May 21, 2013

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Mobile App Review: Mailbox

May 5, 2013 by

Before you head out of town after the spring semester, you might take a look at Mailbox App as an alternative email app to use with your UM Gmail account. We know you are busy this week, so let’s get to the point.

The Good

Swipe Gestures – The goal of Mailbox is to quickly “get to zero” emails in your default inbox. Mailbox App users simply swipe to quickly delete or archive email.

You Snooze, You Win! – What a great feature!   Snooze allows you to basically resend an email at a future date and time.   That can come in handy when you are out of town or when you are trying to get that critical project done and don’t have time for distractions.

Custom Lists – For organizing emails, you can use the three default lists, namely To Buy, To Read, and To Watch.   You can also create personal lists.

The Bad

W8 – Yes, you wait.   The Mailbox App installs quickly but remains inactive for several days while your request is queued.   For me personally, I waited two weeks for the app to become active.

iOS only – The app was designed to work on an iPhone or iPod Touch.  While the Mailbox App works on iPad, an actual iPad version is still in the works.  Hang on android users.  An android version is also on the radar.

No Landscape – While not a deal breaker for most folks, I prefer landscape mode when handling email with my iPad.  Landscape mode is in the works.

More Information

Check out the Mailbox App FAQ online.   Good luck this week and be safe driving home!

 

 

Filed Under: Mobile

Emergency Apps: Using your Mobile Device in an Emergency

March 13, 2013 by

If you have a mobile phone, there are several apps today targeted at assisting you in a potential emergency. The list below contains information on emergency apps you might consider downloading, just in case.

Emergency Notifications

Before we dive into the mobile emergency app review, please remember the University of Mississippi (UM) offers a few ways to receive emergency messages and information. Associate Provost Noel Wilkin from the UM Crisis Action Team highlights the key communication strategies used to communicate emergency notifications to UM employees, students and parents.

REBALERT Text Messages: REBALERT is an emergency text message notification service available to UM employees, students and parents. University employees and students who have provided a valid cell phone number will automatically receive REBALERT text message notifications from the University. These can be received on any cellular device, even cell phones that are not smartphones.

Employees and students can verify or change their cell phone information by logging in to myOleMiss with their WebID. Within myOleMiss, students click the Student tab => My Profile => Contact Information. Employees click the Employee tab => Self-Service => Address & Communication Preferences. Follow the instructions to edit your cell phone information, if needed. Parents with a WebID may also sign up using these instructions.

App Alerts: If you have The Official Ole Miss App, iPad or iPhone edition, you can receive alerts by enabling the notifications for that app. After the app is installed, click the Settings icon, click the Notifications tab, click Ole Miss, and finally click the switch to ON. On this same screen, you can also change how the app alerts you.

@RebAlert on Twitter: The University sends out emergency information using the @RebAlert Twitter account. Simply follow @RebAlert to view these messages. If you turn on notifications for your Twitter app, these messages will appear as alerts on your smartphone.

UM Emergency Web Site: Using any smartphone, you can visit the UM Emergency web site for the latest, time stamped information about emergencies and the campus status.

UM Today Email: The University sends out emergency information using email sent from UM Today. Smartphones will allow you to receive your @olemiss.edu or @go.olemiss.edu email on that device.

Free Emergency Apps

AroundMe is an application that shows businesses or landmarks around your current location including banks/ATM, gas stations, hospitals, movie theaters, restaurants, and taxi services.

Code Red Mobile Alert uses your location along with the national CodeRED Emergency Notification System to provide emergency alerts near your current location.  Warnings are identified as icons on a map within the application.

Disaster Alert displays advisories, watches and warnings worldwide.  You can tap on the map icons to see more information about each alert. Disasters can include flooding, drought, earthquakes, wind, volcanic activity and storms.

Earthquake – American Red Cross, as expected, provides earthquake support and survival information.

Emergency Distress Beacon will send out a distress beacon with your current location to rescuers.   For android devices, you might look at Here I Am 2.

Flashlight turns your phone’s camera flash into a temporary flash light.   The app supports adjustments to the brightness settings.  A compass is also included on the screen.   NOTE: This application will drain your battery faster than most other applications.

ICE: Emergency Contact allows you to identify your smartphone phonebook contacts as your “In Case of Emergency” contacts.  An individual can also save information such as medications, allergies and health conditions in the app.

WebMD allows individuals to read about their health symptoms and conditions.  WebMD offers first aid suggestions including allergic reaction treatment and CPR to name a few. Through the use of your current location, you can search for nearby physicians, pharmacies and hospitals.

