ARTICLES

The New Learning Technologies Institute
Over the coming year, we will be introducing new types of training, including online sessions, self-paced multimedia modules, and new course topics related to issues facing faculty members and students today. With this transformation of OIT’s faculty training program comes a new name — the Learning Technologies Institute (LTI). Full article

"How Do I" Series
In an effort to provide more flexible training opportunities and better support for faculty, OIT’s Learning Technologies group began offering a weekly “How Do I” Q&A Webinar Series at the end of August. Full article

Sustainability in IT
The Office of Information Technology will participate on the Sustainability Council, which will consist of senior administrators, faculty, and staff. To keep in stride with the president’s goals, OIT has also established an internal team to explore sustainability measures in technology and to help disseminate appropriate IT-related information to the university community. Full article

Information Assurance Research Center of Excellence
Two federal agencies, the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, jointly designated the University of Maryland as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Research. The university received the formal award at the 13th Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education in Seattle, Washington on June 3, 2009. Full article

Your Campus Resource for Online Teaching and Learning
The OIT Learning Technologies group recently launched their extensively redesigned Web site, aimed toward faculty/instructors and intended to be your campus resource for online teaching and learning. Full article

ACT and Apple Combine for Laptop Donations
OIT’s Academic Computers for Terps (ACT) program and Apple, Inc. recently provided a donation of 25 MacBook Pro laptop computers to the university’s Office of Student Financial Aid. This brings Apple’s calendar year contribution to 50 machines. Full article

IT Service Center
OIT will soon be offering a new Web resource to give you the ability to request IT help 24 hours a day. The IT Service Center is a self-service Web site that will complement the current OIT Help Desk. Full article

OIT Creates a Network Operations Center
OIT is formally creating a Network Operations Center (NOC) to proactively monitor the campus network. The NOC’s primary functions will be to monitor critical network components, such as routers and Ethernet switches, to detect failures and degraded performance and to perform initial troubleshooting to determine the reason for any abnormalities. Full article

OIT Takes Additional Steps to Slam Spam
While OIT has provided barriers to spam coming into its e-mail systems for years, this summer, we made a change to our defensive strategy. In the past, any message claiming to come from an @umd.edu address was delivered without passing through university spam filters. Now, all incoming e-mail messages go through the spam filters unless they are sent from an e-mail server on the University of Maryland’s computer network. Full article

Virtualization
To reduce the number of servers needed by the campus community and contribute to the ongoing effort to create a greener campus, OIT is supporting virtualization efforts at the university. Full article

iTunes U Academic Site and Related Resources Provide Digital Media Opportunities
With the increase of mobile devices such as the iPhone, iPod touch, other MP3 players, and portable computers, students are embracing the option of continuing learning begun in a classroom when they are on the run. The university’s iTunes U Academic site provides the infrastructure and tools for faculty members to host podcasts and vodcasts (video podcasts) in an environment that mirrors the look and feel of Apple’s iTunes U, but that is private to the membership of a course or the university community. Full article

Guest Column -- Online Classes: The Conversation Has Shifted from IF to HOW
The time has passed to debate IF we should offer online classes and programs. Instead, the conversation has shifted: HOW are we going to maximize the potential of this growing phenomenon? Full article

Network Infrastructure Refresh Underway
You have probably seen the “Pardon our dust, network infrastructure refresh underway” building signs around campus and wondered what they mean. The campus has received final approval to upgrade and refresh the campus network over the next five years. Full article

Guest Column -- An Adventure in Technology and Collaboration
In the fall 2008 semester, Guest Columnists Barbara Tyroler from the Department of Art and Maria Salvadore from the College of Education teamed up to teach a seminar for University of Maryland Honors students — Childhood, Imagination, and Visualization: Photography and Creative Expression in Children’s Literature. This course combined digital technology with books and human interaction to create a unique and interesting teaching and learning experience. Full article

ITforUM is the Information Technology Newsletter of the University of Maryland, published by the Office of Information Technology.
Letters to the editor and article suggestions are welcome. Please send correspondence to ITforUM@umd.edu.
Staff Credits | Archive. © 2009 University of Maryland.