September 14, 2007 Contents Technology News Training Opportunities Next Week The Blackboard Feature of the Week: "When Things Go Wrong" Teaching with Technology: "What Online Students Say About Assessment" Tech Talk Topic: "The Five Best New Things About Outlook 2007" For more, see podcast notes page for Episode 72.

Bb Announcements   Use the Blackboard Announcements area to communicate important class announcements to your students. For help: voice: (760) 744-1150 ext. 2862 atrc@palomar.edu

Technology & Download News Briefs

• The Ultimate Steal.  Microsoft is making an offer students can't refuse.  Students can now purchase Office 2007 Ultimate edition for a mere $59.95.  Who is eligible?: "...students who are actively enrolled at educational institutions and have a valid e-mail address from the institution" (Microsoft press release).  Students, you will have to use your Palomar email address for this one, so make sure there is room to receive an email in that dinky inbox.  The promotion is active in the US, Canada and the UK, and will become effective in France, Italy and Spain beginning September 20.  It will run through next April.  "Office Ultimate 2007 includes the entire Microsoft Office toolset that students are accustomed to working with and more, including Microsoft Office Word 2007, Microsoft Office Excel® 2007, Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2007, Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 with Business Contact Manager, Microsoft Office Access™ 2007, Microsoft Office Publisher 2007, Office OneNote 2007, Office Groove 2007 and Microsoft Office InfoPath® 2007."  Click here for the Ultimate Steal web site.
   

• News flash:  lower prices = higher sales.  The recent price slash on the iPhone, from $599 to $399 for the 8GB model, has caused a sales surge from 9,000 units per day to 27,000 units per day, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster (DailyTech).  
   

• File under: "Put down that wrench, Dave."  SpamNation, a prominent anti-spam site reported last week that distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are being launched by the Zhelatin gang via botnet zombies.  Customers of Zhelatin can, apparently, order attacks against sites.  So far, sites attacked include 419Eater, ScamWarners, CastleCops, scam.com, scamfraudalert.com, and Artists against 419.  "The distributed computational power of the Storm botnet is thought to have surpassed that of virtually all major supercomputers" (ars technica).  For an explanation of the types of denial of service attacks, click here for a thorough summary from CERT, and a here for a shorter overview from CastleCops.
   

• Amazon is launching the Kindle on October 15.  What is the Kindle, you may ask.  It represents Amazon's entry into the eBook reader business.  Are consumers ready for an eBook reader?  Sony's Reader (which retails for $300) introduced last year is doing not well, but respectably.  Sony continues to invest in advertising for it.  Now Amazon wants to get into the act.  The Kindle is based on the same E Ink technology as the Sony Reader, which mimics the appearance of type on paper.  It also consumes very little power, so there are no battery problems like their are with laptops and other portable reading devices.  Unfortunately, like the Sony Reader, Kindle uses a proprietary format tied to a specific vendor, rather than supporting open standards.  (NY Times).
   

• Typepad from Six Apart is the first blogging company to offer blogging tools for the iPhone and the new iPod Touch.  "The TypePad iPhone application was designed from the ground up to be optimized for Apple's innovative multi-touch iPhone display. TypePad bloggers can easily create new posts, edit existing posts, manage comments from their community, and configure settings to send photos directly from their iPhone to their blog. The TypePad iPhone application will also work on the recently announced iPod touch"  (TypePad press release).  Within a day, Moveable Type also announced an iPhone plugin for their service.
   

• A new YouTubable friendly Flip Video Ultra camera is now available from Pure Digital Technologies (CNet).  The camera is a "..."higher-end addition to Pure Digital's line of pocket-sized, easy-to-use camcorders features upgrades to all its software, including DVD quality video and advanced editing features. Still affordable, the Ultra line has onboard software that allows users to instantly upload video directly to YouTube and other video publishing sites like AOL."  There is a 1GB model, that can record 30 minutes of video, for $150, and a 2GB model that sells for $180.
   

• Patch Tuesday came and went for Microsoft and it was barely noticeable.  Only 1 critical and 3 important patches were released, and all were from old, very little used subsystems of older OS versions.  For those deeply interested, click here for the security bulletin.
   

