Thinking about Voice over IP? Some Points to Consider
04/27/2006
Voice-over-IP (or VoIP, pronounced “voyp”) technology is becoming popular in residences and enterprises around the world. You’ll want to know what VoIP is and understand some of its advantages and disadvantages.
Traditional telephone service employs an analog telephone connection between your home or business and the central office of your local telephone company. This continues to be the typical model for most residences and many small businesses. The Internet revolution has spurred many new technologies, making it possible to carry voice telephone calls over the same Internet connections you use to send e-mail or download a Web page.
VoIP can offer significant cost savings when compared to the long distance charges and monthly fees for traditional telephone service.
However, VoIP has limitations. Voice quality can suffer if the Internet connections among participants are slow or busy. In the event of a power outage, your telephone may not work at all. If you dial 911 during an emergency, the call may not be routed to the nearest 911 center, or the center may not be able to automatically pinpoint your location. Such limitations may not apply in managed environments. For instance, the Avaya campus PBX telephone service operated by Telecom Systems at MSU is controlled by the university and provides end-to-end quality of service, battery backup, and E911
At MSU, Telecommunication Systems supports telephone, voice mail, and other services. MSU units wishing to explore telephone service options should contact Telecommunication Systems, http://www.telecom.pp.msu.edu or 517-353-5515. Neither Telecom Systems nor the ACNS Help Desk can diagnose problems with commercial VoIP services. Users of commercial VoIP products should contact the service provider when they need assistance.
For more information, please see the computing knowledge base article number 7031, “Voice over IP (VoIP) Considerations for MSU Departments.”
– Rich Wiggins, wiggins@msu.edu
MSU Faculty Members Receive Instructional Technology Awards
04/27/2006
Five faculty members from across Michigan State University’s (MSU) campus received the 2006 SBC Faculty-Staff Awards in Instructional Technology, funded by a generous endowment gift by SBC. Recipients of this year’s awards are recognized for their outstanding contributions in the use and development of information technology for teaching and learning in credit-bearing courses at MSU. A first place cash award and honorable mention “best practice” certificates were presented in two categories—blended (hybrid) and fully online courses.
Online methods have become vital to advancing the effectiveness of instruction and student learning in higher education. MSU’s Libraries, Computing and Technology uses the SBC Instructional Technology Awards to recognize innovative faculty and staff who are making exemplary contributions to the art and science of online instruction,” said David Gift, MSU’s vice provost for libraries, computing and technology.
2006 SBC Awards
Blended Course Category
Blended (hybrid) or enhanced course awards are given for an in-person course offered in 2005-2006 in which online tools were used effectively to enhance teaching and learning.
First Place: Robert Stephenson
PSL 534/535: Cell Biology and Physiology II/II, Robert Stephenson
Innovative multidisciplinary content via 89 in person and indexed online lectures (in real time or fast forward), 18 virtual microscope labs (used in scheduled labs) and LON-CAPA problems.
Honorable Mentions: Gary Ferenchick and Cathleen McGreal
MED 608: Internal Medicine Clerkship, Gary Ferenchick
Just-in-Time Internal Medicine (JIT) handheld computers serve as bedside knowledge resource and online patient logs for students completing their internal medicine clerkship.
PSY 344: Developmental Psychology: Adolescence-Youth, Cathleen McGreal
Students appreciate the strategic mix of engaging in person class activities, externally developed online articles and study guides, open book online quizzes, and a team online assignment.
Fully Online Course Category
Fully online course awards are given for a course offered in 2005-2006, which meets wholly online and demonstrates effective and innovative uses of technology for teaching and learning.
First Place: John Gerlach
MT 830: Concepts in Molecular Biology, John Gerlach
Artful guidance contextualizes materials, enabling diverse learners to hypothesize outcomes as they explore videos, animations, and interactive exercises.
Honorable Mentions: Janice Siegford and Cathleen McGreal
ANS 805 : Animal Welfare Assessment, Janice Siegford
Multidisciplinary lectures by international experts prepare students to observe, compare and contrast animal welfare scenarios covering a broad range of social issues.
PSY 244: Child Development: Infant to Childhood, Cathleen McGreal
Brings course content to life using technology to integrate personal videos, breeze lectures, prenatal and postnatal parent interviews, live chat and polling and diverse assignments.
About SBC Instructional Technology Awards Program
MSU established the SBC Instructional Technology Awards program in the Spring of 2005, through a generous gift from SBC, a leader in voice, data, networking, e-business, directory publishing and advertising. The award program is administered by Libraries Computing & Technology. For more information visit sbcawards.msu.edu
WKAR Radio Interview Discusses Internet Rumors
04/15/2006
Morning Edition Co-Host Scott Pohl andMSU technologist Rich Wiggins discuss how rumors spread on the Internet, and some ideas for testing the validity of the latest news appearing in your e-mail inbox. Originally aired April 7, 2006.
You can listen to the interview over streaming audio; visit http://wkar.org/morningedition/story.php?storyid=905.
