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. Session will cover an overview of Blackboard's unique features: course announcements and documents, online grade book, advanced assessment capabilities, assignment submissions, discussion board, and much more.

Introduction to the Blackboard Grade Center

As an instructor in Blackboard, you may have noticed that the old Blackboard Gradebook has now become the new Grade Center. While looking a bit different from the old version, this new version includes the same functionality plus many more features. This session will introduce you to the many features of the Grade Center, including weighting grades, dropping lowest scores, and creating custom Grade Center views.

iPhone

Get organized and be more productive by learning how to synchronize and manage e-mail, contacts, calendars, and appointments on your iPhone and computers.

Security Awareness Training

This session is for employees who deal with sensitive information such as grades, financial aid, payroll, and other personal student or employee data, including social security numbers. The session will describe the ways in which sensitive information can be compromised and what you can do to protect your computer and related devices.

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. The final portion of this workshop will provide information on uploading podcasts to the University Podcast Server.

Introduction to Excel 2007

This introductory seminar will cover basic workbook skills, creating formulas, copying and moving data, working with columns and rows, page setup, and printing.

Clickers and Tests

Presented by Dr. Tamar Goulet. The use of clickers, with an LCD display and alphanumeric capabilities, allows an instructor to administer an exam that is quickly and automatically graded, similar to machine graded multiple-choice questions. The use of these clickers, however, enables the instructor to transcend the confinements of multiple-choice questions, posing fill in the blank questions.  Because no answer is provided to the students, the students’ ability to answer correctly a fill in the blank question solely relies on the students’ knowledge and not on the students’ ability to recognize the correct answer, employ a process of elimination and/or guess.  In this workshop, participants will be introduced to, and experience, the various types of fill-in the blank questions one can ask using the clickers.  Data will be presented demonstrating the efficacy of these questions.  In addition, the potentiality of cheating, and how to deal with cheating, will be discussed.

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.

Adobe Illustrator

This class will introduce the student to the basics of using Adobe Illustrator in graphic design.

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.

Virus Free Computing

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

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.

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

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.

Making the Most of your Mac

Mac Users: Come to this session to learn about the Mac OSX Snow Leopard operating system. Make your desktop more efficient using Spaces, backup your data using Time Machine, and more.

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.

Googling Google

The word "Google" has become synonymous with Web search, thanks to the popularity of the company's Internet search engine of the same name. This workshop will briefly introduce a sampling of other popular (and some emerging and lesser known) applications of Google, including Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Sky, Google Books, Google Docs, Google Scholar, and Google Voice.

Keynote: An Alternative to PowerPoint for Mac Users

Frustrated with PowerPoint? Learn to use Keynote to create stunning presentations and dynamic educational material.

Online Meetings Using Wimba: On Demand, On Target, and On Budget

Wimba is the free online conferencing tool available through Blackboard and Angel here at Ole Miss. Wimba allows any number of people to meet online using video, audio, and file sharing over the internet. The newest version of Wimba allows any meeting to be easily recorded, and replayed later, or saved as an mp4 file. This Wimba workshop will briefly review the Wimba online meeting tool. We will review recent improvements to Wimba’s audio and video features. We will talk about how other instructors at Ole Miss are using Wimba in their classroom.  
Contact Randy Uncapher (915-1491) for more details or with questions about this workshop.

Introduction to Word 2007

This introductory seminar will include document skills, document views, text editing, character and paragraph formatting, document formatting, and printing.

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.

Using Multimedia Classrooms on the UM Campus

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

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.

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.

Basic Web Design Using Dreamweaver

Learn how to create Web pages using Dreamweaver. This session will provide an overview of HTML basics, page editing features, and other tips for the beginning Dreamweaver user.

Advanced Web Design Using Dreamweaver

Building a Web page and managing a Web site are two different skills. This session is for people already familiar with Dreamweaver and HTML, and who want to learn about CSS, SSI, and other technologies available for producing professional-looking Web sites.

Return to Workshop Schedule

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

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