Information Technology for Research: The Impact of National Directions in Cyberinfrastructure (CI)

Below is an announcement from NJEdge.net, of which Rider is a part.

On April 4th, Rutgers University is sponsoring a cyberinfrastructure event with an open invitation to all NJEDge member institutions. This multi-campus, day-long symposium will expose faculty, researchers and staff to the emerging influence that cyberinfrastructure is having on institutions and the conduct of research. The event will be videoconferenced from three locations: Camden, New Brunswick and Newark. Please circulate this invitation to appropriate email lists at your institution.========================

The Vice-President for Research and Graduate and Professional Education and the Vice-President for Information Technology at Rutgers University invites you to a symposium entitled:

Information Technology for Research:
The Impact of National Directions in Cyberinfrastructure (CI)
April 4th 9AM - 4PM

Locations:
Camden: Camden Campus Center, Executive Meeting Room
Newark: Robeson Campus Center, Multipurpose Room East
New Brunswick: New Brunswick/Piscataway, Busch Campus Center, Multipurpose Room

This symposium will focus on providing a forum for faculty and staff to understand cyberinfrastructure and in what ways it will impact and enhance their research programs. This event will present funding agencies’ priorities as well as ongoing initiatives that address cyberinfrastructure technologies. It will also begin a dialogue on how the Rutgers research community and other NJEDge members can collaborate and respond to the challenges and promises of a cyberinfrastructure.

More detailed symposium information can be found at: http://internet2.rutgers.edu
Register at: https://oirt.rutgers.edu/registration/register.php?id=40406

podcast: CII Session: Hands On Blogs

This podcast [see links below] talks about using Blogs for instructional purposes.

Scheduled Bb Downtime at Rider

Hello, Blackboard Users,

We are currently using Blackboard version 6.1. Because of the benefits from features in newer versions of Blackboard, and because of a real need to upgrade to meet security challenges, we are upgrading. This upgrade will require some downtime. We suspect that a portion of the Lawrenceville Campus Spring Break is an ideal time for this downtime to occur.

We are proposing that Blackboard be down and unavailable from 8 am Wednesday, March 15th to Midnight Thursday, March 16th. Unless someone makes us aware that there is some reason why the server must stay up at this time, it will be down.

If the server should become available again sooner than our planned restart, we will let the Bb community know. I apologize in advance for any trouble this causes anyone. Please contact me directly at x7145 if there is some reason this downtime needs to be delayed.

If anyone has any questions or concerns about the upgrade, please let me know.

John LeMasney, Manager of Instructional Technology, Rider University.

****OIT Announcement - eAdvising Enhancements Available! ***

Date: Friday, March 10, 2006

Users Affected: Deans, Faculty and Academic Advisors

Services Affected:  eAdvising Resources
*************************************************

The eAdvising resource ‘Send Email to Students’ function has been enhanced to include the following:

• Grouping undergraduate students by class (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior)
• Grouping by Graduate majors and minors

Questions or comments should be directed to Sue Stefanick (X5066) or Theresa Hvisdock(X7370)

NewsForge | Docebo: An integrated learning management system

It lkooks like the competition for Blackboard in the Open Source area is increasing exponentially. Although this project seems to be run by people who have only the most basic english skills, evident by grammar and spelling errors throughout, the product itself looks very nice. Really, I’m just using this post to advertise the fantastic open source LMS named Moodle, available at http://moodle.org

NewsForge | Docebo: An integrated learning management system
The Docebo project combines a learning management system (LMS), content management system (CMS), and knowledge management system (KMS) in one suite, available under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The integration of these components into a single suite saves users a lot of time, and provides a clean and convenient single window interface. I found Docebo to be very capable, though it does have a few glitches.

About Alfresco

While web editors at Rider likely love the simplicity and straightforwardness of RedDot content management system, the creation of templates and much of the system administrative aspects are sometimes awkward, time consuming, and clunky. I’m always looking for something that is better than RedDot for the administrative side, but just as good or better for the end user side. I’m here to report that I have not found it. However, there are good things brewing in the open source world in the realm of Content Management. One of the developers for Documentum, a system we’ve looked at for content management but gave up on due to cost, has become a developer for an open source CMS called Alfresco, which looks like it will become a major contender in the CMS space in the near future.

About Alfresco
Alfresco brings a fresh approach to enterprise content management delivering convenience, scalability and very low cost through open source. The team at Alfresco has been working on content management for over fifteen years and has designed a new system for performance, modularity and ease of use. Using the open source model Alfresco makes enterprise content management affordable for many organizations and uses that weren’t possible before. By simplifying and modularizing the way content management works, the Alfresco system is much faster than many commercial content management systems.

The 7th Annual Faculty-to-Faculty Best Practices Showcase: Integrating Technology into Teaching and Learning

   The Educational Activities Task Force Presents The 7th Annual Faculty-to-Faculty Best Practices Showcase: Integrating Technology into Teaching and Learning

 

Friday, March 10, 2006  8:30 am - 3:30 pm

 

 

Online registration is now open (register here). The fee is $35 for NJ higher education and K-12 faculty and professional staff.

Start your participation in the 7th Annual Faculty–to–Faculty Showcase now.  The Best Practice Showcase Session on ‘Social Computing & Personal Broadcasting’ by Ken Ronkowitz of NJIT, will be using a blog and wiki. Please visit them and post comments and collaborate before the session.  Ken will be adding content each day from now until the showcase on 3/10. Even if you can’t attend this session, we would like to hear your thoughts on this experiment in social computing. 

The blog is at http://devel2.njit.edu/serendipity/ and you’ll find a link to the wiki and lots of other sites there too.

 

 

Throughout the day, New Jersey faculty will present on integrated uses of technology and new instructional methodologies in education. The featured keynote speaker Professor Jean Runyon will speak on Quality Matters: Inter-Institutional Quality Assurance in Online Learning (Keynote Presentation).

Faculty Showcase Details:  http://www.njedge.net/activities/facultyshowcase/2006/index.html

Program Schedule

NJEDge.Net and NJCU thank CISCO for its contribution to our program.