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April 6, 2005
Issue No. 68

Table of Contents

• Computing News
  • Software Licensing News
    
  • ATL Helps Faculty and TAs
    
  • CTL Workshops and More
    
  • Recent ATS Projects
    
  • New Wide Format Printer
    
  • Kronos Upgrade
    
  • Online Computer Training
    
  • STARS-Training Registration
    
  • Bookstore Computer Store
    
  • Stanford Joins Calconnect
    

The Software Licensing office, in partnership with Procurement's CWA (Campus Wide Agreement) team, negotiated a new contract with Macromedia, completed just before the winter holiday break.

Why a New Contract?

A wide variety of Macromedia products (e.g., Dreamweaver, Flash) have always been available at great prices through the CWA program. So why did Software Licensing negotiate a new contract?

• Even better prices: Due to the high sales volume, and the way Software Licensing makes its purchases, we were able to get even lower prices than previously available on some products.
• Upgrades are included: Purchase prices on most products include a subscription that allows upgrades until February of 2007. At that time, software users may renew their subscription for another two years to keep their software current.
• Students are included: Studio MX 2004 is now available for students to purchase for their personal use.

What Products Are Available?

The following products are in stock in the Software Licensing Office:

• Captivate
• ColdFusion MX Server
• ColdFusion MX Standard 6.1
• Contribute 3.0
• Director MX 2004
• Dreamweaver MX 2004
• Fireworks MX 2004
• Flash MX 2004
• Flash MX 2004 Pro
• Flash Paper 2
• Flash Communication Server, Personal Edition
• Freehand MX Mac
• Freehand MX Win
• Studio MX 2004
• Studio MX 2004 with Flash Pro
• Web Publishing System

Other Macromedia products may be special ordered through the Software Licensing office.

How Do I Order?

See the Macromedia Product Information page at:

http://www.stanford.edu/services/softwarelic/product_macromedia.html

Use the link to the order form to place your order. You may purchase a CD to keep, or borrow one for your install.

For More Information

For more information about the Software Licensing group, including a list of all available software, order forms, and links to other places to get software, see their web site at:

http://softwarelicensing.stanford.edu/

To reach the Software Licensing staff directly, send email to software@stanford.edu or call 724-2424. They are located in the Bambi Modular, 320 Panama Street.

The Academic Technology Lab (ATL), located in Meyer Library room 181, is a resource center for faculty and TA's interested in integrating technology into their teaching.

Faculty also receive assistance integrating technology tools into their courses. ATL staff provide consultations for web-based forums and Stanford's online course management system, CourseWork.

New Software

The ATL has recently upgraded software. They now have iLife '05 for those faculty and TAs interested in user-friendly applications for digital video editing, image capture, and audio creation. iLife '05 includes iPhoto 5, iMovie HD, iDVD 5, GarageBand 2 and iTunes4.7. To accommodate demands for higher end digital video editing and DVD creation needs, the ATL has installed the Apple Production Suite, which includes Final Cut Pro HD, DVD Studio Pro 3 and Apple Motion. The Lab has also updated their digital audio editing software to include SoundSoap 2, which provides high-quality noise reduction with an easy-to-use one-click audio cleaning interface. New features for version 2 are Remove Click & Crackle and Enhance.

New Hardware

In addition to the software upgrades, the ATL now also has a Lacie 16x d2 External Firewire and USB Dual Layer DVD Burner, which saves you time when writing large numbers of discs. It writes a full DVD+/-R disc in under 5 minutes, a full DVD+/-RW disc in about 15 minutes and a full DVD+R9 disc in about 30 minutes. The drive supports DVD+R DL dual layered media, which has a capacity of 8.5GB per disc.

Faculty Projects and Consultations

For more information about the projects that faculty have completed in the Academic Technology Lab, please see:

http://academiccomputing.stanford.edu/atl/showcase.html

Faculty and TAs can request a consultation with ATL staff by sending email to acomp-consult@lists.stanford.edu. Please include a brief description of your project with days and times you're available for a consultation.