• And speaking of Microsoft, they released this week a wide array of peripherals, focusing on webcams and mice:  "the LifeCam NX-3000 and VX-7000 products, both of which are heavily marketed as being integrated with Windows Live Messenger."  There are three new mice:  the Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000; the 2.4GHz Wireless Notebook Mouse 7000; and the Mobile Memory Mouse 8000, and it comes with a warning: Prepare, ye consumers, to "Meet the mouse with a mind of its own."   The Microsoft marketing blather will explain it all (One Microsoft Way).
   

• Also from Microsoft, Hotmail was updated this week.  The big news is 5GB of storage for all users, 10GB for users of Hotmail Plus, and a set of new features users have been asking about for a long time:

  • Improved performance

  • The ability to merge duplicate contacts

  • An easier way to view blocked images

  • Phishing reporting

  • Smaller header (devoting more page space to read email)

  • Automatic forwarding of your mail to other Hotmail accounts (paid accounts can forward to Gmail, Yahoo, or anywhere else)

  • Branded email hosting for universities

  • Accepting Outlook meeting requests in the Hotmail Calendar

  • Auto-replies for when you go on vacation

  • The ability to go to your inbox by default, instead of the Today page (ars technica)
     

• The price has not yet been announced, but starting next March BitMicro will be selling 2.5 inch SSD drives with 416GB of storage, part of its E-Disk Altima family of flash solid state drives (businesswire).
   

• A new technology, based on the diamond synchrotron has been developed in the UK to read ancient scrolls that cannot be unrolled because unrolling them would destroy them.  "Intense light beams will enable scientists to uncover the text in scrolls and books without having to open - and potentially damage - them" (BBC).  The process uses X-ray tomography to "...recover the structure where we can see the words that are written inside the document."
  
   

• File under: "The Blue Zune Does Not Exist."  Engadget (that sometimes accurate news source) reported Wednesday that a blue Zune was to be marketed at Target, and evidencing the report on a "leaked" ad showing what appeared to be, in fact, a blue Zune.  According to a Target representative, it was just a Photoshop filtering boo-boo.  It is really a black Zune in really bad Photoshop light.  All those who had leaped to their feet may resume their seats.
   

• Google has announced a $30 million moon contest. The first prize winner of $20 million must land a craft on the moon, the craft must rove at least a quarter mile, and it must send video data back to earth.  A $10 million second prize is reserved for the first craft that can arrive on the moon, send data back, but cannot rove.  The prize will be administered by the X-Prize Foundation (USA Today).
   

• Featured Safari Tech Book Online: Search Engine Visibility, by Shari Thurow.  "Search Engine Visibility is about designing, writing, and creating a web site primarily for a site's visitors, and helping them find what they are searching for via the major search engines, directories, and industry-related sites."  Palomar maintains a subscription to Tech Books Online, and the books can be accessed from any computer on the campus network.  Contact the library for information about off-campus access. 

   Listen to the news [mp3 -14:35]

Training Opportunities

• Academic Technology Training
  • On Wednesday, 9/19, from 11am to noon, in room LL-111, Haydn Davis will present "Using RF Polling Devices (Clickers) in the Classroom."
     
  • On Thursday, 9/20 from 2-4pm, in room LL-109 Terry Gray will present "Outlook 2007 Email Skills." 
• Elluminate Training
  • Elluminate is our new econferencing system.  There are many excellent training resources available through the Elluminate training center.  Live, instructor led training seminars--conducted through the Elluminate interface--occur regularly and may be scheduled through their web site.
     
• @ONE Training
  • Multi-week, instructor facilitated online classes.
  • Lunch'N'Learn 1-hour webinars.
  • Self-paced courses.

The Blackboard Feature of the Week - David Gray

When Things Go Wrong

Over the last two weeks the San Marcos campus has been hit with several problems; power outages and bomb threats just compound the troubles typical for the normal flow of campus life. Using Blackboard as an aid to communicating with your students can help when troubles strike.

Now, don’t get me wrong, during a power outage on campus there really isn’t much that Blackboard can do to help. The Blackboard system is hosted on campus, and without power it does no one any good. But during the bomb threat situation yesterday we actually got phone calls from students asking why they hadn’t seen an announcement in Blackboard warning them not to come onto campus! So, it isn’t too farfetched to claim that at least some students are already looking to the Blackboard system as an information source for campus events.

When lesser problems crop up, such as a professor coming down sick (and therefore cancelling class sessions) or the professor’s computer going on the fritz (and therefore making response times to emails take longer than normal), posting an announcement in Blackboard can be very helpful. But, of course, students won’t be in the habit of looking for announcements unless you post them on a regular basis.

