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Take a look at our Self-directed Checklist for Making Your Computer Work a Bit Better. http://www.at.vcu.edu/faq/virus/gotviruses.html
Whenever you have a computer related question, please check our "AT Knowledge Base", http://www.at.vcu.edu/faq
Jim Bostick, Rick Falk and Phyllis Self attended the annual Educause conference in Denver Colorado. http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?section_id=26&conf=e04
Rick Falk and Phyllis Self gave a poster presentation, titled "Moving from Vision to Reality".
Poster Presentation Abstract: Virginia Commonwealth University conducted a visioning exercise that incorporates the views of our incoming "wired" generation of students as well as national and state leaders, faculty, staff, and administrators. This presentation discussed the outcome of the exercise as it relates to the development of VCU's Academic Technology Strategic Plan.
One of the most interactive educational experiences at Educause was its vendor exhibit area http://chronicle.com/indepth/educause/ that dominates the conference scene. Here vendors showcase their existing products and describe new technologies they will be rolling out in 2005.
The two keynote speakers for the conference were James Duderstandt, President Emeritus from the University of Michigan
and Markus Buckingham, author of "First, Break all the Rules".
Not only did AT staff present papers and receive awards at Siguccs 2004, they had fun. Below you see Jim Yucha and Jim Bostick racing to provide quality computing services.
Jim Yucha did give a technical presentation at the SIGUCCS 2004 Conference in Baltimore http://www.acm.org/sigs/siguccs/Conference/Fall2004/index.htm and Jim Bostick serves as Treasurer on the SIGUCCS Board. Jim Yucha's presentation titled "Convenience Are you providing it?" highlighted both the online applications and the development process of AT applications that have been created at VCU to improve services from the perspective of both the customer and the service provider.
Jim's PowerPoint presentation can be viewed at
http://www.people.vcu.edu/~jyucha/presentations/SIGUCCS/convenience.ppt
Barbara Robinson and Kay Sommers presented a poster session at the SIGUCCS Conference in Baltimore. The poster session highlighted three security awareness videos that were produced by AT. One of the videos, The Password Snatcher, won the SIGUCCS Communications Award. The award was presented during a special breakfast session held to honor the winners. To view the security videos go to http://www.at.vcu.edu/security/videoindex.html
Designing effective technology enabled learning spaces will be the topic of a December 10, 2004 workshop, co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Senior Vice President for Administration and Finance.
The purpose of the workshop is to explore learning space design principles as a way to enhance and transform teaching and learning with technology and make it possible for faculty and students to engage in active learning.
The design of effective learning spaces is critical to our planning for the renovation of a major classroom building (Hibbs) and the construction of several new educational facilities. VCUs facilities planners, financial officers, faculty, students, and nationally recognized speakers will participate in this workshop to influence the design of learning spaces. This workshop is the first of several we plan to host over the next year. This initial session on learning spaces will focus on traditional classrooms, lecture halls, labs, and contiguous spaces. A future session will focus on informal learning spaces.
These sessions are planned with the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII), sponsored by Educause. For more information on NLII and related readings on this topic, we refer you to this website http://www.educause.edu/2004FallFocusSession/2672.
Our keynote speaker will be Steve Ehrmann http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=bio&id=9 , author of Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever, http://www.tltgroup.org/programs/seven.html
Need assistance to make your website accessible? VCU has recently installed Lift Text Transcoder, http://text.vcu.edu:8080/tt/ This product automatically generates text pages from the graphic equivalent. This is accomplished by using alt tags along with other specialized programming to extract the content from the graphical site. Once this system is in full production we will create a direct link off the VCU webpage for your use.
LIFT Text Transcoder is especially useful for people and situations where:
Since the Text Site generates the text version of your site on the fly, it eliminates the need to update multiple sites. This improves the quality of information you are delivering to your user.
If you have questions, please contact the VCU Webmaster at webmaster@www.vcu.edu.
VCU Students wishing to have a copy of Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 should go to Academic Technology's Help Desk on either the MCV or the Monroe Park Campus.
Be sure to bring your VCU Card with you when requesting this product. This new digital note-taking program is designed to help students take better class notes and to make studying and research easier. The product is available free to VCU students. This product is to be used on PC's.
To assist off campus students in obtaining a copy of Microsoft One Note students can enter their VCUCard number by going to http://www.pubapps.vcu.edu/wss/onenote. Then faculty can bring a list with student names. identify themselves as faculty to the AT help desk staff and pick up copies of OneNote to distribute to their students.
Please contact the AT Help Desk 828-2227, if you have any questions.
In conjunction with our annual Emerging Technologies Day, Academic Technology and Administrative Information Technology are offering 10 - 15 $500 technology equipment/software grants for full-time undergraduate students to use in research projects related to their majors. The funds can be used for any related equipment or software. Applications will be judged by relevance to student's course of study, innovative use of echnologies, and feasibility of completion within the time line.
Projects from all schools and the college encouraged. All proposals are due no later than November 15, 2005, and will be displayed as a poster at the 2005 Emerging Technologies Day on April 8, 2005. The top three projects, as judged by innovation and interest to the general University Community, will present their projects at the Emerging Technologies Day presentations.
Students are required to have a faculty sponsor for their project, and are encouraged to seek their sponsor's assistance in preparing the application. Applications, which are submitted online at http://www.at.vcu.edu/etech/studentgrant/ , must be completed no later than November 15, 2004. Students will be notified no later than November 19, 2004 whether or not their project will be accepted in the program. We've also included some guidelines for writing abstracts at: http://www.at.vcu.edu/etech/studentgrant/abstractguide.html Should you have any additional questions, please contact the SCI coordinator at sci@vcu.edu.
This is an excellent opportunity for students to gain experience in writing a proposal, performing self-directed research or projects, and presenting your work to the public; experience which can help you obtain internships and/or admittance into graduate programs.
Saben Mathews was one of our 2003 grant winners for his project Lightening Tracers.