The IT Horizons series promotes best practices and serves as a forum for Tulane University technology staff and others to share new information and professional development experiences.   If you would like to present on a topic, please let us know.

Upcoming IT Horizons presentations:

Thursday, December 13, 10am @ Howard-Tilton Library, Room 308
Digital Map Making for the Cartographically Impaired - David Robinson (MFA Candidate, Digital Media, Art Dept.) In recent years, tools have become readily available to create powerful maps on the Internet which make use of your own research data without the need to understand complex…or own expensive… geographic software packages. We will discuss several educational examples of Internet maps which use the Google Maps or Yahoo Maps APIs as well as look under the hood at how you can map your own data or create an interactive mapping unit for your classroom.

If you would like to present on a topic contact Derek Toten.

eBooks: Promise and Reality - Clay McGovern  (Instructional Technologist, Innovative Learning Center) eBooks have been around for several years and every couple of years the technology is hyped as being ready for mass consumption. We'll take a look at the current eBook landscape. I'll demo several hardware solutions, including the Sony PRS-500 Reader System and alternative devices like cell phones and the PlayStation Portable. I'll demonstrate how to use BookDesigner to convert among formats and other software tools. We'll talk about sources for eBooks like the Gutenberg Project. We'll also take a look at newly announced technology, including Amazon's Kindle eBook reader, Adobe's new Digital Editions format, and color eInk devices that were shown at SIGGRAPH this summer.

» Clay's blog entry on ebooks

Various Conference Summaries - Ariana French (Instructional Technology Specialist, Innovative Learning Center) Ariana will discuss her experiences at the Rich Media Conference and the National Association of Broadcasters Expo, as well as the Open Courseware Consortium Conference she attended in spring of 2007. Product highlights, tech tips, and the latest in open courseware

Introduction to the Luna Image Database System - Kate Stepp (Newcomb Art Department, Visual Resources Curator) The Newcomb Art Department has recently adopted the Luna Image Database System to manage their digital art collection. Kate will present an introduction of the various components of the system, including a demonstration of the development and creation software (Studio and Enscribe) as well as the end-user interface component (Insight).

Digital Encyclopedism: How We Index Digital Knowledge - Mike Griffith How do the vast stores of information we encounter daily change our understanding of knowledge? What effects does the digitization of information have on our relationship with our world and culture? How does the virtual become a commodity? These questions are essential not only to the future of technology but also to the development of our everyday culture. This presentation will be an exploration of these themes at their points of intersection with such institutions as file sharing, online gaming, social networking, wikis, and the Internet at large. We will start with the roots of digital theory and move forward to some contemporary analysis of our current digital age.

Configuring Blog CFC - Clay McGovern discusses the ILC’s adoption of BlogCFC, an open source blogging application.  Clay explores BlogCFC features and demonstrate the ways in which he has customized the software for Tulane’s use

Web 2.0 and Social Networking - Marie Carianna & Derek Toten: Highlights from the NMC (New Media Consortium) Fall 2007 Regional Conference

SIGUCCS (Special Interest Group on University and College Computing Services) Fall 2007 Conference - Adam Krob

SIGGRAPH 2006 Conference Summary - Clay McGovern

New Horizons Traning for CISSP (Certified Information Systems Secrity Professionals) - Hudson Oliver

User Experience Week - Overview - Ariana French