On Friday, January 15, 2010, the Office of Information Technologies (OIT) will be offering demonstrations of the standard presentation and audio-visual technologies available in many campus classrooms. Two concurrent sessions are being held between 11 am and Noon in Herter Hall. If you teach in a large auditorium, please attend the session in Herter 227.…
Author: Tony Sindelar
January 2010 Technology Workshops
This January, Academic Computing is offering workshops for faculty on basic technologies for teaching and research, audio & video production, and building course websites with SPARK. Many are hands-on sessions where you can learn new technologies while working with content from your own courses. For the workshop schedule, descriptions, and online…
OIT increases UMail quotas for campus community
The Office of Information Technologies (OIT) has increased UMail quotas for the campus community. Faculty and staff now have 2 GB of storage, graduate students have 1 GB, and undergraduates have 500 MB. Quotas for subsidiary and NENS (non-employee, non-student) accounts were also increased to 1 GB. This announcement comes as OIT completes significant improvements to…
SPARK Community of Practice Lunch – Tuesday November 17th 2009
Academic Computing is pleased to announce the next SPARK Community of Practice Lunch. For our second event of the year, Professors Rachel Mordecai (English) and Wilmore Webley (Microbiology) will join us to share their experiences using SPARK. Topics they are planning to address include managing grades, using discussion boards, posting course content, and collecting student…
Emerging Technology and Pie: Using Wikis with Students
Academic Computing is pleased to announce our next “Emerging Technologies and Pie” event of the semester: Using Wikis with Students Monday, November 16, 2009 1:25 PM – 2:15 PM Professors Millicent Thayer from Sociology and Kenneth Kitchel from Classics will join us to discuss their experience using wikis with their students. A “wiki” is a…
Larry Lessig talks about the values of education and science and the need to bring copyright into harmony with them
I had the pleasure of being in the third row for this talk Lawrence Lessig gave at EDUCAUSE on copyright and culture last week. Lessig makes some important observations and argument about how copyright is changing and the effect that is having on science and education. If you’ve read any of Lessig’s books you’ll enjoy this,…
UMass Blogs Quota Increased
As of October 30, 2009, you have 100 MB of space allotted to your blog. This increased quota, the previous quota was 50 MB, will allow you to store more images, videos, and other files with your blog. Enjoy! Faculty can contact the OIT Help Desk for information about increasing their quota beyond 100 MB. More on…
Teaching with PRS: Effective Pedagogy and Best Practice – Thursday November 19th
The Center for Teaching and Academic Computing invite you to join us to explore ways to design and implement effective PRS pedagogy in undergraduate courses: At UMass Amherst, with more faculty members teaching large lectures, many have turned to PRS technology to help them engage students and alleviate the “passive attendance” phenomenon often seen in…
Cyber Security Awareness Month 2009 – Week 4: Change Your Clocks & Your Passwords
October is Cyber Security Awareness Month! In support of this national initiative, OIT is sponsoring a number of activities designed to help the UMass Amherst community stay safe online. Each week in October will have its own cyber security theme. Protecting your computer is easier than you think! Week 4: Change Your Clocks & Your Passwords…
Cyber Security Awareness Month 2009 – Week 3: Secure Your Data
October is Cyber Security Awareness Month! In support of this national initiative, OIT is sponsoring a number of activities designed to help the UMass Amherst community stay safe online. Each week in October will have its own cyber security theme. Protecting your computer is easier than you think! Week 3: Secure Your Data Learn how you…
Getting Bubble Sheet Exam Results into SPARK
Just a quick reminder now that the midterm season is upon us, Academic Computing is running several workshops next week on how to import OpScan “bubble sheet” grades into SPARK. Bring your Excel data from Whitmore and we’ll show you how to convert and upload the exam scores into SPARK as a convenient and secure…
Cyber Security Awareness Month 2009 – Week 2 Phishing
October is Cyber Security Awareness Month! In support of this national initiative, OIT is sponsoring a number of activities designed to help the UMass Amherst community stay safe online. Each week in October will have its own cyber security theme. Protecting your computer is easier than you think! Week 2: Phishing Don’t get caught in an…