December 15, 2006 Contents Technology and Download News Briefs Training Opportunities The Blackboard Feature of the Week:      "Looking Ahead: Winter Break Upgrades" Tech Talk Topic: "The Microsoft Zune" For more, visit our podcast notes page for Episode 44.

Blackboard Upgrade   On December 22, 2006 the Blackboard system will be down all day for a full system backup and system update.  Hot fixes and new building blocks will be applied, but basic features will not change.

Technology and Download News Briefs

• We are pleased to announce that Palomar's instructional administration has elected to purchase a one-year subscription to the TurnItIn anti-plagiarism service that we have been previewing in Blackboard this semester.  Thank you to all who responded to our TurnItIn survey and who tested the product in their classes.  We hope that the license will be extended beyond the first year.  For more information, see our description in episode 11.
  
  
• We are equally pleased to announce that funds have been allocated for the replacement of 44 going-out-of-warranty computers in the Academic Technology computer lab on the ground floor of the San Marcos library with new machines, and to expand the lab by an additional 10 public computers and 2 additional Americans with Disabilities machines.  Whether the new machines will be available for the opening of Spring semester depends on how quickly they can be ordered.  We will deploy them as soon as possible.  This brings the total of publicly accessible workstations in the Academic Technology student labs to 144.
  
  
• Academic Technology public computer labs on the ground floor of the San Marcos campus library will be closed the week of December 18-22.  We will be staffing the student union computer lab in room SU-204.  Please go there for public computing services.
  
  
• Over winter break Academic Technology will be pursuing the following projects:
  • December 19: prune Fall 2005 courses from the Blackboard system (be sure to archive these old courses if you think you might need them.  Click here for instructions on how to archive.  The pruning operation will have minimal impact on Blackboard performance.
  • December 20:
    • Fall 2006 Blackboard catalog removal – no impact on Blackboard performance.
    • Upgrade the Horizon Wimba Voice Tools building block – no impact on Blackboard performance.  Two new voice tools will be added for the Spring 2007 semester, the Wimba podcaster and the voice presenter.
    • Install the Horizon Wimba Pronto building block.  Pronto is a class specific Blackboard instant messaging product that will permit students and instructors to interact online.  The installation of the building block should have no impact on Blackboard performance.
  • December 22: Blackboard will be down this entire day for a Blackboard full system backup and a system update.
  • January 3-5: Academic Technology web/application/file servers will be re-arranged/rewired in their server racks.  Various servers will be down during this period:
    • System down time for the primary District web server will be minimized.  Our first priority will be to bring District web services back up as soon as possible.
    • Blackboard down time will be minimized, and Blackboard services should be back up by end of day Wednesday, January 3.
    • Other systems may be down until Friday, January 5.
      
      
• Mozilla has released the alpha version of "Gran Paradiso," otherwise known as Firefox 3, for private developer testing.  Since Firefox 2 was just commercially released, it will be a while until 3 is ready for public beta, even, but Mozilla once again ups the steaks and puts pressure on the IE developers.  Click here for a "first look" review from ars technica.  Mozilla has also announced the release of Thunderbird 2, beta 1.
  
  
• Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales announced the release of "openserving," a free, open source resource for web development and hosting where the tools to build collaborative wiki-style community web sites and the storage space is all free to users.  And here is the revolutionary part, any revenue generated by the site, in advertising dollars or otherwise, is also 100% the property of the author.  His for profit company Wikia, even though they are contributing the web resources and tools, will not take a cut!  The only requirement is that the web developer must include a link to Wikia.  Click here to access openserving.
  
  
• Microsoft this week announced the release of Windows Internet Explorer 7 – Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional and Hebrew.  "More language versions of Internet Explorer 7 will be available over the next few months" (IEBlog).  Click here to download worldwide language versions of IE7.
  
   
• Microsoft released 7 security updates this month on Patch Tuesday; three are "critical" and four "important."  Click here for the security bulletin summary, or read about each individually below:
  • Cumulative security update for IE (KB925454).
  • Visual Studio remote code vulnerability (KB925674).
  • Windows Media format remote code vulnerability (KB923689).
  • SNMP remote code vulnerability (KB926247).
  • Windows elevation of privilege vulnerability (KB926255).
  • Cumulative security update for Outlook Express (KB923694).
  • Remote installation service vulnerability (KB926121)
  • Update for Outlook 2003 junk email filter (KB925254)
  • Windows malicious software removal tool (KB890830)
    
