Academic Technology Enhancement Week

Workshop Descriptions

Introduction to Blackboard

Today's students demand new ways of learning. Blackboard is the easy-to-use Web application to help you meet their needs by putting materials and teaching online. Blackboard is available for all instructors at Ole Miss. You don't even need to know HTML. Session will cover an overview of Blackboard's unique features: course announcements and calendar, online grade book, advanced assessment capabilities, student tracking, online file exchange, and much more.

Using the Blackboard Gradebook and Discussion Board

An in-depth look at the Blackboard Gradebook and Discussion Board. Learn to enter grades quickly, weight grades by item or category, download grades to an Excel spreadsheet, upload grades from an Excel spreadsheet, and more. Also learn to set up and use discussion boards within your Blackboard course.

Virus Free Computing

This seminar will cover preventing virus infections, installing critical Windows security updates, personal firewalls, anti-virus software, and identifying malicious software.

Statistics for Dissertations (and Other Research)

Participants will learn about the statistical consulting services available to graduate students from the UM Office of Information Technology (IT) and get a flavor of some of the software packages available for statistical analysis. Schedule information will be provided regarding more specialized training opportunities available throughout the academic year in SPSS and SAS.

Helpdesk Store Grand Opening Event

Stop by for food, fun, and door prizes. The store offers a variety of Apple computers, iPods, basic accessories, and technical services. Regular store hours are weekdays from 9am to 4pm.

Breaking the WebMail Habit

While WebMail is a useful tool for accessing e-mail from any Web browser on any networked computer, desktop e-mail clients such as Outlook, Eudora, and Thunderbird provide richer functionality, eliminate the occasional problems with quotas and sluggish network interfaces, and can lead to greater productivity. This seminar about e-mail choices will help you determine the right tool for you. With so many options and functions from which to choose, attendee interest will drive specific topic selection so no two sessions of this seminar will be exactly the same.

What's New in PowerPoint 2007

Confused over the changes Microsoft made to the latest version of PowerPoint? Can't find the "Print" button? Come to this workshop and learn about the many changes and improvements to PowerPoint 2007.

Faculty Test Scanning

Grade tests the easy way. Learn to use the OpScan test scanner to quickly grade multiple-choice tests and surveys.

Adobe Acrobat

This seminar will cover the basics of using Adobe Acrobat to create PDF files that can be distributed across platforms without altering fonts or graphics. Participants will also learn to add form fields to PDF files. This is a beginning basic level seminar.

Getting Started with Mathematica

The UM Office of Information Technology administers a campus-wide Mathematica site license for employees and students. Participants will learn how to obtain, install, register, and start using this powerful tool with demonstrations and a hands-on tutorial. Schedule information will be provided regarding more specialized training opportunities available throughout the academic year in Mathematica and other math packages.

Hey Dude, Where's My Favorites List?

Participants will learn how to navigate the Web with Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Netscape as well as some of the advantages and disadvantages of each browser.

What's New in Mathematica 6

Participants with previous exposure to Mathematica 5.2 will be introduced to some of the new features of Mathematica 6 with demonstrations and a hands-on tutorial. Schedule information will be provided regarding more specialized training opportunities available throughout the academic year in Mathematica and other math packages.

Imaging and Scanning Basics

Ever wonder how your colleagues got those images onto their computer? Come to this seminar and find out. Topics will include: flatbed scanning, 35mm slide/negative scanning, and jpeg vs. gif image formatting. Converting documents into text using optical character recognition software will also be covered.

Facebook, MySpace, and More: A Panel Discussion on Net Generation Communication Tools

With over 21,000 members in its Ole Miss network, Facebook is impacting how UM students, faculty, and staff communicate with each other. M.K. Smith from the Office of Information Technology will lead a panel representing these groups in discussing their use of the popular online social utility and other tools such as text messaging, MySpace, and Second Life. Current panel line-up: Walker Agnew, Rebecca Bertrand, Buffy Choinski, Shakina Cooley, Ruth Mauldin, and Chris Threlkeld

Introduction to PRS Clickers

If you would like to learn about clickers, also known as personal response systems, this is the workshop to attend. What are clickers? How can they be used in a classroom? What benefits will I get from using them? All of these questions and more will be answered. Presented by: Julie Weiss, InterWrite

Advanced Clickers / Clicker User Group

This workshop is for instructors that are already using or are planning to use clickers in their classrooms and have questions about the basics: importing/managing rosters, saving/transporting data between computers, general problems, etc. More advanced topics, such as using a Master Clicker, will also be covered. This will also be a Clicker User Group meeting, so all clicker users are encouraged to attend.