For More Information

The Academic Technology Lab's hours are Monday through Friday from 1:00-5:00 p.m. For more information about the ATL, visit the Academic Technology Lab Web site or contact them at 725-5522.

This spring, the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) offers workshops for faculty and graduate students on teaching with technology and more.

Faculty Workshops

CTL's faculty workshops include:

• Engaging Large Classes, Tuesday, April 12, noon-1:30 p.m.
• Getting the Most Out of Your Course Website, Friday, April 1, noon-1:30 p.m.
• Blogs, Wikis, and Forums, Tuesday, May 24, noon-1:30 p.m.

All faculty workshops require pre-registration. For registration details and more information, check the web at:

http://ctl.stanford.edu/

Graduate Student Workshops

Graduate students may find Getting Your Teaching Portfolio Online: A Hands-On Workshop useful, as well as the preceding three-part workshop series on building teaching portfolios that starts in mid-April. For details, see the web at:

http://ctl.stanford.edu/

Individual Consultations

Beyond workshops, the Center for Teaching and Learning offers individual consultations on the pedagogical aspects of technology, and access to external and home-grown technology enhancements for teaching. To learn more, please contact Jeremy Sabol (Academic Technology Specialist, 725-4164, jsabol@stanford.edu) or Marcelo Clerici-Arias (Associate Director for Social Sciences and Technology, 725-0127, marcelo@stanford.edu).

The Academic Technology Specialist program works with faculty, lecturers, and researchers within Stanford's departments, programs, and schools to advance the application of software and information technology in teaching and research.

Recent Academic Technology Specialist (ATS) projects include an introductory course on online communities and ethnographic practice taught by Claudia Engel, ATS for Anthropological Sciences and Cultural and Social Anthropology; and Nicole Coleman's (the ATS for the Stanford Humanities Lab) Winter Quarter launch of the Humanities Archive Lab and preparation of social software that will support the Humanities Center's Research workshops program.

Anthropological Sciences and Cultural and Social Anthropology

Claudia Engel, ATS for Anthropological Sciences and Cultural and Social Anthropology, taught an introductory course on online communities and ethnographic practice in the High Performance Learning Space in Wallenberg Hall.

A project-oriented course, it strived to introduce students from all interested disciplines to the experience of ethnographic research in virtual environments, and to familiarize them with methods, tools, and the challenges of interdisciplinary scholarship in online communities.

New approaches and frameworks towards a critical theory of information technologies are being proposed, but the intersection and interactions between virtual/real, online/offline, and remote/face-to-face still need clarification. Also in question is whether these commonly-used dimensions are adequate.

The Wallenberg Hall classroom provided the unique opportunity to cross virtual and physical boundaries of space. Connecting through their individual laptops students went on a virtual fieldtrip in a 3D online environment during one of the class sessions. The simultaneous physical and virtual presence allowed the interaction with other users of the virtual space and with one another on a virtual level, as well as instant debriefing face-to-face within the group.

The class met "online" once a week, thus providing students with an immediate experience in virtual communities. The course also made extensive use of CourseForum, an online discussion tool available in CourseWork.

Claudia has been collaborating in the design, development, and teaching of various courses in the past, with the objective of exploring alternative approaches to teaching and learning anthropology in different content areas. After assisting John Rick (Models and Imaging in Archaeological Computing) and Joanna Mountain (Genetic Structure of Populations), both faculty at Anthropological Sciences, and co-teaching Introduction to Cultural Studies with Paulla Ebron, Faculty at Cultural and Social Anthropology, this was her fourth experience in Wallenberg Hall's High Performance Learning Spaces.

Building on these experiences, Claudia's next goal is to replicate a similar environment outside Wallenberg Hall. This includes analyzing the activities performed in and around the courses to determine critical components of the supporting technology for the learning process, and to decide how these components can be transferred to other spaces.

Stanford Humanities Lab

Nicole Coleman, ATS for the Stanford Humanities Lab, has focused on two projects recently: the launch of the Humanities Archive Lab and the preparation of social software that will support the Humanities Center's Research Workshops program.

