What is a blog?

A weblog or “blog” is an easy-to-use, web-based application that enables users to publish content to the web via a standard web browser. Postings are chronological and typically presented in reverse order. Blogs are primarily used as journals or diaries, usually on a specific topic.

Teaching with Blogs

In the classroom, blogs are primarily used for simple collaboration, student portfolios, and rudimentary course management. Students and faculty can post draft papers for peer review or participate in group research. Blogs also enable collaboration outside of the course, drawing participation from other institutions and the community at large.

Davidson blogs

At Davidson, we deployed a pilot blog server using an application called Movable Type. Although external blog services like Blogger are available to any individual, a Davidson blog gives us the flexibility to modify the structure, add multiple editors, create our own branding and limit blogs to campus access by request. Our pilot course blog, Pressing Matters, was created by the Instructional Technology Group for Jennie Buckner's “Critical Issues in Mass Media” course. The blog is used to create a public forum for discussion about the current state of the American press. Click here to read more about the course's use of the blog. ITG trained two students in the class who, with assistance from our staff, customized the blog to meet the needs of the class.

We hope you will review the course blog by clicking the link above. In the Fall, ITG will create a course blog for Dr. David Martin's "Davidson in India" program. If you have any questions about course or research blogs or would like to set one up, please contact ITG at any time.

Languages - Kyosung Koo (x2648)
Music - Jason Brewer (x2659)
Social Sciences and Humanities - Kristen Eshleman (x2583)
Sciences and Math - Bill Hatfield (x2897)

Your email, web, network, and Blackboard accounts will be deleted on Wednesday, June 14. Your telephone number and voice mailbox services will be deactivated on May 22. Please read below for important information on the status of your accounts after graduation.

If you are graduating and leaving campus, you will need to do the following before you leave:

Download and save any important email messages from your mailbox on the Exchange (email) server. Your email cannot be recovered once your account has been removed. Instructions are available.
Download and save any important files from your personal folder on Louise in the Users directory. Your files cannot be recovered once your account has been removed.
Your Blackboard account will be disabled. Download and save any important work from your Blackboard courses that you would like to keep. Your files cannot be recovered once your account is disabled.
Check your voice mailbox. Your voice mail messages cannot be recovered once your mailbox has been removed.
Remove yourself (or have your address removed) from any listservs to which you may belong.
You will also need to alert any correspondents (both in and outside of Davidson College) of the different email address that you may be using after you leave the college. The Alumni Association offers free email accounts for Davidson alums. Contact the Alumni Office for more details. Note: these accounts are not managed or supported by ITS.
If you will be employed by Davidson College after graduation:

You must email the Help Desk by Friday, June 2 at the latest with the following information. Please include the words "Senior Account" in the Subject field.

Your supervisor's name and department
The title or description of your position
The end date of your employment
Your network and web accounts will remain (including your email address, your web folder, and your personal folder on Louise). You should consider purchasing pre-paid cards for your long distance needs.

If you are not graduating:

Please email the Help Desk by Friday, June 2 at the latest so that your network account, telephone number, and voice mailbox will not be deactivated. Please include the words "Senior Account" in the Subject field.

If you do not notify us of your status by Friday, June 2 and your account is deleted on June 14, ITS will not be able to retrieve your email or files.

Upon graduation, students are granted perpetual use rights for the Microsoft Office suite. This means that you will be licensed for use of this software on your personal computer after you leave Davidson.

The following conditions apply if you choose to keep Office on your personal computer:

The license cannot be upgraded to a later version of Microsoft Office.
There will be no product support available from Microsoft Corporation.
There will be no product support available from Davidson College/ITS.
If you would like to receive a Support License Confirmation Letter, please email the Help Desk with the words "License Confirmation" in the Subject field.

Students Returning to Davidson in Fall 06 or Spring 07:

The following message contains important information about computing over the summer and next year.

1. Changing your network password. Passwords expire every 180 days which means many students' passwords expire in July. If you want to change your password before you leave campus or if it expires while you are away, you can now pull up the main ITS web page in a web browser and click on the link that says “Change Your Password” (lower right corner). Enter the information as prompted to change your password.

2. Windows 2000 support ends in the summer of 2006. If you are currently using this operating system, you’ll need to upgrade to Windows XP. Davidson College provides this software. See this article for more information.

