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Palomar College Academic Technology Resource Center

December 22, 2006

Contents


AT Server Maintenance
 
On January 4th and 5th Academic Technology servers will be down intermittently for re-wiring and maintenance.  A fail-over District web page will be in place until the main web server comes back up on January 4. Blackboard servers will be back up as soon as possible thereafter.

Technology and Download News Briefs

  • We are using new newsletter management software to distribute this newsletter.  If you do not wish to receive it click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the page.  If you know someone who might like to subscribe, you can find the online subscription form at http://www.palomar.edu/atrc.  The only information required is email address.
     
  • As a final reminder for the year (we will not publish another newsletter until next year), Academic Technology servers will be down intermittently for rewiring and upgrades on January 4th and 5th.  Our priority will be to bring the District web servers back up first, as early as possible on the 4th.  While it is down, a failover primary web page will be in place to direct students to eServices for registration. The Blackboard system will be brought back up as soon as possible secondly,  and other AT servers up by end-of-day on the 5th.
     
  • In order to hook up the power to the new Natural Sciences building electrical service to the north end of campus will be off from 7am to noon on Saturday, January 13.  This should not have much impact, since it is prior to the beginning of spring semester, but a good thing to know.
     
  • Google is now partnering with eNom and GoDaddy.com to begin offering domain registration.  "When you register a new domain as part of the sign-up process for Google Apps for Your Domain, we'll work with our partners behind the scenes and automatically configure everything so it works with all of the services available through Google Apps for Your Domain right out of the gate" (Google press release).  Google is offering domains for $10 per year, supporting .com, .org, .net, .biz and .info domains.  Click here to find out more.
  • Opera 9.1 was released this week.  Opera is a well-known also-ran in competition with better known web browsers.  The chief new feature is a real-time phishing filter akin to the ones in Firefox 2 and IE 7.  Phishing filters check each Internet site visited against black lists of known fraudulent sites, and warns users if a match occurs.  Click here to read the ars technica article about Opera 9.1, here if you have an interest in downloading Opera 9.1.
     
  • We reported last week in Shay Phillips' review of the Zune, Microsoft's new mp3 player, that Windows Vista did not support the Zune software.  Microsoft must have bowed to the criticism because this week they released version 1.2 of the software which is Vista compatible.  (Click here for the engadget report, here for the update page.)  Meanwhile, according to the NPD Group, the Zune, even though it was only released mid-November, has already caputured 9% of the US retail market for hard disk drive-based media players (The Mercury News).  Apple continues to dominate sales in the mp3 market, but must be a little unnerved at such early progress by the Zune.
     
  • There are three known, unpatched vulnerabilities in MS Word (Microsoft Word 2000, 2002, Office 2003, Word Viewer 2003, Word 2004 for Mac, and Word v. X for Mac and Works 2004, 2005, and 2006) that could allow attackers to "...take over a PC or run malicious code on a compromised machine" (BBC).  To be affected, a user must open a "booby trapped" Word document.  Microsoft says "users should always exercise extreme caution when opening unsolicited attachments from both known and unknown sources" (MS Advisory 929433).  Click here for a summary from the Microsoft Security Response Center blog.
     
  • Also on the vulnerabilities front, Mozilla released critical security updates for Firefox, Thunderbird and SeaMonkey this week.  Click here for the CNet article, and here for the Mozilla security advosory, .
     
  • What physical media is best for archival purposes of digital materials?  This posting from the blog "Ad Terras Per Aspera" titled "How to choose CD/DVD archival media" is well worth a read if you wish to save digital data for long periods.
     
  • The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced this week a $1million grant to Internet Archive to digitize collections owned by the Boston Public Library, including the John Adams collection, the Getty Research Institute, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Johns Hopkins University Libraries and UC Berkeley.  Click here for a CNN article describing the grant and the rivalry between the Open Content Alliance (whose motto is "Building a digital archive of global content for universal access") and Google ("Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful") for dominance in digitizing the "fruits of civilization."  My money is on the capitalists.
     
