Dr. Sirianni, VP/CIO Fordham U, On Top Three IT Priorities for 2015

Recently, CIO.com and the CIO Executive Council presented the perspectives of three leading CIOs regarding their top three priorities for 2015. Frank J Sirianni, Ph.D, Vice President and CIO at Fordham University, was one of the CIOs interviewed for the article. 

Here are Dr. Sirianni's (and Fordham IT's) top three priorities for 2015:

1. Full deployment of Fordham Connect, our CRM platform that has both critical business goals and significant change management goals for the enterprise.

2. Establishing a SaaS platform for our ERP suite, facilitating resource realignment and other goals.

3. Digital literacies:

• Enable us to be versatile users of digital tools and technology, to adapt, troubleshoot, hack.
• Promote digital citizenship. Broaden and deepen students' digital literacies to assist them in their current and future studies, and make them more competitive on the job market.
• Provide staff and resources to support faculty in staying current on the constantly changing/evolving demands and standards of digital literacies.

Transform Your Teaching: Use Twitter to Develop a Personal Learning Network (PLN)

By Kristen Treglia, Senior Instructional Technologist | @kris10_

Resources for creating a personal learning network using Twitter:

Wiki page with a copy of the slides and links to resources from the LearnIT   

Sites that support Two Factor Authentication

Faculty Training sponsored by the Faculty Technology Center 

Faculty Technology Center 

Many educators use Twitter to create a Personal Learning Network (PLN) that affords them fruitful collaborations and exchanges of resources with other teachers. In this session, participants learned best practices and strategies for developing your own PLN on Twitter. 

Educators with a robust, online PLN tap into support and resources on a scale that is not possible in traditional, face-to-face professional development opportunities. At the same time, teachers with an online-based PLN learn skills for using the network that they can share with their students, enabling them to take ownership of their own life-long learning process.

This session was recorded for viewing at a later date.

Follow @FordhamIT on Twitter, where we post news and service alerts. If you don't have a Twitter account, use the URL twitter.com/FordhamIT

Contact IT Customer Care with questions 718-817-3999 or HelpIT@fordham.edu

Augmented Reality: Possibilities and Resources for Teaching and Learning

Will augmented reality (AR) soon be coming to Fordham University?

I've followed the use of augmented reality in education since I first came across the intriguing mention of AR being used on smartphones in Sophia Li's Chronicle of Higher Education article, Augmented Reality' on Smartphones Brings Teaching Down to Earth. In 2010, AR was a technology that looked to be full of promise, but in practice still remained in the future. 

Recently, however, I've seen some exciting examples of AR being used in engaging ways for teaching and learning. To that end, in the wiki I created to curate content on the various tech trends discussed in the 2013 New Media Consortium Horizon Report, I added examples of AR in use both in the classroom and on campus.

For example, teachers use AR to create opportunities for differentiated instruction by linking content in a text to more detailed instruction via video by creating a customized trigger using the Aurasma app. Other instructors use AR apps to create overlays of historical data on top of existing geological features, as seem in the very intriguing Civil War Battle app.

During the LearnIT on AR I gave recently, I was excited to hear faculty and staff brainstorm ideas on possible uses at Fordham. Some imagined using it as a way to deliver on-demand training. Others envisioned it as an interactive guide to the layout of buildings on campus.

With news of Microsoft unveiling HoloLens, I think we're only just beginning to think of the possibilities this form of computing offers. Stay tuned!

Resources:

Kristen's bookmarks on Augemented Reality 

AR page on the Tech Trends in Education wiki 

Kristen's LearnIT:  Augmented Reality

Kristen Treglia is a Senior Instructional Technologist at Fordham University

Image: Creative Commons licensed | flickr photo by turkletom

Rain, Sleet, or Snow, the Lecture Must Go On! (Online, That Is): A Guide for Recording & Sharing Lectures

Class may be cancelled due to bad weather, but it’s easy to record your lecture and share it with your students to help make up the lost class time.

Lindsay Karp, Senior Instructional Technologist with Faculty Technology Services, has created a handy guide of resources for how to create audio and video files, and then share them with students.