Additional Thoughts

If you enjoy backpacking or plan to travel to a location without consistent power, you need to consider how you will charge your mobile device.   For under $30 (as of March 2013), you can purchase a solar powered backup battery to charge your equipment.

Be safe.

Filed Under: Mobile

The Spring 2013 IT Survival Guide

January 16, 2013 by

Welcome! The Office of Information Technology (IT) has been busy preparing  for new and returning faculty and students. Below are some of the important changes we made during the break along with links to common websites and informative TECHNews articles.

UM Google

Starting in March 2012, all students are given UM Gmail accounts which include access to Gmail, Google Drive, Google Sites and Google Calendar. Be sure to read our Gmail quick facts and Gmail FAQ for information on all the features your Gmail account provides. While employees continue to use UM Mail (Exchange) for official correspondence, they can also request a separate UM Gmail account for student collaboration, teaching a class and managing a Google group to name a few.

Former students admitted before March 18, 2012, please note. Email sent to your WebID@olemiss.edu address is automatically forwarded to your WebID@go.olemiss.edu address. The automatic forward will be in place until February 8, 2013.

Enterprise Vault

Are you tired of running out of email storage space in UM Mail? We have a solution! Beginning in September 2012, employees could request 5 GB of disk space dedicated to email storage in UM Mail. We call this service the enterprise vault. Just let us know when you are ready to enable the vault.

UM Box

UM Box is the latest addition to IT services. UM Box offers 10 GB of cloud storage for students, faculty and staff. Read more about UM Box and login to start using cloud storage today!

Attendance Tracking

In the fall semester, we piloted a new technology solution to minimize the attendance tracking and reporting effort for large (50+) class rolls.  For the spring semester, IT deployed the tracking technology in thirteen additional classrooms.  Read more about the attendance tracking scanners.

Blackboard Learn

Blackboard Learn was upgraded to the latest stable release, version 9.1 SP9. Read more about the new features.

The Official Ole Miss App, iPhone Edition

In January, we went live with the iPhone edition of the Official Ole Miss App. Get the Official Ole Miss App today for your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. It’s FREE!

Links and TECHNews Articles

The links and articles below point to information and sites used every day on campus.

  • Get Started - IT has links to commonly used websites for employees, parents and students.
  • myOleMiss - Grades, registration and other services.
  • UM Mail - Do you need to check your employee email from a web browser?  UM Mail is the answer.
  • UM Mobile - Check your grades and registration information, all from your smartphone.
  • Blackboard - Our learning management system used by our instructors to interact with students.  Don’t forget about Blackboard Mobile for your smartphone.
  • Course Notes Online - Instructors and students should be aware of the risks of using third party course notes services.

Final Comments

If you have additional questions, please contact the IT Helpdesk at 662-915-5222 or helpdesk@olemiss.edu.   You can visit our website for more information or contact us Monday through Friday, 8 AM CST – 5 PM CST.   Go Rebels!

Filed Under: Academic Technology, Helpdesk

Student Email Alert: Automatic Email Forwarding Ends on February 8, 2013

January 8, 2013 by

In March 2012, the University of Mississippi (UM) went live with UM Gmail.  Once all students were provided with UM Gmail accounts in summer 2012, UM Webmail was taken offline in October 2012.

Now, the final step is near.  As a reminder, on Friday, February 8, 2013, automatic email forwarding from WebID@olemiss.edu to WebID@go.olemiss.edu for students will no longer be in place.

Who is Impacted?

Students admitted before March 18, 2012 are impacted.  If this applies to you, the Office of Information Technology (IT) made changes to help minimize the impact.  First, your official UM email address is already set to WebID@go.olemiss.edu.   That means class roles, myOleMiss and Blackboard will reflect your correct email address.  Also, when IT migrated mailing lists to Google Groups, we changed the email addresses to WebID@go.olemiss.edu for students.

To get the word out, consider using your email signature block to promote your WebID@go.olemiss.edu email address.  On February 8, email sent to WebID@olemiss.edu will not be automatically forwarded to WebID@go.olemiss.edu.

Who is Not Impacted?

  • Employee email is not impacted.  Employees are provided an UM Mail (Exchange) account and may request an UM Gmail account.   There is no automatic forwarding to UM Gmail in place.  If an employee has created an email forwarding rule from UM Mail to UM Gmail, that forward rule will  remain in place.
  • Students admitted on or after March 18, 2012 are not impacted.  For these students, the automatic email forward is not in place. They were only issued UM Gmail accounts (i.e., WebID@go.olemiss.edu).
  • Students who became employees or graduate instructors are not impacted.  In short, these individuals have an employee affiliation. As mentioned above, employee email is not impacted.