  • Have an iPod but like Windows Media player?  Want to sync your iPod from Windows Media player?  Impossible.  Or is it?...  New from MGTEK is a product called dopisp which will let you do just that.  (Hint, read product name backwards).  This is a plugin to WMP 11, requiring Windows XP or Vista, which supports only the mp3 file format (16-320kbps) and the full line of iPods.  Here is the warning: "MGTEK dopisp is not available for purchase yet. If you would like to try the evaluation version, you can try it free for 2 month."  And another: "Please note that it is not possible to sync protected music files, such as music you bought from the iTunes store. If you do not wish to get stuck with either Apple's or Microsoft's digital rights management technology, go buy the CD instead and rip it to MP3."  [OR, buy it from allofmp3.com while you still can.]  We have not tested this product yet and are not recommending it, but for you adventurous few WHO HAVE YOUR MUSIC COLLECTION BACKED UP, you might want to give it a try.
     
  • File under "Politics, 21st century style."  The Pew Internet and American Life Project reports that 64% of registered voters "...received recorded telephone messages in the final stages of the 2006 mid-term elections."  This trailed only direct mailings as a means of contacting voters.  Click here for the report [3 pages - PDF].  Here is the method breakdown:

  • "Which do you think was the greater invention--the printing press or the Internet?"  This question, among many others, was asked as part of a Zogby International/463 Communications poll of 1,203 Americans.  Americans as a whole said the printing press, by a 65 to 32 percent margin.  The really interesting result, however was the answer given by ethnicity:

If I had to answer another of the poll's questions: 'From which country do you think the next Bill Gates is most likely to come from?' I would answer, not sure, but look to Asia.

  • What are people really looking for?  Love?  Not even close.  Here are the top ten Google search terms for 2006.  Interestingly, 8 of the 10 are reported as misspelled by my spell checker.  Do you think language is changing quickly?  If you don't know what some of these terms mean, it may be why they are the most searched terms.  These terms also make it easy to see why Time picked "you" the Internet-connected "you," as person of the year.
  1. bebo
  2. myspace
  3. world cup
  4. metacafe
  5. radioblog
  6. wikipedia
  7. video
  8. rebelde
  9. mininova
  10. wiki

  Listen to the news [mp3 - x:xx]

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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.
     
  • 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

Stick a Fork in it!

Let’s not litter anyone’s mind with new tools in Blackboard, although several tools (Podcaster, Presenter, Pronto) from HorizonWimba have been added this week. The year is over, and there are only a few loose ends to tie up.

The Blackboard upgrade today (December 22, 2006) went very smoothly, and the system was back up before 8:30 a.m. This patch to the system fixes a number of minor “URL spoofing” vulnerabilities, but the primary reason to install it was to allow Safari users to again be able to use the Visual Text Box Editor. We've tested it, and it works. Safari users can turn on the Visual Text Box Editor in their Personal Information settings at last.

Since the question has come up – how long will students be able to access their Fall 2006 courses?: Technically, according to our Course Life Cycle policy (as discussed back in the podcast episode 17), students' access to courses are removed two weeks after the end date for the class. So, for typical full-semester courses, that would mean students may access the course site until December 30, 2006. Instructors who want to block students out earlier, just make the course unavailable.

Since the District has holidays coming up, there will not be Blackboard Technical Support available again until January 2, 2007. If you do wish to leave an issue for us to address as soon as possible, send email to onlineclasses@palomar.edu .

So, stick a fork in it, this year is done.

 

Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time = x:xx]
 
See the index of Dave's previous "Blackboard Feature of the Week" segments.

Note:  To get to David's vodcast site, click here.

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Tech-Talk-Topic - Terry Gray

Future Tense

It's always fun to play 'what's going to happen.'  I recently asked our staff to respond to questions about the future of technology.   Now, it's true we tend to be geeky, so our answers will reflect the geekiness.  Nevertheless, perhaps you will find some of our answers revealing, or at least find the questions provocative.

