DukeNet, our Internet connectivity provider, plans maintenance this Wednesday, February 4th at 6:00 a.m. We anticipate the resulting outage will be very brief--approximately five minutes. During this short window all external network connectivity will be unavailable, including VPN services.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Robert Lee by replying to this message.

Mid-February is the Sweetheart Season, and there are few things more appealing to any of us than the idea that we might have a secret admirer. But let's be honest with ourselves, shall we? Any secret admirer worth their foil-wrapped bonbons sends chocolate, flowers or champagne.

What they don't send, under any circumstances, is e-cards.

The cold and un-romantic fact of the matter is that faked e-cards are a common tactic for spamming, or worse, for giving your computer a dose of malware. So as the holiday rolls up, follow this one simple rule when it comes to heart-shaped emails: If you don't know who sent it, don't open it.

ITS will love you for it. Though we won't send chocolate.

How can you transform copyrighted materials for media literacy instruction? The Center for Social Media at American University has published a code of best practices in fair use for media literacy education that identifies five guiding principles about acceptable practices for fair use of copyrighted materials. The code of best practices was created by over 150 education leaders and reviewed by legal scholars and experts in copyright and fair use. Although the site does touch on the use of media materials as is, the document is meant to address media literacy instruction that is transformational and constructive - creating media messages to develop critical thinking and communication skills.

Social networking for academics! Take a look at academia.edu - a family tree of academics and a news feed for academic research, started by Richard Price at the University of Oxford. Instructional Technology created the initial Davidson College department space and invited a few interested parties to try it out. See who's there and what they've posted, then add your own research. If you happen to be a Facebook user, you can add a Facebook connect. Read more on the background and purpose of the site.