3. Take your network cable with you. If you brought your network cable with you or if you found one waiting for you in your room when you arrived on campus, please take it with you. This cable is yours to keep and you’ll need it for the rest of your time on campus.

4. Unsubscribe from any listservs you are no longer interested in. Most listservs send “unsubscribe” instructions when you first get on a list, so look for that message and follow the instructions.

Have a safe and happy summer break!

Two years ago, ITS implemented a Customer Satisfaction survey that is generated automatically when a Help Desk case is closed. We sincerely appreciate everyone who took the time to share general comments, well-earned praise, and well-deserved criticism.

Your responses to the survey were reviewed weekly by ITS management. We use the input to help shape and improve our service.

The time has come for us to take a short hiatus and revise the questions. No surveys will be generated over the summer. The Customer Satisfaction survey will return in the fall and will be generated randomly rather than when every Help Desk case is closed.

Our sincere thanks for your feedback; we look forward to your continued input. If you have suggestions or comments about the Help Desk service or the survey, please email Lydia Lorenzin, Director of Computing Support Services.

Here's a quick quiz on passwords.

Do you share any of your passwords?
Do you use "password" as your password?
Is your password the same as your username?
Is your password something that would be easily guessed, like your last name, a pet's name, or "1234."
If you answered "yes" to any of these questions it is important that you read up on Password Security. Even if you think your password is secure check out the article to review your responsibilities for your accounts and passwords.

Problem: By default, documents created in Word, Excel and PowerPoint may contain revealing information regarding the document's author and/or commenters/editors.

Cause: This is the default behavior for Office applications.

Solution: The solution varies slightly for each program, but all are generally similar.

Important Caveat: These procedures do not anonymize tracked changes or inserted comments in a document. These items are attributed by their nature, and must be manually modified.

Mac OS – Office 2004

Word

Open Word and choose Word | Preferences | Security.
Under Privacy Options, check Remove personal information from this file on save. This will strip author name, initials, etc.
If you wish to be alerted when a document contains trackable information such as comments or edits, check the box marked Warn before printing, saving or sending a file that contains tracked changes or comments.
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.
Note: The command to remove personal information is not "sticky." It must be enabled for each document you want information stripped from.

Excel

Open Excel and choose Excel | Preferences | Security.
Under Privacy Options, check Remove personal information from this file on save. This will strip author name, initials, etc.
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.
Note: The command to remove personal information is not "sticky." It must be enabled for each document you want information stripped from.

PowerPoint

Open PowerPoint and choose PowerPoint | Preferences | Advanced.
Clear the fields marked Name and Initials.
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.
Note: This action is not "sticky," and must be performed for each new PowerPoint file.

Windows – Office XP, Office 2003

Word

Open Word and choose Tools | Options | Security.
Under Privacy Options, check Remove personal information from this file on save. This will strip author name, initials, etc.
If you wish to be alerted when a document contains trackable information such as comments or edits, check the box marked Warn before printing, saving or sending a file that contains tracked changes or comments.
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.
Note: The command to remove personal information is not "sticky." It must be enabled for each document you want information stripped from.

Excel

Open Excel and choose Tools | Options | Security.
Under Privacy Options, check Remove personal information from this file on save. This will strip author name, initials, etc.
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.
Note: The command to remove personal information is not "sticky." It must be enabled for each document you want information stripped from.

PowerPoint

Open PowerPoint and choose Tools | Options | Security.
Clear the fields marked Name and Initials.
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.
Note: This action is not "sticky," and must be performed for each new PowerPoint file.

Beginning Summer 2006, the campus will transition from a phone line per student to a phone line per room. All students living in (for example) Akers 101 will use the same telephone number.

Voice mailbox numbers will be permanently assigned to each student for the duration of his/her stay at Davidson. As students moves from residence hall to residence hall, their voice mail number will move with them.

Upperclassmen will continue to use the voice mailbox numbers which have been previously assigned to them. When students are on leave or traveling abroad, their voice mailbox will be disabled. Upon the students' return, their voice mailbox will be re-enabled and assigned to their new telephone number.

