University of Minnesota faculty, teaching staff, and technical coordinators are invited to attend training on TurningPoint, a student response system, offered by Turning Technologies and hosted by the Office of Information Technology (OIT). The training is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 30, in 210 Walter Library, and will focus on setup and use of TurningPoint in the classroom. A basic and an advanced session are planned.

TurningPoint transforms a standard PowerPoint presentation into an interactive learning system that engages students in active participation. With TurningPoint technology, you can display questions, surveys, opinion polls, and games that allow every student in the class to select a response via wireless ("clickers") or ResponseWare, and transmit the data immediately to the presentation. For more information on Turning Technologies, please visit www.turningtechnologies.com.

The training is offered at no charge but registration is required.

TurningPoint 2008: Basics from 8:30 - 11:00 a.m.
This 2.5-hour course covers the basics skills needed to setup and use TurningPoint 2008. Topics include choosing hardware and software settings, creating basics presentations, inserting objects, tracking participants, running presentations, and generating basic reports.

Register online at http://uttc.umn.edu/training/courses/description/?designator=TRPT101 by Friday, Sept. 25.

TurningPoint 2008: Advanced from 2:00 - 3:30 p.m.
This 1.5-hour course covers methods to enhance your presentation and take advantage of the advanced features of TurningPoint 2008. Topics include using pictures instead of textual answers, creating and running competitions, using a demographic slide to show how specific groups respond, using priority ranking to allow weighted responses to a question, comparing the responses of several slides, managing sessions, and generating advanced reports. Prerequisites: Knowledge equivalent to: TurningPoint 2008: Basics.

Register online at http://uttc.umn.edu/training/courses/description/?designator=TRPT201 by September 25th.

Posted 12:17 PM | Permalink

10 - 11:30 a.m.
President's Room, Coffman Memorial Union
Twin Cities Campus/East Bank

We will run through many of the new features of Snow Leopard.

Refined, not reinvented

Mac OS X is renowned for its simplicity, its reliability, and its ease of use. So when it came to designing Snow Leopard, Apple engineers had a single goal: to make a great thing even better. They searched for areas to refine, further simplify, and speed up--from little things like ejecting external drives to big things like installing the OS. In many cases, they elevated great to amazing.

Refined from installation to shutdown

In ways big and small, Mac OS X Snow Leopard makes your Mac faster, more reliable, and easier to use.

Quicker Time Machine

It makes Time Machine up to 50 percent faster and reduces the time it takes to complete your initial backup to Time Capsule.

Faster, more reliable installation

It is up to 45 percent faster, yet more comprehensive and reliable. For example, Snow Leopard checks your applications to make sure they're compatible and sets aside any incompatible programs. In case a power outage interrupts your installation, it can start again without losing any data.

Smaller Footprint

It takes up less than half the disk space of previous the version, freeing up about 6GB.

QuickTime X

It includes a completely new player application with a clean, uncluttered interface, a new trimming interface, and easy uploads to YouTube and MobileMe. It delivers more efficient media playback, HTTP - based live streaming.

More reliable, higher resolution iChat

It includes technology to address many common router incompatibilities. High resolution, 640-by-480-pixel video chats. You will need only one-third the upstream bandwidth required. iChat Theater now offers 640-by-480 resolution, four times greater than before.

Exchange Support

It now has out-of-the-box support for MS Exchange Server 2007, something even Windows PCs don't have. You set it up just by entering your e-mail address and password--the rest happens automatically.

Grand Central Dispatch

A revolutionary new way for software to take advantage of multicore processors

64-Bit

All key system applications are now 64-bit so they take advantage of all the memory in your Mac.

Posted 11:29 AM | Permalink

On August 31, at 8:06 a.m., the University's network experienced slow connectivity in the data center making a number of centrally supported IT systems and applications sporadically unavailable.

The issues were a result of instability and failure of the firewall modules in the OIT data center network. The Gopher Messaging failures were in response to the network behavior and its attempt to continually fail over to find a stable network.

The firewall module was manually failed over to the redundant to restore normal operation at 9:13 a.m. Gopher Messaging, including auto attendants, was restored by 9:22 a.m.

OIT is still evaluating the root cause on the suspect firewall module. Further updates will be posted as they are available. If you have any questions, call (612) 301-4357 (1-HELP on campus).

Posted 11:21 AM | Permalink

On August 26, the Office of Information Technology officially launched its academic online survey tool UMSurvey.

