February 27: Technology Day 2008



Mark your calendar for Wednesday, February 27, 11:30am - 4:30pm! This event is free and open to the public.

This year's theme is Building iCommunity: Toolsets for Today. Technology Day at UIS is an annual event that showcases innovative ways that faculty, staff and students are using technology. In addition to showcasing the uses of technology in education, the daylong activities will provide opportunities for networking and for exchanging knowledge and expertise related to technology and education. Prizes and refreshments will be provided.

We are pleased to have Ann Peterson Bishop, UIUC professor and community organizer. She will be presenting Building iCommunity: Technology Meets Civic Engagement.

The event schedule includes a variety of 35-minute presentation sessions as well as poster sessions. For more information, visit the Technology Day 2008 webpage.


Bridging Office 2007 & Office 2003

The UIS Technology Support Center has received calls from users about Office 2007. This latest version of Microsoft Office introduces several new features that enhance the functionality of the program. Many of the new features offered by Office 2007 require that documents are saved in a special format such as '.docx' and '.pptx'. Unfortunately, older versions of Office are not able to use these new formats. If you are not ready to upgrade to Office 2007, there is an option to stop those annoying compatibility errors.

Microsoft has released the Office Compatibility Pack to allow Office 2003 users to open, edit, and save files using the file format new to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007.

ITS recommends that all faculty, students, and staff that are not using Office 2007 download the Compatibility Pack for FREE.

Class Audio/Video Capture Service

A classroom capture system called Apreso is now available for use campus-wide. Apreso captures, manages, and publishes class lectures while integrating with existing teaching technologies.

Classroom capture allows you to record a lecture along with whatever is displayed on the computer screen, thus providing your students with a powerful tool for review, to further supplement material covered in class, or to provide instruction that is entirely web-based. Students are able to fast-forward, rewind, or skip to particular segments. The captures can be viewed via an Internet browser, through iTunes, or downloaded to an MP3 player. For more information, please visit the Class Capture webpage.


Technology Enhanced Classroom Prototype

ITS is hard at work equipping the few remaining classrooms on campus with state of the art equipment designed to enhance the integration of technology into the curriculum. The classrooms will be equipped with LCD TVs, wireless keyboards and mice, DVD/VHS combo players, and cable TV stations. We invite you to visit our technology enhanced classroom prototype in BRK 369 and share your feedback via an online survey. We have listened to the suggestions we have received to date and are now creating a second prototype classroom in PAC 3A.