Final Comments

You can read more about UM Gmail at go.olemiss.edu.  If you require assistance or have questions, please contact the IT Helpdesk at 662-915-5222 or helpdesk@olemiss.edu.

Filed Under: UM Google Mail

IT Maintenance Announcements – December 2012

December 3, 2012 by

Below, find a list of the IT maintenance events along with the impacted systems and services.

Upcoming Maintenance

  • On Tuesday, December 4, beginning at 7 AM CST, IT will begin maintenance on UMSEVIS. The maintenance will be completed by the end of the day. This will impact the fsaAtlas application used by International Programs.
  • On Wednesday, December 12, beginning at 12 Midnight CST, IT will begin an upgrade of Blackboard Learn to Service Pack 9. During this maintenance, blackboard.olemiss.edu will be offline. Since this update can require additional disk maintenance, we expect Blackboard Learn will be available by Tuesday, December 18. However, we will make every effort to complete this work as soon as possible. We will announce availability when the maintenance is complete.
  • On Wednesday, December 12, beginning at 6 PM CST, Outreach IT will begin the move of equipment into the Data Center. This event will include a bandwidth increase between Oxford and our four regional campuses – Booneville, Desoto, Grenada and Tupelo. During this maintenance, network access to our regional campuses and Outreach web sites will be offline. We anticipate this maintenance to be complete on Thursday, December 13.
  • On Friday, December 21 beginning at 8 AM CST, network maintenance will be performed on our Internet connection. Users can expect intermittent Internet connectivity until the maintenance is complete. For individuals off campus, this would impact access to UM hosted sites (e.g., UM Mail- Exchange, my.olemiss.edu, blackboard.olemiss.edu, etc.). For individuals on our campus network, access to UM web sites will not be impacted but Internet access can be intermittent.

If you have any questions, please contact the IT Helpdesk at 662-915-5222 or helpdesk@olemiss.edu.

Filed Under: Systems Maintenance

Box Storage and Collaboration Service Goes Live

December 1, 2012 by

The Office of Information Technology (IT) is pleased to announce the availability of Box storage and collaboration service to University of Mississippi (UM) facultyBox, staff and students. As a member of Internet2, UM is able to take advantage of the Box storage service and special pricing offered through the Internet2 NET+ partnership program. The Net+ Box offering has been customized for university environments.  For example, it is FERPA compliant, it offers collaboration tools valuable in an educational setting, it supports single sign-on through federated identity, and it is accessible from a variety of mobile devices and platforms.  The UM Box disk quota is set to 10 GB, whereas the default Box disk quota is 5 GB.

Get Started

To access your UM Box account the first time, use a web browser on your computer and visit http://olemiss.box.com. Once there, select Continue to be redirected to a login page. Finally, connect using your UM WebID and password credentials.

Once you sign in the first time, you can use UM Box from any computer using your UM WebID. You may prefer using Box with your Android phone, iPhone, iPad or Android tablet.

More Information

The IT Helpdesk has put together answers for common Box questions. You can also review the best practices guides and online training videos made available by Box or browse through the list of Box applications. Just remember that while there are no individual charges to use your UM Box account, some of the Box applications require payment.

If you have questions or need assistance, please contact the IT Helpdesk at 662-915-5222 or helpdesk@olemiss.edu. Thank you and have a great holiday season.

 

Filed Under: Academic Technology, Classroom Technology, Technological Advances Tagged With:

Academic Technology Updates from EDUCAUSE 2012

November 10, 2012 by

EDUCAUSE is an organization dedicated to supporting Information Technology (IT) professionals in higher education. EDUCAUSE recently held their annual conference at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, CO. Attendees were able to discuss a variety of academic support topics with colleagues, attend technical sessions and discuss future products with vendors. Below are a few of the highlights of the conference related to academic technology at Ole Miss.

Highlights

Accessibility – We saw the premier of the video, “IT Accessibility: What Campus Leaders Have to Say” and engaged with the CIOs from the video on their personal experience and continued efforts.  We listened to how Penn State University established a campus-wide software license to automate the checking of websites for accessibility. Further, we learned about the current status of Google Apps for Education and their accessibility initiatives.   As examples of the technical discussions, university accessibility coordinators are recommending that Microsoft Outlook be used to interface with Gmail and Google Calendar.  Also, Amara was a free cloud service recommended for captioning existing online videos.