First, to where we've been: 

Q.  What is the most significant improvement in the use of technology at Palomar over the last 10 years?

A.  Answers varied, but they all had to do with the growth of the Internet: 

  • "Email."
  • "Resources available in online format."
  • "High speed access to the desktop."
  • "Online registration and fee paying, with Blackboard, wireless connections and computer access available to students."
  • "Taking advantages of the unprecedented resources available online."

Q.  Over the next 10 years, what will happen to trends in teaching with technology?

A.  The movement to more and better technological delivery methods seemed to be a common expectation.

  • "The majority of courses will be taught either online or in a hybrid online/in-the-classroom format. Course materials such as textbooks, handouts, and other tools (calculators, etc.) will be in an electronic format accessible from any internet connected device."
  • "There will be cheaper, more and better user friendly access for students in the future."
  • "Students will drive most of the technology trends in education. They want the information faster and in a format they can easily transport. Information will become more accessible to more people over the internet."
  • "Full-motion video on demand will become a teaching norm."
  • "The semester-based scheduling system will be abandoned in favor of an on-demand model, and content will be delivered in new ways which will emphasize a wider area approach, such as content delivered to smart phones by students anywhere in the world."

Q.  In general, what is the single most significant technical invention or innovation over the last 10 years?

A.  Electronics, of course:

  • "DVRs, changing the way the public treats cable television."
  • "Affordable broadband internet access."
  • "Broadband speed internet access to the home."
  • "The boom of the internet."
  • "Communications technology generally, and the cell phone, soon to be the smart phone, specifically."

Q.  What technical trend or trends will blossom into general use over the next 10 years, and in 10 years, what technologies not in general use will be indispensable?

A.  It's all about communications:

  • "Communication: the way we receive and send out information and do business.  In 10 years the spy in the sky will be ubiquitous."
  • "Telecommuting.  As employers consider the price of their office space they will finally restructure “traditional” work tasks to not require a physical presence for more than receptionist/sales-style duties.  Within ten years PDA/phone combinations will be as ubiquitous as standard cell phones are now."
  • "I believe that time-shifting and place-shifting of content will become common place. The Digital Video Recorder has allowed individuals to view television and movies at any time desired. The many portable media players have allowed music and video to be listened to or viewed from virtually anywhere. As more devices and bandwidth become available, this trend will continue to grow.  In the next 10 to 20 years, robotic devices, aided by quantum computing and nanotechnology, will increasingly be replacing humans in a wide array of tasks. Most industries will be dramatically changed by the automation of functions previously performed by humans."
  • "Voice over IP and high definition video over the internet will become common.  In 10 years smart phones will be indispensable."
  • "The use of biometrics to validate electronic transactions will blossom.  In 10 years most electronics will be wireless, including power source cabling.  In 20 years genetically modified humans with electronic prostheses will be employed in certain industries."

Q.  Sir Martin Rees (a not inconsiderable source) estimates that humankind has a 50-50 chance of surviving the 21st century.  Are you optimistic or pessimistic?

A.  Survive?  Most likely.  Happy with the process and its outcome?  Doubtful:

  • "I am optimistic."

  • "Yes, I think we will survive because I am an optimist."

  • "Ambivalent.  I believe homo sapiens will be around in 2101, but fear that the culture I take for granted today will not exist in any recognizable form."

  • "Humankind will survive the 21st century, but many dramatic changes will occur. At some point a disease of some sort will emerge and kill a significant percentage of humans causing a drop in the earth’s population. Climate changes will change the face of the earth causing shifts in populations, leading to violence and, ultimately, large numbers of deaths."

  • "Because of advances in genetic engineering, and expected global catastrophes related to destruction of the environment, new, better adapted human-like species may supplant, or at least subdue, existing homo sapiens."

There you have it.  It's clear that some of us have been reading too much dystopian literature.  We're really all hoping for the best.

 

Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time = x:xx]
 
See an index of previous "Tech Talk Topics" segments.

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