Creating and Publishing Enhanced Podcasts

Participants will learn to create enhanced podcasts with still images, slides, audio, web links and more. Podcasts will be created hands-on using GarageBand, and similar podcast creation programs for Windows will be mentioned. The final portion of this workshop will provide information on uploading podcasts to the University Podcast Server.

Using Multimedia Classrooms on the UM Campus

Learn how to use the multimedia equipment located in various classrooms across campus.

Googling Google

With Google universally recognized as the best Web search engine, this seminar offers insight and demonstrations on how to become a professional googler, taking advantage of Google’s features and negotiating around its weaknesses with hands-on exercises. Participants will learn shortcuts and special Google databases, such as Google Books and Google Scholar, which have great potential for university-level research using the Web. As icing on the cake, we’ll introduce googlewares such as Google Toolbar and Google Search for PCs.

Capturing and Editing Digital Video using iMovie and iDVD

Learn how to use Apple's iLife suite of applications to prepare multi-media, edit engaging video, create stunning DVD titles and even publish media to the web. Presented by: Tim David, Apple Systems Engineer, Higher Education

Increase Student Involvement in the Classroom Using Clickers

Would you like to increase class participation, receive instantaneous assessment in class, and increase daily attendance? Dr. Tamar Goulet will show participants a hands-on approach to increasing student involvement using PRS RF-Clickers.

Course Presentation Tools: Alternatives to PowerPoint for Mac Users

Use iWork to create dynamic presentations and educational material. With iWork 08, see how easy it is to create presentations that will capture the attention of your audience. Using Keynote for presentations, Pages for handouts and pdf files and Numbers for spreadsheets, data and graphs. Presented by: Tim David, Apple Systems Engineer, Higher Education

Dreamweaver

A hands on introduction to Dreamweaver, an advanced website editing and management program, covering its interface, set-up, basic page creation, and web site tools.

Using Blackboard to Create SafeAssignments to Detect Plagiarism

Participants in this workshop will learn to create and manage Assignments and SafeAssignments in Blackboard to allow students to submit papers/essays electronically. Any paper submitted as a SafeAssignment will automatically be checked for plagiarism, and a detailed plagiarism report will be returned to the instructor.

Using Excel to Manage a Gradebook

This session will teach participants how to set up a gradebook using excel. Topics include: formulas, assigning percentages, the usefulness of the count and sum functions, and assigning letter grades based on "Lookup" functions.

Creating Blackboard Tests, Assessments, and Surveys

Learn about the different types of assessment tools in Blackboard. Instructors will learn how to create online tests and surveys including using the Pool Manager in Blackboard. This workshop includes Test Manager, Survey Manager, and Pool Manager. In addition, electronic test banks from the textbook publisher can be uploaded into the Pool Manager to build a repertoire of questions that can be used for future test building.

Basics of Adobe Photoshop

In this session, participants will learn the basics of editing images in Adobe Photoshop. Topics to be covered include: basic image manipulation, changing the size and resolution of an image, cropping and rotating an image, applying color correction, using filters such as blur and sharpen, cleaning up old photographs, selection techniques, and using layers.

Computationally Enhance Your Research and Instruction

The UM Office of Information Technology (IT) and the Mississippi Center for Supercomputing Research (MCSR) provide access to a variety of UNIX/Linux computing environments and desktop software packages in support of research on the Ole Miss campus and beyond. Participants will learn about options for obtaining access to supercomputers, databases, and web development spaces for research, classroom, or self-paced instruction; about sequential and parallel programming environments at their disposal; and about the various mathematical, statistical, scientific, engineering, and data visualization software packages that are available for free or discounted purchase from IT/MCSR.

Return to Workshop Schedule

These events are open to faculty, staff, and graduate students.
Click here to register.

Contact the Faculty Technology Development Center at 915-7918 for more information.