IT News

Information Technologies has released a new µLink (“microlink”) service to help UD faculty, staff and students communicate complicated URLs to the University and the community.

Most Internet users are familiar with services that shorten long URLs to something more easily shared with others. UD’s µLink service provides that same convenience but with a shortened URL that begins www.udel.edu. Unlike shortened URLs from other services, a µLink refers people to a Web page via a UD-branded identifier.

IT-NSS network technician Robert Wardell recently completed a National Guard deployment to Iraq. As a result of the support Bob received from UD during his deployment and upon his return, UD has received two awards from the Delaware Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve organization: Bob's manager, Dennis Flockerzi, received a Patriot award; the University received an Above and Beyond award.

The 11th annual international Sakai conference was held mid-June in Denver, bringing together managers, developers, user support staff, instructional designers, usability experts and commercial affiliates to discuss what Sakai is and what it should become to better support teaching, learning and collaboration.

For the last four years, the Sakai community has put a lot of energy into exploring how instructors want to use technology to support student learning and innovation.

UD Students, faculty, and staff can now submit problem reports and other "tickets" directly into the system the IT Help Center uses.

In addition, the UD community can log in and see the progress on any of the trouble tickets they've submitted.

Reinhold Steinbeck, learning designer and international educational development specialist from Stanford University, opened this year's Summer Faculty Institute at the University of Delaware on June 1. Steinbeck presented his keynote address, “Design Thinking as a Learning Process: Building Innovation Capacity and Creative Competence within a Global Context,†to an audience of approximately 100.

Before Steinbeck spoke, Paul Hyde, event coordinator, told the audience, “We're trying a number of new things at this year's event. Most importantly, this program is based entirely on UD faculty proposals.â€

Hyde and his colleagues in UD's Information Technologies Academic Technology Services (IT-ATS) entered all session titles into an online analysis tool called Wordle. Patterns then emerged based on how often a word occurred.

“When you ask UD faculty to talk about teaching using technology, the Wordle pattern clearly shows that the central element is students. For our faculty, there's a natural focus on students,†Hyde said.

As of June 1, all UD undergraduate email accounts have been moved to Gmail at Google Apps @UDel.edu.

Students still log in with their UDelNet IDs and passwords, but all their mail is handled through Gmail. A new feature for UD students is that they will retain their @udel.edu email addresses after they graduate and be able to use Gmail to access that mail.

After three days of intensive learning at the University of Delaware Summer Faculty Institute June 1-3, join us to share in some fun and some ice cream from the UDairy Creamery on Friday, June 4, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., at the institute's Technology Fair. The fair will be held in Daugherty Hall of the Trabant University Center.

This is the perfect opportunity to ask in-depth questions about various technologies. Whether you're on the cutting edge, or catching up, the Technology Fair is the place to have close-up, hands-on experience with emerging technology.

From 3D video to Microsoft Office, high-speed camera applications to online content development, the Technology Fair is the place to get tech questions answered. If you don't see something you are interested in, ask about it to get the conversation started.

The fair will emphasize “hands-on†technology stations for faculty members to become familiar with technology available for them to use in and outside the classroom.

The new LearnIT@UD website makes learning how to harness technology at UD more flexible, accessible, and customizable.

LearnIT@UD acts as a gateway to education resources for faculty, staff, and students. The site features access to instructor-led training, real-time streaming of classes, versions of previously offered training sessions, technology training through UD subscriptions to vtc.com and Lynda.com, and a variety of resources gathered from around the Web.

Looking for a reason to attend this year's Summer Faculty Institute? Here's our Top 10 list!

10. Listen to amazing featured speakers: Each day begins with an energizing perspective on teaching. Beginning with Reinhold Steinbeck from Stanford University on Tuesday, June 1, to Bryan Carter (via Second Life) from the University of Central Missouri on Wednesday, June 2, to UD's own Alan Fox on Thursday, June 3, you'll take away new ideas and inspiration. A limited number of faculty participants can follow up Steinbeck's keynote presentation on design thinking with an in-depth, activity-based interactive workshop.

9. Sessions are faculty-led, but student-focused: A word analysis of the 40 session titles shows "student" is the most frequently used word. The sessions may deal with using technology, but succeed only if they intensify student connection with class material, develop team-building skills and improve a student's chance for success in the course and long-term success at the University.

On June 1, all University of Delaware undergraduate email will move to Google Apps @UDel.edu.

Students who switch their email within the next three weeks will also be able to move all of the mail that is currently on UD Webmail. Students who simply wait for the switch will lose access to any of their mail at mail.udel.edu.