DETAG Link - Division of Student Affairs

The current issue of "DETAG Link" is now available at:
http://www.ncsu.edu/student_affairs/detag/detaglink/

The web site for the search for the Vice Chancellor for Information Technology (Chief Information Officer) has been established.

http://www.ncsu.edu/admin-searches/cio/

Tuesday, September 25 is yet another Student Affairs "Clean Your Computer Day" for our Division. It's that time of year when you should clean both the inside and outside of your computer.

Cleaning the inside is all about deleting old files and emails that you don't need, and reorganizing the ones you keep. This will help your computer run more efficiently, make you more efficient as you work with files that are more organized, and also reduce your ETSS bill. Important tip: Don't wait until the 26th do start cleaning up old files and emails. Get a jump on things and start that process today! ETSS is likely to take a billing snapshot the first week of October, so you want to get this part done by then.

Cleaning the outside is all about getting the dust and grime off your computer, mouse, keyboard, screen and cables. While your at it, why not give your whole desk a good cleaning too!

More information about how to do this can be found at:
http://www.ncsu.edu/student_affairs/dets/tech/cleaning/

Check with your LANTech for more information.

DETAG has produced five podcasts, with several more on tap for the coming year. I finally figured out how hto get them loaded into Wolfcast so that a user can now subscribe to the enter "Students First Podcast" series.

Here is the link to subscribe: http://wolfcast.ncsu.edu/Student_Affairs/

For those who care about the technical details: When using the Wolfcast upload feature, I would get an error stating that I needed to upload an mp3 file...which is exactly what I was uploading! Me thinks it might have have instead seen it as a RealMedia file since that was the icon, but the file extension was .mp3, not .rm. But it worked fine when I uploaded from a Mac!

And yes, subscribable is a word.

DETAG will explore Twitter this year. I've set up an account in DETAG's name, and that account will be available for folks to "follow" and "be followed" throughout the year.

DETAG members (and others) can create a Twitter account (it's free) then follow DETAG and others.

Check it out at: http://twitter.com/detag 

Using only a photograph a couple of German software engineers are able to reconstruct an entirely working 3D model of a person's head. Click here [wired.com] to watch. Who needs actors, anyway?

Using the same 'multi-touch' technology popularized by the iPhone, Microsoft engineers have been developing what they call 'surface computing.' This video [popularmechanics.com] shows off what features your coffee table's been missing.

DETAG had its first meeting of the year and minutes are now online. We have three new members who were introduced to the group, and everyone had a chance to talk about their subcommittee choices. I think it will be a great group and a great year!

Use the Way Back Machine to see archived versions of old websites. In addition to being fun, this can be a useful tool if you forgot to make a copy of an website before redesign.

Welcome to DETAG Link! This blog is where we will post information relating to our group's activities, which will be another way to keep the Division of Student Affairs up to speed on all things relating to technology and distance education. Bookmark this page, because we will use this blog quite a bit this year.

The new year is underway, and DETAG is gearing up as well. We say farewell and thanks to several long-time members. Peggy Dominque (Physical Education) and Jennifer Bell (Campus Activities) were part of the inaguaral DETAG group in 2002; John Williams (Gregg Museum of Art & Design) joined us in 2005. We thank all three of you for your enthusiasm, time and commitment to this group and its activities. We hope you will continue to support our activities, and if nothing else, subscribe to this blog to keep up!

We say a hearty hello to three new members: Debbie Williamson (Physical Education), Kimberly Zugay (Campus Activities) and Nancy Breeding (Thompson Theatre). Welcome to all of you. We hope you find our group to be inspiring, educational and fun!

We will schedule our first meeting soon. In the meantime, here are some initial items we ask that you review.

1. Review the DETAG roster to familiarize yourself with our group. You can also see minutes and materials from last year's meetings.

2. Update your GroupWise calendar ASAP so that we can schedule meetings for this fall.

3. Review our current ETF materials; reviewing ETF proposals will be one of our first activities.

4. Subscribe to this blog. If that is a foreign concept to you, no worries. We'll show you how to do it at our first meeting. If you are feeling adventuresome, read a bit more about RSS and maybe you can figure it out before the meeting.

5. Register to use WolfBlogs. This will enable you to post to this blog, and even create your own blogs should you want to do that. Once I've seen that you are in the system, I'll add you as an "author" to this blog. More on that later.

6. Check out the Blogroll on the right side of this page. It contains links to other blogs of interest. If you have suggestions of blogs to add, just shoot Leslie an email with the information.

That is all for now. We hope the start of the semester has been smooth for you, and look forward to us all gathering in September.

Thanks,
Eddie Lovett (Chair, DETAG)
Leslie Dare (Director, DETS)

<a href="http://technorati.com/claim/xbqmdf9vww" rel="me">Technorati Profile</a>

...and you should care (OK, maybe not care like I do, but at least be aware) for two reasons:

1. Our students will have these devices (despite the high sticker price) and will be "plugged in" (and maybe "tuned out") more than ever.

2. This device represents a very significant advancement in mobile devices. It has everything except the kitchen sink, and competitors are scrambling to catch up. It calls into question all the predictions about mobile computing and what wins out...laptops? PDAs? Cell phones? This device really has the tech prognosticators wondering how things will proceed from this point.

iPhones go on sale Friday (and yes, people are camped out already all over the country). Keep your eyes peeled and I'm sure you will see students, parents and others using this device soon.

---

More Detail for Those Who Care

What is the iPhone? It is a mobile (cell) phone made by Apple Computer. In addition to its phone capability (exclusively through AT&T at this time), it has built in a data plan, meaning you can always connect to the internet whenever you have phone coverage.

But that's not all. It has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It has a 2.0 Megapixel camera. It is also a Video iPod. It has a built-in YouTube player. It has a built-in Maps application that works with Google Maps and lets you see maps and satellite images (just enter in "Starbucks" and it will show you all the locations available in the city you chose; then it gives you directions and contact information). The built-in email application can show HTML emails and lets you fully view Word, Excel and PDFs and other attachments as well as graphics. The built-in web browser lets you view any web page, and a simple touch of the screen zooms in on that section. It holds your contacts and calendar information.

All of this is beautifully packaged in a device smaller than Treos and Blackberrys, and with a fabulous glass touch screen. The device has sensors that know when you've turned it sideways and changes your screen layout from portrait to landscape. A fabulous headset has a little button that you "pinch" to answer calls or send them to voicemail. It has a huge battery life. You sync your phone to your Mac or PC through iTunes, which means you will get software updates on a regular basis.

And the list goes on.  There are limitations: you can't edit those Word, Excel or PDF documents. You can't record video. AT&T has perennially rated very low for network coverage. The on-screen keyboard requires some practice to use. It doesn't have a card slot.

See the official Apple iPhone website:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/

See a summary and listing of reviews:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/26/first-apple-iphone-reviews-trickle-out/

[And no, I don't plan to get one...yet. I have another year on my current cell plan, and I love my Palm Treo. But if the next version(s) continue to add functionality, I may very well switch next year.]

This is the place to find information from the Distance Education/Technology Advisory Group (DETAG) for Student Affairs. Our members will post important news, interesting tidbits and items of interest on the technology and distance education fronts. Be sure to add this blog to your RSS Reader!

The ever-popular Wikipedia has taken a lot of heat for its use by students as source material.

Enter Citizendium, which bills itself as a "citizens' compendium of everything" and was started by the Wikipedia folks.

The difference? Citizendium requires contributors to provide a name and credentials, unlike Wikipedia, which accepts anonymous contributions.

Tiny URL is a service that lets you create a really short web address that will point to really long web address. It's a free service.