OnTechNews, published monthly, seeks to inform UW faculty, staff, and students about new and interesting technology to use in teaching, learning, work, and life.
The UW Strategic Roadmap for Information Management and Administrative Systems (IM/AS) sets forth a long-term vision and comprehensive plan for the future of IM/AS at the UW. It entails five major initiatives and an action plan for implementing them. The Office of Information Management (OIM), which coordinated the effort, presents the Roadmap on a new Web site with links to the full report, executive summary, and additional information. OIM will work with stakeholders to reevaluate the Roadmap priorities and action plan in light of the current budget climate.
With Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, Web developers can advance accessibility across the full range of Web content (text, images, audio, and video) and Web applications. This will make the Web accessible by people with visual, auditory, physical, cognitive, and neurological disabilities, and by older Web users with accessibility needs. The UW Information Technology Accessibility site has related UW-specific information.
A UW faculty/staff task force, chartered by Provost Phyllis Wise, has issued its final draft report on online collaboration tools. As tasked, it performed a fit/gap analysis of collaborative activities across the UW and developed six recommendations that include developing guiding principles, cloud-sourced tools, and governance. The addendum includes tools and technologies examined, and the report was prepared collaboratively using the UW Commons Wiki.
Members of the UW community began meeting in December to talk about "green" computing and how they could help educate and move the university toward such practices as reduced printing, paperless computing, telecommuting, and more efficient electricity use. You can get involved. Check the Web site for meetings (the next one is February 17) and more information.
UW Educational Outreach (UWEO) is partnering with other universities to co-develop and co-present selected new distance learning certificate programs through ASG (Actions, Solutions, Growth: University Partners). The approach reduces development time, divides costs, and gives students access to the expertise of more than one university. UWEO programs include BioTech Project Management (with UC San Diego Extension) and Decision Making for Climate Change (launching Spring 2009).
Access PhD scholarship from your desktop with more than one million full-text dissertations from all fields of study. This UW-restricted resource includes most dissertations written since 1997 from universities around the country, as well as citations for dissertations and theses from 1861 to the present. More than 60,000 new full-text dissertations are added to the database each year.
How do UW researchers use information technologies to support their work? How can we anticipate future needs? Hear leaders from the eScience Institute and Learning & Scholarly Technologies discuss their findings from the project, which involved more than 100 UW principal investigators.
How do current technologies help meet UW instructional, learning, and research goals? UW units have again collaborated on a third set of UW surveys, done every three years, to find out. Learning & Scholarly Technologies' research scientists discuss the supports and obstacles to using technology, and how the findings from the 2008 surveys can help UW anticipate future technology needs.
Students at UW Seattle can borrow a Dell Latitude or Apple MacBook laptop as well as a projector, digital camcorder and camera, voice recorder/MP3 player, scanner, projection screen, and an audio system. Checkout length is three business days; some can be loaned for seven days. A complete list of equipment, with detailed descriptions and photos, is online. UW Bothell and UW Tacoma run similar equipment loan programs.
Want to have your opinions heard on future technology tool/space needs of the UW Seattle community? Volunteer a few hours a year to be a Client/User Engagement (CUE) Team member and have a voice in more than just the Catalyst Web Tools development. Now CUE members will weigh in on the evolution of Learning & Scholarly Technologies' existing technology-enabled learning spaces such as digital workstations and collaboration studios in Odegaard, Suzzallo, and Mary Gates Hall. Join CUE online today.
Some UW students, staff, and faculty received fraudulent email last month that asked for their email username and password and personal information (date of birth), an example of "social engineering" we will continue to see. The perpetrators of such scams want you to believe there will be dire consequences unless you reply with the information requested. In this case, those who replied had their service interrupted while passwords were changed and control of accounts recovered. Remember, universities, banks, credit card companies, and legitimate businesses will never ask for your password or personal information by email, so do not respond. The "Gone Phishing" video on the UWTV Web site provides more information on scams.
This sixth annual international event promotes safe and responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially among young people. This year the focus is on social networking and cyberbullying. See the U.S. National Crime Prevention Council Web site for information on cyberbullying and to view winning public service announcements on this topic.