Both of these projects are designed to make authoring and publishing information to the web easy for the Research Workshop coordinators.

The Humanities Archive Lab (HAL) is a computing lab designed to facilitate digital authoring and the digital conversion of materials generated by Research Workshop program coordinators. In addition to the equipment that remains in the lab, there are kits that workshop coordinators can check out for content capture: audio capture kits, which include an iPod, microphone and a small digital camera; and laptop kits which come with a small video camera. With these tools, coordinators can record talks in either audio or video format and then return to HAL to edit the material (or not) and prepare it for streaming.

The next step is to post the newly created content to the web. Nicole is using an open source content management system to allow the coordinators to upload and manage their content through a web browser. Some of the workshops have excellent web sites already where they post their schedules and distribute workshop papers. The content management system will make this easy for coordinators who lack the necessary web site development skills. The also becomes a single point of entry to all of the Research Workshop activities. The hope is that it will be a place for a larger research network to grow online.

For More Information

For more information about the Academic Technology Specialist Program see:

http://academiccomputing.stanford.edu/atsp/

Wide-Format Plotter
with Output Example
(Memorial Church Photo)

Meyer Library now has an Epson 9600 wide-format printer (also known as a plotter).

Patrons can use the printer, which is located on the second floor, to print up to 4 feet by 6 feet at a flat rate of $45 per print. Two image/graphics-oriented PCs are available to patrons for editing and printing. Sample prints to demonstrate quality and information to consider prior to printing is on display on the second floor. You must have a valid Stanford ID and funds available in your print account to use this service.

To find out more about the technology services at Meyer Library, see New Technology Services at Meyer Library in the winter issue of Speaking of Computers.        

This summer, Stanford's time and leave system of record, Kronos, will be upgraded from version 3.4 to version 5. The planned implementation date for the upgraded system is July 1, 2005.

Current Kronos users will notice an improved web-based user interface and enhanced reporting capabilities. (Note: Faculty do not use Kronos.) The new version will also enable the tracking of hourly employees with multiple jobs. With these new features, departments may decide to expand the number of employees who directly input their time and leave into the online timesheet, eliminating some manual and paper-based processes. There is no change to the time clocks that some departments use for tracking staff hours worked.

Communication and training will occur at the end of this quarter and the beginning of summer quarter. For more information, see the Kronos Upgrade site at:

http://kronos5.stanford.edu/

In September 2004, ITSS introduced TechPort to help meet the Stanford community's ever increasing appetite for online computer-related training. Since then, over 600 faculty, students, and staff have taken advantage of access to the more than 1,000 quality, self-paced, online courses at all skill levels.

TechPort is available 24/7 from any Windows-based computer and requires a SUNet ID. You can try out a sample course unit and browse through the list of course titles before registering. For only $125, less than the cost of a single hands-on course, you'll get six months of access (to August 31, 2005) to all available courses. You can use STAP, Hospital tuition assistance, or department funds.

To get more information, or to use TechPort, go to:

http://techport.stanford.edu/

A new online training and registration system for employees and others is being implemented this spring and summer. The system is called STARS- the Stanford Training and Registration System, and will provide a centralized training enrollment, tracking, and reporting system for compliance training, as well as other types of training.

STARS will be available via the Axess portal to those with a SUNet ID:

https://axess.stanford.edu/

Training classes for employees and others working or conducting research on campus are provided by more than 15 schools and departments. Topics range from new employee orientation and career development courses, to desktop computing and administrative applications, to a host of health and safety training.

To learn more about STARS and the dates when it will be available for enrolling in classes, visit the project site at:

http://stars.stanford.edu/

As Spring Quarter begins, whether you're a new student or just returning to Stanford for the new school year, be sure to drop by the Stanford Bookstore Computer Store. Stanford students, staff, faculty, and departments can purchase computer products and software at discounted prices. The Computer Store is also a great place to find ideas for gifts.

