Two popular interactive series for faculty sponsored by Academic Technology Services continue this spring with events in February. UP Crossroads, a new speaker series, sparks conversations at the intersection of teaching and emerging technology. On Friday, February 10, theology scholar David Turnbloom will initiate a conversation about how technology can help give diversity its fullest expression in the classroom. Join the discussion, at 3 p.m., in the Digital Lab.
On Friday, February 17, English professor Lars Larson will be teasing out an interesting tension between ignorance and expertise in pedagogy in a conversation titled “The Professional Amateur as Scholarly Teacher.” Join the discussion, at 3 p.m., in the Digital Lab.
“Teaching with Technology” (TWT), a hands-on workshop series for faculty, offers several workshops this spring. Biology professor Katie O’Reilly will share a faculty perspective on media assignments on Thursday, February 9, at 1 p.m., in the Digital Lab. To RSVP use this link.
Also on February 9, learn how to use Voicethread for multimodal online discussions and feedback. Two sessions will be offered in the Digital Lab: 10-11 a.m., and 2-3 p.m. For a complete list of all upcoming TWT opportunities, use this link.
Are you setting goals for the new year? Why not resolve to protect your personal information and take ownership of your online presence? National Data Privacy Day aims to raise awareness and provide resources to help you do just that. This year’s themes include respecting privacy, safeguarding data and enabling trust. To learn about simple steps you can take to better protect your personal information, visit the 
As part of an ongoing effort to improve services, staff and faculty mailboxes will be migrated from on premise email servers to Office 365 cloud servers. The Advisory Council for Enterprise Services (ACES) approved the migration plan earlier this fall in anticipation of several key benefits including enhanced collaboration and security features. Information services staff have been preparing for the department by department roll-out which is expected to begin in late January. Several departments have also been identified for early adoption and will transition ahead of the spring semester. Help desk staff will reach out to department heads and administrative assistants to coordinate the schedule and provide details about what to expect throughout the process, which is very non-disruptive in nature. We look forward to providing enhanced email and collaboration services to staff and faculty.
The academic technology services office will present its first Teaching With Technology event of spring 2017 on Wednesday, January 11 and Thursday, January 12, in the Clark Library digital lab. “Moodle Bootcamp” take place both days from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Ben Kahn and Maria Erb will be on hand to facilitate professional development on the use of the Moodle LMS for teaching and learning. Faculty can drop in for an hour to brainstorm an idea or stay for the whole day to work on courses. Bring any materials, images, and resources you want to use. Topics such as course design, the 
It has already been a record breaking year for online holiday shopping based on Black Friday and Cyber Monday trends. December is sure to bring even more shoppers to websites across the internet. How can you tell if a shopping site is safe, if your wi-fi connection is secure, or if a mobile shopping app is a fake? What steps can you take to protect your private
October 2016 is the 13th annual National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM), according to Michelle Sunderland, information services. NCSAM emphasizes the shared responsibility of taking basic steps to make the Internet safer, more secure, and more trustworthy. To help raise awareness on the UP campus, information services has published several security reminders, educational resources, and timely news alerts. These resources are available online via the IS Security Newsletter. In addition, information services invites community members to take a brief online security awareness quiz. All participants will be entered for a chance to win a free tablet. For more details, please see the IS Security Newsletter at 
Office 2016 is generally available as a self-service update across all campus Windows PCs starting October 1, according to Ben Kahn, academic technology services. That means PC users who need to update to Office 2016 will see pop-up messages upon login with a prompt to update. Users have until fall break to complete the update. At that time IS will push an automated update to any remaining campus PCs.
Digital storage upgrades are continuing, according to information services. Department shares have successfully been moved to the new storage hardware. Up next for migration are all P drives (or Home drives). All P drives will move the morning of Tuesday, September 13. The new location is \\personal\username$. On Windows computers, once the files are moved to the new hardware, users will need to log off computers and log back on. On Mac computers, users will need to re-map P drives to the new location.
A new speaker series titled “UP Crossroads: Conversations at the Intersection of Teaching and Emerging Technology” debuts on Thursday, September 15, Eric Anctil, education. An entertaining and lively speaker, Anctil will engage the audience with a forward look at likely scenarios as robots, virtual reality, and cultural shifts collide to form a new terrain for learners. The conversation takes place at 3 p.m. in the Parberry Room on the second floor of the Clark Library. Light refreshments will be served.
Apple announced earlier this year that they would no longer support QuickTime for Windows PCs, according to Sheila Smith, information services. To prevent any potential security vulnerabilities associated with outdated QuickTime software, technical services is taking steps to automatically remove QuickTime from all UP managed Windows PCs. Automated removal will begin the evening of Thursday September 15. QuickTime for Mac will not be affected.