UMSurvey is available to current students, staff, and faculty at the University of Minnesota. The tool is self-service, so users can create and publish surveys on their own. It is free of charge, ad-free and assures data integrity and security. Example uses range from instructors delivering formative assessments to students learning about survey design.

UMSurvey has a number of benefits over third-party survey tools. These benefits include the following:

• A professional appearance of an ad-free University branded service
• Assurance in data integrity and security
• Available support staff and training
• Data can be downloaded easily in several formats

For more information about UMSurvey and to access the tool, please visit the UMSurvey Web site. On the site you will find information on how to use the tool, best practices for survey research, and online training.

Posted 11:08 AM | Permalink

An option to sending large files via e-mail is the University's NetFiles, a secure online file storage application with collaboration and sharing features. NetFiles provides up to 5 gigabytes of storage space for each user.

NetFiles also makes it much easier to collaborate with co-workers, as well as colleagues off campus and around the world. You can place large documents or presentations in NetFiles and give your co-workers access rights, so all of you are working on the same file and storing it in the same place. You can also lock files while you're working in them, preventing others from making changes before yours are saved. Document owners can be notified when any changes are made to their documents, and NetFiles can be used to keep track of various versions of a document.

All currently registered students, staff, and faculty with an active appointment may use the NetFiles service. Before using NetFiles for the first time, users must activate their NetFiles account at the Internet Account Options Web site. Follow the link for NetFiles Account Options and agree to the information there to activate your account. After activating your account you can log in to the system, with your Internet ID and password at https://netfiles.umn.edu. After logging in, you'll see your home directory.

You can add a new file to your account using the Upload button in the navigation toolbar.

1. Navigate to the directory in which you wish to upload your file.


2. Click Upload in the toolbar.


3. Click Browse to locate the file you want to upload.


4. Click Ok and your file will be uploaded.

NetFiles also allows for collaboration and file sharing with people inside or outside of the University of Minnesota with "tickets." You can issue a ticket for a limited amount of time and create a password for added security. It is recommended that when you send a ticket to someone, you e-mail the password separately or call and give that person the password. To use tickets:

1. Click the Share icon.


2. Click Tickets in the top toolbar.


3. Click Create Ticket in the top toolbar.


4. You can use the Basic or Advanced options to create a ticket to send to other users for access to the file or directory you want to share. The Advanced options allow you to specify a password and also rename the ticket.

To notify someone that a shared file or directory exits:

1. Check the box next to the file or directory you want to share.


2. Click E-mail in the top toolbar.


3. Choose either Link or Ticket.


4. Click E-mail and a message will be created (using the default e-mail application) with the link or ticket information.

You also can use your NetFiles space as a Web site. You can use as much of your 5 gigabytes of space as is available for your personal Web space. Your Web space can either be publicly accessible to only a group of users you choose to access it.

Visit the University Technology Training Center Web site for further information on using NetFiles. If you need to further assistance or help activating your account, call the technology helpline at (612) 301-4357 (1-HELP on campus), or send e-mail to the NetFiles support group at netfiles@umn.edu.

Posted 11:06 AM | Permalink

In order to optimize system performance and better align University of Minnesota e-mail services with industry best practices, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) will make adjustments to selected University e-mail account parameters. The adjustments are consistent with recent conversations that have taken place in the technical community on this topic. In addition, the changes will help facilitate users' potential move to Gmail this fall.

Effective Monday, Aug. 17 the maximum e-mail message size will be 25MB, and Trash and Sent folders will be auto-filed after 30 days.

Any messages in your Trash or Sent folders that are more than 30 days old will be moved automatically out of those folders and filed in a folder called "AutoFiled," which will appear in your folder directory. Messages will be arranged by the date they were received in subfolders named by year. For example, a message received to your Sent folder Aug. 13, 2009 will be filed in the folder called "2009.Sent" inside the AutoFiled folder.

It is important to note that no e-mail will be deleted and that the auto-filed e-mails will be easily accessible with any desktop e-mail IMAP client, such as GopherMail, Outlook, Thunderbird, and Apple Mail.

If you've been in the practice of storing important information in your Trash folder, it is recommended that you take this opportunity to go through those folders, move any messages that you need to keep into your inbox or other folders, and delete any unnecessary items. OIT also recommends that you do the same with your Sent folder, moving older items to other folders and deleting any unnecessary items.

If there are no messages older than 30 days in your Trash or Sent folders, automatic auto-filing will not occur.