MSU Computer Store Hosts Annual Computing Fair
04/14/2006
The MSU Computer Store hosted its annual Computing Fair on March 23, 2006, at the International Center. 
This popular event, previously called Microfest, increases awareness of the many information technology (IT) products and services available to the University community. Campus IT staff along with event technology partners— Apple, Dell, IBM, Gateway, Hewlett Packard, Ruckus and Trager—showcased today’s most popular computers, printers, PDA’s, and more with demonstrations and information.
More than 35 people won MP3 players, Ruckus multimedia subscriptions, PDA’s, software and more. Next year’s event is tentatively scheduled for March 21, 2007, at the International Center.
“Michigan State University has exceptional IT resources available to students, faculty and staff in support of teaching and learning and the Computing Fair is an ideal place to learn about them,” said Scott Thomas, Academic Computing & Network Services client services divisional manager. Approximately 650 student, faculty and staff members attended this year’s fair—almost three times the number of people in previous years.
The Computing Fair is sponsored by the MSU Computer Store.
Pilot E-mail Service Removed
04/14/2006
On March 25th, 2003, Academic Computing and Network Services (ACNS) launched a new central electronic mail system, known as mail.msu.edu. This new system replaced the ten-year-old pilot.msu.edu system (Pilot) which officially ended one year later on March 23, 2004. Mail.msu.edu features anti-virus and anti-spam functions, a faster Webmail interface and increased storage. The elimination of pilot.msu.edu did not affect AFS storage, personal Web pages, MSU NetID, and passwords. Since the elimination of pilot.msu.edu, any mail sent to Pilot addresses such as johndoe@pilot.msu.edu has been automatically forwarded to mail.msu.edu—delivered as if sent to johndoe@msu.edu.
Change effective May 11, 2006: Messages to Pilot e-mail addresses will NOT be delivered
As of May 11, 2006, mail sent to Pilot addresses will bounce, with a notice sent back to the sender indicating the mail is undeliverable. On August 11, 2006, however, the pilot.msu.edu host name will be permanently removed from the Domain Name System. Once the MX record is removed from DNS, the specialized bounce message will be removed and mail sent to any address at pilot.msu.edu will be rejected.
We are taking these steps because a number of users have complained that mail to their old Pilot address is dominated by spam. Continued delivery of mail to @pilot.msu.edu addresses adds to the burden of managing unsolicited mail, it also adds significant processing load to mail.msu.edu servers. We believe eliminating Pilot will substantially reduce spam deliveries to MSU with minimal impact on the delivery of legitimate mail.
Check mailing lists
Mail.msu.edu will soon see its third anniversary of production. For several years, ACNS has encouraged members of the MSU community to use addresses that follow the johndoe@msu.edu format as opposed to johndoe@pilot.msu.edu. We encourage users to check their mailing list subscriptions (e.g. “Listserv”), and to communicate with their key correspondents to address e-mail as johndoe@msu.edu. For more information, read TechBase Articles 7049 and 7070 or contact the ACNS Help Desk at (517) 432-6200.
ANGEL Upgrade Planned
04/11/2006
Introduced at MSU during Summer 2003, the ANGEL course management system can be used to supplement traditional classes, for on-line courses and group activities. On May 11, 2006, the ANGEL course management system will be upgraded from version 6.2 to version 6.3.
Improvements
The basic look and feel of ANGEL 6.3 will be familiar to users. The most visible change is to the gradebook, which has been the most frequent source of enhancement requests. Gradebook management options are easier to understand and access with a revised user interface. Viewing class grades is complemented with the addition of a scroll bar. Choosing a gradebook display of score, percentage or 4.0 system can be done in the grade view screen, eliminating the need for navigating to multiple pages.
Additional gradebook enhancements include:
• Extra credit assignments and categories.
• Ability to produce PDFs in the gradebook.
• Ability to lock student grades while changing others.
• Linking different team assignments to one gradebook entry.
• A gradebook wizard.
Other navigational changes and enhancements include:
• My Page screen can display RSS Headlines and users can specify up to five RSS feeds of their choice.
• New calendar views as a grid display for day and week, and monthly calendar views for month and year. This provides visual clarity of calendar entries and allows for ease and readability of printed output. Also, entry details pop-up when the cursor is hovered over the listed entry.
• A new quiz question type: fill-in-multiple-blanks.
• My Page can display a Google search option.
One caution with the upgrade, if customized style sheets have been used in the past they should be updated to work with version 6.3. Faculty using customized style sheets that are not displaying properly can go to ANGELHelp and search for “style sheets” or use a default ANGEL style sheet until updates can be made.
Training available
To learn about new features of ANGEL 6.3 and any features which may have moved visit What’s New in Angel.
Faculty seminars are scheduled for May 9 and May 10. To enroll, click on Faculty Services on the LCTTP web site.
LCTTP will offer regular ANGEL 6.3 training sessions beginning in May. The schedule can be located by visiting train.msu.edu and clicking on the ANGEL link.