Voice mailbox numbers will no longer be available for direct dial; when a call is made to a room and it goes unanswered, the caller will hear a menu listing the room residents. The menu is automatically generated, listing residents in alphabetical order by last name. Callers will hear the recorded name of the mailbox owner.

If a mailbox has not been set up, it will not be listed in the menu. For more information, please see the Phone per Room Frequently Asked Questions.

It’s probably a sign of the times that security updates for computers are now national news. Read any of the Internet news outlets—The New York Times, CNN, or MSNBC—and you’ll see stories about security vulnerabilities in our software and what the vendors are doing about it. During April both Apple and Microsoft released sets of patches deemed “critical.”

Automatic Updating

Whether you use a Mac or a PC for your personal use, patch distribution can be handled either automatically or manually. For Davidson-owned Windows systems, patches are pushed out by a system called “Windows Server Update Services” or WSUS. The WSUS server synchronizes its patch inventory with Microsoft. After a period of testing and evaluation, most patches are approved for distribution. If your system ever asks you if it’s ok to apply patches, you should save your work first, and answer "yes." Automatic updates may also be configured on non-Davidson Windows machines. It’s one of the property settings of “My Computer.” On April 11 Microsoft released several critical patches, one in particular that addresses vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. Whether your system is Davidson-owned or not, you don’t need to visit the Microsoft Update site yourself; your system can handle updates automatically for you.

On the Macintosh side, the security patches were bundled into a “point upgrade” of OS 10.4—specifically 10.4.6. These point upgrades are more like the service packs periodically released by Microsoft for its Windows operating system. Various Macintosh support programs also received minor upgrades making the complete suite of updates over 100 MB. Like a Windows machine, there are various ways of handling updates, the most common is by configuring the “Software Update” application under “System Preferences.” The Apple updates were released on April 5.

Exploits Typically Addressed

Often the types of updates released by Apple and Microsoft are very similar in the types of exploits that they address. The two main categories that they address the most often are buffer overruns and privilege elevation. The buffer overrun vulnerability can allow savvy attackers to execute their own programs that might attack your computer or take control of it. The privilege elevation vulnerability can allow an attacker to gain administrative control of your computer and cause further damage. At Davidson we make every effort to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to patching. The modern operating systems we use the most, such as Windows, OS X, and Linux, are extremely complex so vulnerabilities are bound to crop up. Staying up to date on security patches, like staying up to date on virus scanning software, is an important way to ensure the integrity of your system.

The National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE, pronounced “nightly”) has been around since 2001. It was established as a non-profit organization with a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation with the stated purpose of promoting liberal education through innovation and collaboration among national liberal arts colleges.

In January 2006, NITLE was restructured under the larger umbrella of Ithaka, another non-profit organization whose mission is to help foster the acceptance of information technologies for the benefit of worldwide higher education. The “new” NITLE now encompasses and merges the formerly separate Mellon-funded regional technology centers: The Associated Colleges of the South Technology Center, based at Southwestern University; the Midwest Instructional Technology Center, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan; and the Center for Educational Technology, based in Middlebury, Vermont. Under this new NITLE management structure, the three regional technology centers will operate as a cohesive and coordinated entity to deliver the following programming to the 93 member national liberal arts colleges:

Professional development opportunities for faculty and staff.
Conferences, meetings, and seminars tailored around specific technology topics.
Collaborative curricular development such as Sunoikisis and Al-Musharaka. Under Sunoikisis, inter-institutional, collaborative, team-taught courses in Classics have been developed. A similar collaboration under Al_Musharaka is growing in studies related to the Arab and Islamic worlds.
The new NITLE is advised by five regional Advisory Councils. The councils are responsible for long-range strategic planning, advising NITLE on the issues that will face liberal arts colleges. Karen Goldstein, Davidson Vice President for Business and Finance, serves on the regional council for the south.

Each participating campus has a Liaison. My role as Davidson’s Liaison is to publicize, promote, and nominate Davidson faculty, staff, and students for NITLE opportunities. To this end, you will receive regular communication from me urging you to participate in NITLE’s wide array of opportunities. The nomination process is straight-forward; simply let me know which opportunity you are interested in. As you look at the next three months of opportunities by following the link below, keep in mind NITLE covers all expenses for travel, food, and accommodations.

http://www.nitle.org/index.php/nitle/opportunities

Mur Muchane