Products

The Computer Store carries a variety of items that you may want to consider:

• Hardware from Apple, IBM, Dell plus a host of other computer-related products from major manufacturers. To receive the best pricing, new and returning students are encouraged to make their purchases at the bookstore.
• Software at academic pricing for Macintosh and Windows-based systems from vendors such as Apple, Adobe, Borland, Macromedia, Microsoft, and Symantec.
• Peripherals and supplies such as Palm handheld devices, mobile phones, ink and toner cartridges,cables and laptop accessories.

Other Services

In need of computer repairs or memory upgrades? No problem, the Stanford Bookstore Computer Store Computer Service Center repairs Apple computers, in or out of warranty. The Computer Service Center can also facilitate non-warranty PC repairs. In addition, the Computer Service Center stocks memory modules to upgrade computer systems and offers on-campus pickup and delivery at no charge for Stanford departments. Other customers are welcome to use the drop-off window , which is located on the main level of the Bookstore. The Computer Service Center is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. For details, contact the Bookstore at 725-6136, extension 338.

How to Purchase

When purchasing a computer system, software or supplies through the Computer Store, individuals may pay with cash, check, or credit card. Eligibility requirements vary depending on the purchase. Please contact the Computer Store for eligibility requirements. Campus departments must use an online Standard Purchase Requisition form, which should be forwarded to Procurement. Departmental orders totaling less than $1500 can be purchased with a Stanford Purchasing Card (VISA/MasterCard) or Rapid Purchase Order (RPO), which can be faxed (325-3476), or brought into the store and used like cash.

For More Information

To learn more about the Stanford Bookstore Computer Store, drop by the Bookstore, located in White Plaza or call (650) 725-6116 (or 800-533-2670). Visit the Computer Store Web page to see available hardware, software and peripherals:

http://www.stanfordbookstore.com/

The Stanford Bookstore Computer Store

Monday - Thursday 8:00am-8:00pm

 

Friday 8:00am - 7:00pm

 

Saturday 9:00am - 6:00pm

 

Sunday 11:00am - 6:00pm

Stanford University has joined Calconnect, a Consortium to promote Calendaring and Scheduling.

Calconnect will hold joint meetings annually and Stanford will participate in these around general topics as well as contribute to subgroups working on specific technical topics of relevance to enterprise calendaring.

Consortium Members

Members of the Consortium include representatives from universities, commercial software vendors, research centers, and open-source foundations. Current members are:

• University of Washington
• University of Wisconsin
• Stanford University
• Duke University
• UC Berkeley
• JPL/NASA/CALTECH
• M.I.T.
• OSAF
• Mozilla Foundation
• EVDB Inc.
• Isamet, Inc.
• Meeting Maker, Inc.
• Novell
• Oracle Corporation
• Symbian Ltd.
• Yahoo!

Consortium Goals

Provide interoperability testing and conformance: The Consortium will host Round Table discussions and interoperability testing events two to three times per year at host member locations or public locations. These events offer an opportunity for members and non-members to evaluate their products and applications against Calendaring and Scheduling standards for conformity to the standards, and for interoperability between products.

Promote the general awareness of interoperable Calendaring and Scheduling: Planned methods to promote general awareness include:

• Press releases
• Focus in media publications
• Trade shows
• Editorials and op ed pieces, articles and white papers
• Speaking opportunities at conferences and symposia
• Publicity events and releases concerning Interoperability events

Promote design and implementation of Calendaring and Scheduling standards: In addition to providing a vehicle for demonstrating that Calendaring and Scheduling products, applications and tools correctly implement the relevant standards, the Consortium intends to promote further work on Calendaring and Scheduling standards as appropriate.

Promote collaboration among members: The Consortium provides a vehicle for assisting and promoting collaboration among its members in the area of Calendaring and Scheduling. Major areas where such collaboration is expected to be useful are the implementation of Technical Committee work to further Calendaring and Scheduling technologies and standards.

Promote the common goals of members: The Consortium will establish a member forum devoted to establishing and promoting the common goals of members. In particular the Consortium will establish common "messages" of the members as a basis for promotional materials and publicity on Calendaring and Scheduling.

For More Information

For more information about Calconnect please visit the web site at:

http://www.calconnect.org/