The infographic below shows Cisco’s predictions for the short range future of the internet based on data usage patterns. via The analysis of traffic types is the interesting part.  It looks like Asia-Pacific will be consuming world intellectual property without paying; Europeans will be talking to one another; Africa will be barely aware of it all; and North America will be watching video, playing games, and buying things. Sound about right? Maybe not.  Things do change, even in the short term.  Trends to police and tax data usage and online commerce can still succeed in curbing, if not ruining...

Help, not just anybody, Help, you know I need someone, Help! There really are two types of folks that use our services. The first group is those faculty trying to plan for doing something new, such as beginning to use Blackboard for the first time or introducing something like a polling technology into their classroom environment. The second group is those faculty who are doing something, new or old, and need some “Help!” How should those seekers after assistance contact us, to get their problems resolved as quickly as possible?  There really are a number of ways, depending on exactly what...

One of the great educational treats at holiday time is the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s holiday lecture series.  This year will mark the 18th annual presentation, titled “Viral Outbreak: The Science of Emerging Disease.”  There will be four lectures, two each delivered by Dr. Joseph L. DeRisi and Dr. Eva Harris: “Infectious diseases are a serious threat to world health. They are particularly devastating in tropical countries where infectious agents thrive and where healthcare resources are stretched thin. The warming trend in the global climate, coupled with increased...

While the Blackboard On Demand Training Center has quite a number of excellent training videos (if you skip the silly ‘You do it’ parts), it does not have one on creating what used to be called an “external link,” and is now called a URL link.  I suppose they thought it was just too elementary.  On the other hand, we have had a number of instructors create these links and then complain that their behavior is undesirable because they throw up a red “error” message (really just a security warning) at the top of the Blackboard screen about leaving the Blackboard...

As many of our faculty members are aware, we are migrating from Blackboard version 8, which will be in use through the fall semester, to Blackboard 9.1, which is even now live for faculty members, and will be live for students starting spring semester, 2011.  Blackboard 9.1 will run on an entirely new hardware platform set up by our IS department, while Blackboard 8 will continue on the old hardware platform.  Since these are two completely disconnected systems, it will not be possible to use the course copy tool to simply copy fall semester (or earlier) courses from the version 8 to the version 9...