OnTechNews, published monthly, seeks to inform UW faculty, staff, and students about new and interesting technology to use in teaching, learning, work, and life.
A new Web application called WebAnywhere enables blind people to access
the Web on any Web-enabled computer with a sound card. WebAnywhere was
developed by UW computer science graduate student Jeffrey Bigham, and more
information, including a video illustrating its use, is online.
How can we bring high-tech biomedical diagnostic methods to the developing
world? Dr. Paul Yager, UW Bioengineering Professor and Acting Chair,
explains how in this UWTV video lecture about microfluidics. This new
technology for manipulating small volumes of fluids is enabling the
development of a small, portable, inexpensive system for detecting
pathogens far from the central lab. It could soon impact global health.
Looking for the latest news? Read all about it in Access World News from
NewsBank, with extensive full-text coverage of most U.S. newspapers. This
UW-restricted database also offers over a thousand international news
sources (translated into English) from scores of countries on six
continents, and an intuitive, map-based interface.
The Computer Vet is a free, help-desk service offered to UW students,
faculty, and staff to assist with computing problems such as operating
system updates, anti-virus installation and updates, and infected
computers blocked from UW network access. As of summer 2008, Computer Vet
help includes the removal of many types of peer-to-peer (P2P) software.
Two new Catalyst tools, CommonView and GradeBook, make it easy for you to
create an online course workspace, and track and manage student grades.
Collaborate with co-instructors and teaching assistants, and provide your
students with secure access to course materials and their scores.
This summer, Learning & Scholarly Technologies will replace 171
workstations and add a dozen HDV video-editing decks in the Odegaard
Learning Commons. In addition, a tabloid-sized scanner, upgraded scanners,
new scanner software, and the latest Adobe Design Premium will be added to
both the OUGL Commons and the Mary Gates Hall Computing Resource Center.
These upgrades are funded by the UW Student Technology Fee.
For most, some spam in our Inboxes is old hat; for others, it's both
unpleasant and new. UW email systems do protect us, but never completely.
Save yourself aggravation by deleting messages when the subject indicates
something unwanted. Do the same with the ever more realistic phishing
scams like those purportedly from your bank or a "university support"
group that ask for a password or other private data. Be suspicious of
email you aren't expecting; don't click on links in the message. WebPine
users can help improve spam protection when they select spam messages in
their Inboxes and click the "Report Spam" button.
Akira Horita, UW Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology and Psychiatry,
received the 2008 R1edu Faculty Award for Contributions to Online
Learning. He is honored for integrating cutting-edge research in addiction
science into an interactive online certificate program, Advanced Research
in Addiction and the Brain, offered by UW Educational Outreach.
Research1, an online community being developed by UW Technology, allows
researchers to collaborate with peers, share their work, and interact with
the public through project-related digital media, blogs, and forums. The
development team is seeking UW researchers, post-docs, and graduate
students of any discipline to participate in an exclusive beta test.