    
• A research project commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by International Data Corporation estimates the the release of Windows Vista will generate $70billion in revenues and create over 100,000 IT jobs in the US alone next year.  "The impact of Windows Vista on the U.S. market will drive substantial revenue and growth for many companies that are part of the Windows^® ecosystem — companies that sell hardware, write software, provide IT services or serve as IT distribution channels. Today’s study forecasts that the release of Windows Vista will help bolster the more than 200,000 U.S. IT companies that will produce, sell or distribute products and services running on Windows Vista, including many small, locally owned businesses. The study forecasts that each dollar of Windows Vista-related revenue earned by Microsoft in 2007 will generate more than $18 in revenue for the IT industry at large" (Microsoft press release).  Click here for the PDF version of the report (14 pages).
   

  Listen to the news [mp3 - 20:00]

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Training Opportunities

• Academic Technology Training

  The Academic Technology schedule of training workshops for Spring 2007 has been published.  Click here to access the schedule, here to read a description of the various workshops within their competencies and also the new Blackboard Certificate program and TBA training.

  Register for all Academic Technology workshops through the Professional Development web site. 
   

• @ONE has announced it's schedule of multi-week, online, instructor facilitated courses for Spring 2007.  Of relevance to Palomar faculty will be courses on Teaching Online, Teaching with Blackboard, and Using Dreamweaver.  Click here for more information and registration.
   
• @ONE has also announced its Spring schedule of Lunch'n'Learn seminars.  Click here for the schedule and a registration link.
   
• Microsoft webcasts:
  • On Tuesday, December 19, at 9am "A First Look at the 2007 Microsoft Office System: Five Important New Features" will be presented.
     
• Free Microsoft eLearning courses: for a limited time access to these excellent e-Learning products on Office 2007 is available.  Click here to access a gateway to sign-up for training in the new Office interface, Access 2007, Excel 2007, Infopath 2007, OneNote 2007, Outlook 2007, PowerPoint 2007, Word 2007, Visio 2007, and Groove 2007.  You may also download a free e-book from this site titled First Look 2007 Microsoft Office System in PDF format.
   
• Free online training is available for Horizon Wimba Live Classroom and the Horizon Wimba Voice Tools, both of which we have access to in our Blackboard system.

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The Blackboard Feature of the Week - David Gray

Looking Ahead - Winter Break Upgrades

With the Fall 2006 semester basically over, a lot of our recent planning has gone into the projects scheduled for between the semesters. As per the normal lifecycle of courses in Blackboard, the Fall 2005 courses are going to be removed on Tuesday, December 19th. Once that lengthy process is done, we will be upgrading the Horizon Wimba Voice Tools system, so that there will be some additional tools available on that list for adding content. A whole new building block from Horizon Wimba will be added, for the Pronto tool, and some Blackboard patches will be applied on Friday, December 22nd.

To specifically address the two “biggies” on that list, let me answer the questions “What is Pronto?” and “What is changing in Blackboard?”

Pronto is a client based (both Windows and Mac) Instant Messaging client, provided by Horizon Wimba. Pronto includes the typical parts of an IM client, with text messaging, voice communication, etc. What is special about Pronto is that the list of contacts in Pronto is automatically populated based on the student rosters in Blackboard. The intention is that this IM client can be readily used for student collaboration, virtual office hours for faculty, things of that nature. Before Spring 2007 begins, we’ll have demos, manuals, and some suggestions for use available.

Blackboard released a hot fix during Fall 2006 which we have not yet applied, so that will be going onto the system on Friday, December 22nd. The primary fix will involve users accessing Blackboard with Safari 2, who are trying to use the Visual Text Box Editor; other fixes will be incidental. All the testing we’ve conducted indicates that no new problems will be introduced… but it might not be a bad idea to back up your course sites anyway, given that the semester has just ended. (Click here for instructions for archiving your courses).  Of course, before we do a Blackboard update we do full system backups of the affected servers, which is why this Blackboard patch process (which will probably be over in under two hours) will have our Blackboard system down for the better part of the whole day. The system will go offline sometime shortly after midnight, December 22, and I just hope the whole process is done before it’s time to go home in the afternoon.

So that’s what lies ahead in the near future for our Blackboard system. Now go enjoy some time off!

	Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time = 4:39]
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Tech-Talk-Topic - Terry Gray

Shay Phillips Reviews the Microsoft Zune™

Introduction

What is a Zune? (http://www.zune.net). Well, if you’ve kept up with the buzz going around the net it is Microsoft's candidate as “iPod™ Killer”. It has yet to be seen whether the Zune is going to kill the iPod in the marketplace, but for a first generation digital media player, it’s not bad. Your next question may be, what does the Zune have to do with Academic Technology? The answer is that audio and portable audio files are becoming another popular tool for teachers. Many students will be carrying around some form of digital media player, and the Zune might just be one of them. Audio is one more avenue for you as an instructor to get media content to your students in a mobile format. Students may download your lectures, podcasts or non-copyrighted video clips for viewing anywhere.

The Unboxing

My brown Zune came with the player, a USB syncing/charging cable, ear buds, the Zune software CD (Windows XP only) and the instruction manuals.

A separately purchased car kit is a nice option to consider if you would like to listen to your Zune in the car. I got one and can tell you the transmitter has a nice digital readout that auto-seeks for the perfect station to broadcast on. Once set, tune your Car Stereo to that station and you can listen to your Zune. The kit also matches well with the look and feel of the Zune, unlike many generic aftermarket kits. It also has a pass through allowing you to charge your Zune while listening which is great for saving battery life.

The Good

Although a little bit bigger than the Video iPod, it feels comfortable in my hand. Being a big guy, it feels natural in my hand.  It doesn’t feel like a toy. Many digital media players feel like they are going to break rather easily but the Zune does not. Like many of the players out there, the ear buds that come with the Zune are not great. The buds will suffice but I would recommend getting something better and more to your personal liking. The screen size is nice and has a decent brightness to it.

Playback on the device is a breeze.  I found the Zune to be simple to navigate. Within a couple of minutes I was listening to the included tracks on the device. Although the Zune looks like it has a click wheel akin to the iPod, the control is really just a simple up, down, left and right navigation control.  I find it much easier to control where the cursor is going as opposed to the iPod. The Zune software imported my media files flawlessly. The Zune software can import audio files in unprotected WMA, MP3, AAC; photos in JPEG; and videos in WMV, MPEG-4, and H.264 formats. You can also share files with others wirelessly, though they can only play the shared file for up to 3 times in 3 days before being locked out of playing it. This feature does not put DRM on the file, it merely puts the song in a special Inbox folder that remembers how many times a song is played and the date of transfer.

The Bad

At the time of this writing the Zune software was not compatible with Windows® Vista, which is the current OS on my computer. I did find a website that gave instructions on how to hack the software installer to get it working on Windows Vista but I wouldn’t recommend it since Microsoft has promised a working Windows Vista version soon. The Zune software is required to put media files onto the Zune so I had to get a second computer up and running with Windows® XP with Service Pack 2.  It works fine on Windows XP.

The Zune cannot be used as a hard drive, for storing non-music data, and does not have a voice recording feature.  The Zune software also does not support Pod catching. This was very unfortunate, as it made it a two step process to get ATRC Podcasts onto the Zune. I would recommend using a program like Juice, Doppler or Feed Your Zune to do your Pod catching. The ATRC website has a great tutorial about Pod catching.

The Zune and the iPod both use custom USB cables for syncing, which is a shame. It would be nice if you could us a standard mini USB cable. This means if you want to sync in multiple places you will need to carry the cable around or buy a second one.

The Brown

This is the first generation of the Zune.  It is hard to know what the future holds for the device. Microsoft has stated that they will support Pod catching on the Zune, but only time will tell. I’m sure the wireless features of the device will grow over time. Vista support shouldn’t be too far away. The Zune software will undoubtedly improve with time so these  brown areas will become clearer over time. I have only had the device a short time, so I can’t really comment on the battery life, but since I can charge it in the car, I don’t foresee a lot of problems with it.

Conclusion

What does all of this mean for us at Palomar? It means that the Zune is going to show up in your classroom much like the iPod does today. If you see your students wearing ear buds or headphones in class it might just be a Zune in their pocket or backpack. Professors have varying opinions about the use of audio devices in class.  A question that arises is 'Can students cheat on tests using the Zune, or other audio devices? Maybe. It depends on what you allow them to use during the class for tests, quizzes or exams. They could load your lecture and listen for answers.  They could put pictures of relevant material to help them out or they could have video clips to aid them. I don’t think most users will go this far since most of them just want to use their audio devices to listen to music. I would definitely recommend that professors get a digital media player to see what it’s all about and understand what your students are doing. If you’re comfortable with Windows Media Player the Zune software is very similar and will be a good fit for you. If you are on an Apple computer then stick with the iPod/iTunes.

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