discussion Board.
Resource:
More Tips for Teaching Online -- Ideas for using the
Discussion Board [PDF - 20K]
Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time =
8:39]
See
an index of previous "Teaching with
Technology" segments.
Tech-Talk-Topic - Terry Gray
Help Desk Software
We have Chris Norcross with us today to report on
his findings researching help desk software for our
department. Here are the products he
considered:
|
Software Name: |
BridgeTrak for Web |
|
Company Name: |
Kemma Software |
|
Website: |
http://www.kemma.com |
|
Cost: |
$4783.50 |
|
Hosted: |
No |
|
Notes: |
|
|
Software Name: |
c.Support |
|
Company Name: |
GWI Software |
|
Website: |
http://www.gwi.com |
|
Approx. Cost: |
$17,000 |
|
Hosted: |
No |
|
Notes: |
.NET
based solution. |
|
Software Name: |
Helpdesk Pro |
|
Company Name: |
Simply Amazing Software |
|
Website: |
http://www.helpdeskpro.net |
|
Cost: |
$399 + $33/month (hosted) or $1,725
(owned) |
|
Hosted: |
Optional |
|
Notes: |
Perl
based solution. |
|
Software Name: |
IssueTrak |
|
Company Name: |
Global Support Software |
|
Website: |
http://www.issuetrak.com |
|
Cost: |
$6,500 / 5 users (includes Active
Directory and Email Processing
modules) |
|
Hosted: |
No |
|
Notes: |
ASP
based solution. |
|
Software Name: |
Polar Help Desk |
|
Company Name: |
Polar Software |
|
Website: |
http://www.polarsoftware.com |
|
Cost: |
$1000/ 5 users |
|
Hosted: |
No |
|
Notes: |
.NET
based solution; documentation very
bad. |
|
Software Name: |
ü SupportSuite |
|
Company Name: |
Kayako |
|
Website: |
http://www.kayako.com |
|
Cost: |
$29.95/month (hosted) or $499.95
(owned) |
|
Hosted: |
Optional |
|
Notes: |
|
|
ü The winner
Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time =
10:01]
Gizmo of the week
This
one is dedicated to my wife. It's called
The Snore Stopper. "The Snore Stopper
looks like a watch. You wear it on your wrist when
going to sleep. It has a tiny, yet highly sensitive
microphone that detects snoring & sends safe
electronic pulses to the wrist. These pulses work
similar to your spouse nudging you. They'll cause
you to alter your sleeping position & stop snoring.
The pulses aren't powerful enough to disrupt your
sleep, but they’ll make you roll over & the snoring
will stop." Of special interest to
graphics designers is the
How It Works page, which is a model of
iconography without text.
This product is described, perhaps humorously, at
gizmodo as "A sandbag in the tsunami of your
loveless marriage..." Hardly, but it is a
problem. I would describe my wife's snoring as
"like a sawmill," but I do not wish to be unfair to
sawmills.
Manufactured by
Hivox Biotek it goes for $49.95 retail, though I
found it through
Amazon and at
Target for $79.99. Actually, the
Hivox-Biotek site has some really interesting
compelling--or not--health
information on snoring. Of particular
interest is the one about snoring being bad for your
partner's health. "Researchers
at the Sleep Disorders Center in Avesta, Sweden,
surveyed 500 women living with men who were referred
to sleep disorder center because of snoring. They
found more than 10% of these women were dragging
through the day because they couldn't get enough
sleep." Actually, most of the information
supplied on the Hivox pages fell into the
dubious-when-generally-applied category. I
took special umbrage at the tag at the bottom of the
health information page:
"Do you feel annoying and unpleasant about your
boy's father or husband's snoring? Would you like to
help them stop snoring? Do you want to enjoy a
silent night again?"
Why boy? Why father? I ask you.
There
are also anti-snore pillows (of differing
designs), anti-snore strips, anti-snore throat
sprays, and so on. I'll take a dozen of
each...
(Source:
me, my coke, and I vendor:
hgtv)
Music
The
music for today's show was provided by
Magnatune.com,
and is used through their Creative Commons license
for podcasts. Today's album was "Beat
Generation Mad Trick" by
Emmas Mini. The music is described as
"electronic pop with an edge."
We used tracks 2: "Disconnected;"
5: "Apartment a;" 8: "Apartment b;" 11: "Apartment
c;" 13: "Figure It Out;" 12: "The Wait Is Over;" and 4:
"Highway 99."
Visit
magnatune and reward them for their generosity,
and if you like this album, buy it. Magnatune is not evil!
"The only
normal people are the ones you don't know very
well." ~
Joe Ancis
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for September 8, 2006 - Episode 31