Blackboard and Open Educational Resources – Blackboard provides open education resources via COURSEsites.  Users may access a series of courses focused on the effective use of technology in teaching and learning. Blackboard’s COURSEsites offers a stand-alone course for instructors and content developers that explores what accessibility and universal design mean and how they can be applied to online learning.  If interested, sign up for this free course.

LMS Trends – Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Instructure, Moodle Rooms and Sakai were all present on the vendor floor this year.  The big buzz was Canvas, Instructure’s learning management system.   Most discussions circled around Blackboard Learn vs. Instructure Canvas.  During LMS sessions, IT professionals cited reasons why universities are migrating to Canvas (e.g., ease of use, customer support quality) while others are staying with Blackboard (e.g., frequent Canvas interface changes, Instructure is a young company).  The University of Maryland is the latest university that is going live with Canvas so there will be more to report on their efforts in the spring.

Lecture Capture – Echo360 was the most widely discussed lecture capture solution among universities attending EDUCAUSE.  Session leaders mentioned the high costs involved with making classrooms into lecture capture environments.   A low cost alternative from Swivl got a lot of attention. We plan to evaluate Swivl’s solution in the near future.

Mobility Through the Looking Glass – This session covered a faculty cohort program at Purdue University. Faculty applying for the program received an iPad for use in the classroom. They provided program statistics.  Additionally, one faculty member discussed the innovating ways of using her iPad in her classroom.  Rather than writing a research paper, students used their iPads to create a video documentary of their research.  Related, Purdue received funding and implemented an iPad rental program for students.

Funniest Conference Quote – During a presentation of how iPads were provided to Enterprise MBA students at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the presenter was asked how this initiative was funded.   The presenter replied, “At Wharton, we may not be first at everything, but we are first in tuition.”

Further Information

EDUCAUSE 2013 will be held in Annehiem, CA. Dr. Kathryn Gates is on the 2013 conference planning committee.  Please let us know if you would like to suggest a session topic to highlight academic technology initiatives.

 

Filed Under: Academic Technology

Short Links for UM Google Sites

November 1, 2012 by

Sites are Google’s cloud solution for web site development. Provided as a part of Google Apps for Education at the University of Mississippi (UM), faculty, staff and students are beginning to use Sites for course collaboration sites and organization web pages.

One reported downside has been the length of the Sites links. I have good news. You can promote a shorter link for all your Sites hosted under the UM Google domain.  When you are ready to publicize your site, use the link http://sites.olemiss.edu/google_site_name where google_site_name is the name you chose when creating a Google Site under your UM Gmail account.

Your Google Sites

We want to know what you are doing with Google Sites to share with your colleagues in a future TechNews article.   Send me an email so we can share your creativity!

Further Information

Visit the IT Helpdesk web design link to learn about web design options at UM.   If you have a UM Gmail account and want detailed training on Google Sites development,  Google offers online training.

Filed Under: Web Site

Provide Guests With Internet Access Using Wireless Guest Services

October 23, 2012 by

Today, University of Mississippi (UM) students, staff and faculty can gain internet access by using the UM wireless network.  Using a UM WebID and corresponding password, UM wireless service is available at various locations on our Oxford and regional campuses.  Further, parents visiting one of our campuses may also gain UM wireless access, provided they have a parent WebID.

But what about our guests on campus? Fortunately our Network Management group within the Office of Information Technology (IT) have provided a self-service solution named UM Wireless Guest Services.   This service request is driven by an individual with an active UM WebID.   The individual simply signs in, completes the required information and the guest account is created immediately.   Do you need to provide access to multiple guests for a special event?  No problem.   While active, a guest WebID can be used by multiple people for UM wireless access.

If you have questions, please contact the IT Helpdesk at 662-915-5222 or helpdesk@olemiss.edu.  They are available from 8 AM – 5 PM, Monday through Friday.

Filed Under: Guest Services, UM Wireless Network Tagged With: ,

IT Maintenance Announcements – October 2012

October 1, 2012 by

Below, find a brief list of the IT maintenance events along with the impacted systems and services.

Upcoming Maintenance

  • On Friday, October 5, beginning at 8 AM CDT, UM Webmail will be taken offline permanently.  UM Mail (Exchange) and UM Gmail will continue to provide UM email services.  More information is available at TECHNews.
  • On Friday, October 19, IT will perform maintenance on the Financial Aid system.  The effort should be completed on Sunday, October 21.

If you have any questions, please contact the IT Helpdesk at 662-915-5222 or helpdesk@olemiss.edu.

Filed Under: Systems Maintenance
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