Password Resource Added

To better help you understand the importance of passwords at Washington College, OIT has created a page devoted entirely to passwords. This new resource will help you determine how to make a strong password and how to keep your digital life secure. To learn more about passwords visit:

http://oit.washcoll.edu/password.php

Tax Refund Scam

Below is a copy of an email received on at least one email account at
Washington College. It is a scam that is probably designed to
fraudulently obtain your personal information to be used to steal your
identity.

Things to note:

1. "do-not-reply@irs.gov" is misspelled.

2. Did you provide the IRS with your email address? I did not.

3. The link provided does not go to WWW.IRS.GOV, but rather to a web site in Canada (sdsl.bell.ca is the domain). It is extremely unlikely that the IRS would use a web site in Canada, or any other country, to process its data.

Simple checks like these on many different scam emails will prevent one from being the prey of identity thieves.

Practice safe computing.

THIS IS THE SCAM EMAIL:

Subject: Tax Refund $109.30.
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 20:19:58 -0600
From: Internal Revenue Service U.S.A.
Reply-To:
To: undisclosed-recipients: ;

After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $109.30.

Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days in order to process it.

A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons. For example submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline.

To access the form for your tax refund, please click here :

http://mtlxpqak-1177865636.sdsl.bell.ca:84/irs/

Regards, Internal Revenue Service

© Copyright 2007, Internal Revenue Service U.S.A.

Nerds Beat Jocks!

The OIT cardboard boat team pulled out an impressive second place finish in Saturday's Carboard Boat Regatta on the Chester River. Nancy Cross, Brian Palmer and Nick Smerker raced their mighty "iFloat" against such tough competitors as "Greenpeas"(Center for the Environment & Society), the "Moldy Minta," "Leakey," and "Kickin' Some Grass" (The Athletics Department.)



While the geek team was bested by the speedy Greenpeas, they were afforded a special victory for geeks everywhere. Coming around the buoy and into the final leg of the race, the announcer was heard to say "...and it's I.T. ahead of the Athletics Department!" Never had the team members been so proud - or so surprised.



The Captain Cook Award is now proudly displayed in the Beck Instructional Lab for all to see.

(All photos taken by Shane Brill)

OIT Fields Cardboard Boat Team

Come out tomorrow to the Waterfront Festival to cheer for the OIT cardboard boat team. Team members Nancy Cross, Brian Palmer & Nick Smerker will attempt to coax their corrugated creation from the starting line to at least a few soggy yards away before swimming for sure. This promises to be a most entertaining event.

There will, of course, be other entertainment at the Waterfront Festival throughout the day. Visit the official website to learn more:

news.washcoll.edu/press_releases/2007/09/12_waterfrontfestival.php

Test of Emergency Speaker System

There will be a test of a new type of emergency (blue light) telephone system that has a built-in voice broadcast capability.  It is said to be quite loud.  The system will be mounted on a vehicle that will move around the campus to test how effectively it can be heard.

Please do not be alarmed by the loud test.  It is only a test.

OIT Home Further Streamlined

You may have noticed that we've recently streamlined our website even further. Starting this week, the OIT homepage is known as "Home" instead of "About OIT." We have removed all paragraphs of text from OIT Home and added a Search box to the page. This should serve to make OIT Home a more efficient starting place for finding information.

In support of this change, the "Who We Are" page has expanded to include the OIT mission and information on how to share your comments with us. Our goal with this change was to put all general information about our office in one place.

Digital Storytelling 101 Begins

Today marked the first session of my Digital Storytelling 101 workshop. It was a very small class today - just three of us - but I think that was okay for a first attempt anything. My 'students' seemed very eager to be there and were absolutely great as far as responding to questions and taking part in the storytelling practice exercise I had planned for them. Some examples of their work follow:

Allison Novak



Deb Marciano



Brian Palmer

The images above are each 1/5 of a ten minute photo essay I asked participants to create during the "Image Stories" portion of the workshop. Everyone grabbed a digital camera and found a story to tell about "now" in the Miller Library. Upon their return, the students presented their essays and narrated the story they had created.

I'm curious to see how Wednesday's workshop (which still has plenty of availability, so register now!) compares to today's. I'm also excited to read the feedback I receive as my assessment surveys are completed.

- Nick

"Clicker" Workshops Added

Instructional Technology has added a new workshop to our Fall training schedule: Turning Point "Clickers." We have schedule two sessions with Turning Technologies on September 27th. These sessions will allow you to learn directly from the makers of our new Turning Point devices. The sessions are two hours in length and take place from 9-11 am and 12:30 - 2:30 pm.