Record an audio file

• Use your smartphone (with free apps for iPhone or Android) or on your personal computer using Audacity (PC/Mac). 

Insert an audio file into a PowerPoint file

• Record a separate audio file for each slide (recommended).
• On each PowerPoint slide, click on the Insert tab and select Insert Audio (from file) then navigate to the audio file for that slide.
• To publish a PowerPoint show, click Save As, name the file, and selectPowerPoint Show from the drop-down menu under the file name. 

Add a PowerPoint or other file to your Blackboard page

• Add an Item to Blackboard Quick guide  
• To add an item to Blackboard, click on Browse under the attachment item to upload your file.
• Please note: If you are posting to your course on Blackboard but haven’t used your course space yet this semester, you will need to make the course available in order for your students to access it.  
• For quick reference sheets on using Blackboard, click on the Faculty Resources tab in Blackboard or check out our Blackboard help page on our website, Fordham.edu/Blackboard.

Free software for capturing and sharing lectures

• Jing records a quick screencast (files are limited to 5 minutes recording time)
• Brainshark records a video (upload slides and audio is recorded via a phone)
• Educreations creates a short video using iPad.
• Use Windows Movie Maker or Apple’s iMovie to create a video and upload to your Fordham YouTube channel. Most computers have these applications installed.
• Please note: If you have not used the Fordham YouTube channel before, you will first need to enable it by signing the Google consumer apps agreement. To sign the agreement, you will need to be logged in with your Fordham Gmail address.

Tips for creating video

• Check out the links in this Audio/Video guide.

Visit Fordham's Faculty Technology Centers to consult on the best technology options for you. 

Keep in touch with Faculty Technology Services

• Rose Hill Faculty Technology Center - Keating B-27A | 718-817-2289
• Lincoln Center Faculty Technology Center - LL 416 | 212-636-7788
• FTC@fordham.edu
• @FordhamIT On Twitter, where we announce upcoming events sponsored by FTC as well as news and scheduled maintenance. Use the URL to see our Twitter page: https://twitter.com/FordhamIT
• Additionally, keep track of what’s going on at the FTC and Fordham IT with our calendar, located on our home page: Fordham.edu/IT

February Workshops Offered by Faculty Technology Services

Faculty Technology Services will offer the following workshops in Feburary.
For a full list of our technology workshops, please visit fordham.edu/techshops.

Blackboard Community Building

An overview of using the Discussion Board, Blogs, and Wikis in Blackboard.

• LC - Tuesday, February 10, 1 p.m., LL 309  RSVP Here
• RH - Thursday, February 12, 1 p.m., KE B-27A  RSVP Here

Teaching with Tech: Choosing the Right Tool

A review of free synchronous and asynchronous tools for screencasting, video conferenceing, presenting, video editing, polling, and more that are useful for teaching and learning. Of note: this presentation by Ms. Lindsay Karp went viral on SlideShare this past summer (story here).  

• RH - Tuesday, February 24, 1 p.m. KE B-27A  RSVP Here
• LC - Thursday, February 26, 1 p.m. LL 309  RSVP Here

We hope these are of interest to you.  
A calendar with all events sponsored by Fordham IT is located on our homepage, fordham.edu/it.

Anthem Data Security Breach Results in Phishing and Email Scams

Sample Phishing Email

Fordham University faculty, staff and students should be on the lookout for email and telephone scams that claim to be related to the recent security breach at Anthem, the University’s previous health and dental insurance provider. 

Anthem has stated that "All impacted members will receive notice via mail which will advise them of the protections being offered to them as well as any next steps." Assume that any email or phone call asking you to take action related to the Anthem breach is a scam. 

If you receive any phishing email or phone call that asks you to provide personal information or directs you to log into a website to protect or verify your account, do not respond. Instead, forward the message to IT Customer Care at HelpIT@fordham.edu

The image above is an example of a reported phishing email related to this scam. It is an example of a phishing email and was NOT send out by Anthem or Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

Remember, before you click on a live link in an email, place your cursor over it. If you cannot identify the source URL (i.e., http://fordham.edu), do not click on the link because it may take you to a malicious site.

Follow Fordham IT on Twitter for news and updates! @FordhamIT