More information about auto-filing can be found at the E-mail Auto Filing page. For additional assistance, contact the technology helpline at (612) 301-4357 (1-HELP on campus) or help@umn.edu.

Posted 11:05 AM | Permalink

The Office of Information Technology's University Technology Training Center (UTTC) is rolling out a new and revised Web Development courses series this fall to better meet the training needs of anyone who works on Web pages at the University of Minnesota.

Learn how to effectively use the new University Web templates. Find out about resources available to help you meet University requirements for your Web site. Brush up on your XHTML, CSS and Dreamweaver skills. These topics and more are covered in the new Web Development course series which includes:

• Web Development: Essentials - XHTML (same course - New title)
• Web Development: Essentials - Cascading Style Sheets (New)
• Web Development: University Template Fundamentals (New)
• Web Development: Working Effectively in the University Environment (New)
• Dreamweaver CS4: Basics (Updated and Revised)

Visit the UTTC Web site for more information about these and other related courses.

Posted 10:54 AM | Permalink

Don't use a screensaver. Screensavers are not necessary on modern monitors, and they use power and can in some cases prevent your computer from going fully into power saving mode. Instead, set your computer to go directly to standby or hibernation after a designated period of inactivity.

Posted 10:53 AM | Permalink

OIT video production staff has begun working on a half-hour documentary for the President's Office about the building and opening of the U of M's new TCF Bank Stadium.

Early on in the project, OIT video producer Paul Pecilunas learned what a truly collaborative effort it was to build the stadium, one which has involved people from all over the University and the state. This collaborative spirit has carried over to the video project. As part of the pre-production phase, Pecilunas has been meeting with all of the stadium's stakeholders and has discovered that this is truly Minnesota stadium.

The documentary will be shot in HD and show the journey from 2003 to present. It will air on the Big Ten Network on October 8 and also will air on the Minnesota Broadcast Network. Stay tuned for more details about broadcast times.

Posted 10:51 AM | Permalink

The Office of Information Technology offers a number of technology training courses through the University Technology Training Center (UTTC). Please visit the UTTC Web site for a complete listing of training courses.

Geographic Information Systems: Analyzing Data and Creating Maps
Friday, September 11, 2009
8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
90 Blegen Hall
Twin Cities Campus/West Bank
Windows

ImageNow 6: Basics
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM
90 Blegen Hall
Twin Cities Campus/West Bank
Windows

Posted 10:40 AM | Permalink

2:30-3:30 p.m.
310 Walter Library
Twin Cities Campus/East Bank

Learn the basics of using RefWorks, the Web-based citation manager that is available to all U of M Faculty, students, and staff. Adding references to RefWorks will be covered, as well as exporting them to Word, and selecting a style (MLA, APA, etc) for your bibliography.

Cost: Free
Contact: j-kemp@umn.edu

Posted 10:34 AM | Permalink

1:00-3:30 p.m.
402 Walter Library
Twin Cities Campus/East Bank

Please join us for a Town Hall meeting and listen as OIT engineers explain more about adopting IPv6 at the University of Minnesota. Refreshments will be served. To R.S.V.P. for this event please e-mail KT Cragg at kcragg@umn.edu by Tuesday, September 15 at noon. This event will also be available via UMConnect.

If you have any questions, contact OIT-IPv6@umn.edu.

Posted 10:30 AM | Permalink

10:00-11:00 a.m.
101 Walter Library
Twin Cities Campus/East Bank

The main topic of discussion at this UTELL meeting will be Course Management Systems, Moving Forward. If you are interested in attending this event, RSVP to kcragg@umn.edu by September 14.

Posted 10:29 AM | Permalink

12:00-1:00 p.m.
101 Walter Library
Twin Cities Campus/East Bank

The informal brown bag session will be a time to gather and network, collaborate and share stories. Attendees are asked to register for the brown bag and submit other topics for discussion via the UVUC Brown Bag Survey Moodle site. Attendees are welcome to bring their own lunch. No food will be served.

UVUC is a professional peer network of video professionals at the University of Minnesota. UVUC members work in all types of video, including production, presentation, networking, event coverage, and classroom use. The purpose of this collaborative peer network is to connect video professionals across the University, create opportunities to share and learn with each other, raise awareness of existing resources, identify collective video-related needs within the University, and form creative strategies for dealing with inherent challenges within the field.

More info available at the UVUC Brown Bag Survey Moodle site.

Posted 10:23 AM | Permalink