To learn more and register visit oit.washcoll.edu/trainingandtutorials.php

Intro To Photoshop Class This Week

Brian Palmer is running an Introduction to Photoshop class this week in the Beck Instructional Lab. Come take part in this hands-on workshop offered by Instructional Technology. To learn more and sign up, visit oit.washcoll.edu/trainingandtutorials.php

Audience Creates SimpleTEXT

Last night's SimpleTEXT performance, part of the Storytelling in the Digital Age venture of OIT and the Rose O'Neill Literary House, was an avant garde masterpiece of post modern deconstruction.



Creators Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Tim Redfern coaxed their masses of wires and computer hardware into producing a flourish of text, images and sounds that delighted an eager crowd.



Students, staff, faculty and community members brought their mobile phones and notebook computers and flooded the screens with their thoughts and inspired ideas. Text messages raced in at a rate of nearly one per quarter second during this second U.S. performance (of a show that has only been performed 16 times globally.)

To see more images from SimpleTEXT, visit the Rose O'Neill Literary House Facebook group.

To learn more about upcoming Storytelling in the Digital Age events, visit oit.washcoll.edu/storytelling.php

"Are You Ready For Football Season"

Email with the title "Are You Ready For Football Season" is unsolicited email (SPAM) designed to cause harm to your computer to steal your personal information.

Please be careful not to open unsolicited email,especially from someone who you do not know.

So much of it either directly puts software designed to control your computer or to steal personal information, or influences one to download a file that does.

To learn more visit oit.washcoll.edu/malware.php

SimpleTEXT is Tonight!

Multimedia artists, Family Filter present "SimpleTEXT: A Cell Phone Enabled Interactive Performance" tonight at 7:30 pm in the Casey Academic Center Forum. Bring your mobile phone or notebook computer to take part in the show. SimpleTEXT fuses art, music and literature to saturate its audience in a truly unique vision of where technology is taking us.

Tonight's performance is part of the Storytelling in the Digital Age, the joint venture of the Office of Information Technologies and the Rose O'Neill Literary House. This event is also sponsored by the Office of Student Activities. To learn more, visit:

oit.washcoll.edu/storytelling.php

The End of the World

Noah Robischon, Managing Editor of Gawker Media, gave a fascinating talk last night in Litrenta on the topic of digital tools and media and the way they shape our identity - as a culture and as individuals.

Noah’s lecture was sponsored by the Rose O’Neill Literary House in partnership with the Office of Information Technologies. The lecture was very well attended and very well received. The audience included students, faculty, staff and community members, all of whom had insightful (and tough) questions for Noah.

Following the presentation, the Lit. House invited the audience over for pizza and more informal conversation with Mr. Robischon himself. Discussion centered on the importance of storytelling in the new age of media and the opportunities that will be afforded to writers who are versed in the new tools available to everyone.

For more information on Storytelling in the Digital Age, visit oit.washcoll.edu/storytelling.php

Big Brother is Watching You

Emails with subjects like "Big Brother Is Watching You" or "Anonymity OnLine" are circulating.  The emails take one to a web site that pretends to be Tor software.  The link on that page points to a file called "tor.exe" that is designed to infect Windows computer with malware containing the "Storm Worm."

At this time the link shown in the email is just an IP address like:

76.28.88.97

Please do not fall for the fake web site.

For more information:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=493

2007 Learning Festival This Friday

The 2007 Learning Festival takes place this Friday, September 7th from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm with an Instructional Technology Faculty Reception from 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm. Join us in the Clifton M. Miller Library for technology demonstrations, guided tours and conversations with staff, faculty and students.

To learn more, visit oit.washcoll.edu/learningfestival.php. The 2007 Learning Festival is brought to you by Academic Resources, The Clifton M. Miller Library and The Office of Information Technologies.

Exciting Events This Week

This week kicks off the "Storytelling in the Digital Age" collaboration between OIT and the Rose O'Neill Literary House.

Join us tonight at 4:30 pm for the Rose O'Neill Literary House Open House. OIT will be on hand to give a tour of the new digital publishing lab and Lit. House staff will be available to give tours of recently-renovated facilities. Stop by for refreshments and conversation.

On Thursday, September 6th, Managing Editor of Gawker Media, Noah Robischon will be giving a talk entitled "The End of the World as We Know It." Listen with us as Noah explorers the social implications of disruptive, collaborative technologies. The talk begins at 7:30 pm in Litrenta.

To learn more about these events and more, visit oit.washcoll.edu/storytelling.php