It is easy enough to check the box to email a copy of the Announcement to all the students as well, but… unless you are regularly emailing students from within Blackboard they may not have their correct email address listed. (To get the email addresses in Blackboard updated students must go into the eServices system and change their email address. The changes take place in Blackboard about an hour later.)

So my suggestion for facilitating communication when things go wrong? Get in the habit, now, of posting announcements and email students, before things go awry. When things go wrong, you’ll be ready. If things don’t go wrong? Have you ever had a student complain that they were having too much contact with you about your class?

Didn’t think so.

	Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time = 4:20
	See the index of Dave's previous "Blackboard Feature of the Week" segments.

Teaching with Technology - Dr. Haydn Davis

What Online Students Say About Assessment
 

What They Say	How To Do It (in Blackboard)
“Please give me feedback that is timely, helpful, and personal.”	Use Blackboard’s Assignment Manager for written assignments – you can then easily give student feedback at the time you grade the assignment.  Use the Comments field in the Blackboard Gradebook to enter short comments with each grade.  If you give Blackboard tests you can set them up to show only the score but later, after everyone has taken the test, you can go back and modify the test setting to show their answers and the correct answers thereby giving students feedback on what they did well and which questions they missed.  Provide a Discussion Board summary each week in which you reproduce a few students’ comments and comment on why these were well done.  Use the email tool in Blackboard to email a few students each week to comment on their progress.  A short email stating that an assignment has been received is appreciated much more than most instructors realize.
“Give me several different ways to demonstrate what I’ve learned.”	Provide a variety of smaller assignments rather than simply a midterm, paper, and final. Blackboard instructors have successfully used quizzes, surveys, web excursions, group activities, written assignments, video assignments, reflection journals, PowerPoint projects, and live chat in addition to traditional testing.
“Give me clear guidelines and expectations, particularly with regard to how I’ll be graded.”	Provide clearly stated deadlines for all assignments and what the consequences are for missed deadlines.  Set up Discussion Board forums with specific deadlines (e.g. closes September 16th). Forums can then be “locked;” students can still read but not post into locked forums.  Post a grading rubric for the Discussion Board. Post examples of good discussion board posts.

	Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time = 10:40]
	See the index of Haydn's previous "Teaching with Technology" segments.

Tech-Talk-Topic - Terry Gray

The Five Best Things About Outlook 2007

On first blush Outlook does not look like it has changed as much as the other Office 2007 applications.  You will notice a new "To-Do Bar," and the new ribbon appears inside the mail form, but not in the program shell itself; but there are some significant, less obvious changes in the Outlook 2007 feature set that are worth mentioning.

Instant Search.  My candidate for best new feature is indexed searching for email.  It speeds up the search enormously.  If you are using Windows Vista you have this automatically, since the same indexing service supports Vista and the new Office programs.  If you are still a Windows XP SP2 user, you will need to download and install Windows Desktop Search to get indexed searching.  Once you have done so, you will see an option to enable "Instant Search" below the search box.  Do so and you will enjoy much quicker mail searches.

Flag for follow-up.  Flag for follow-up is now more powerful and works more consistently across the program.  It allows setting reminders from the right-click menu, and the reminder actions can be customized.  Flag for follow-up choices now include the ability to set a reminder to check for replies to messages you send, and to flag your recipient for follow-up with the same reminder for you to check for replies. 

Color categories.  The ability to add color categories is now greatly expanded.  You can apply the same color categories to emails, calendar items and tasks, and can search by color category to find all related items.

Integrated RSS.  You can now subscribe to RSS feeds right within Outlook, and the feeds you subscribe to in IE are available to you in Outlook.  This makes subscription and reading of news fees easier than ever.  You can also configure Outlook to download any RSS enclosures (like mp3 podcast audio files) along with the news item.

Calendar overlays and calendar snapshots.  I couldn't decide which feature I liked best, so I included both.  Calendar overlays permits you to open calendars other than your own (if you have permission) and overlay it on your personal calendar to locate conflicts and identify scheduling commitments you might not have been aware of.  Calendar snapshots let's you send your calendar for an upcoming period in an email to someone else in one of three levels of detail so that the other person can pick a time for your meeting.  This meets the need for scheduling with those who do not have outlook.

While Outlook has changed less than the other Office programs in the 2007 edition, it has still changed some.  These are my nominations for the best new features.

	Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time = 5:35]
	See an index of previous "Tech Talk Topics" segments.

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