Come see the light (board) and more in this post...

Meet Lightboard

Chalkboard…Whiteboard…Now Lightboard

Lightboard is a video lecture recording tool which allows the presenter to diagram concepts while maintaining eye contact with the audience. Click on the video below to see a demonstration.  Contact elearning@harding.edu to schedule a recording time with Lightboard. Staff​ members are available to help ​you ​ get started and take you through the entire process. Your finished product can be posted to a Canvas course or site of your choice.

Hover, look and then click…

The most effective way to protect an organization from being compromised through phishing or other similar schemes is through user alertness and education!

We do this in a number of ways. We like to make sure we do not become complacent in how we deal with the emails we receive. Without a doubt, the vast majority of emails that come to our inbox are not nefarious. They are there to genuinely inform us and be used as a way to conduct our business.

Then there are those emails that have attachments or links that are set to trap us into sharing information we should not share or to have something downloaded that will take information from us illicitly.

To help us be more aware and alert, we will be conducting some phishing tests in the future. We will be generating some phishing style emails and sending them to different groups around campus. This is not a punitive exercise. There will be no public shaming. If someone 'falls' for the email, they will receive information that highlights why the phishing email was successful! It is designed to be informative.

One of the simplest ways to check whether a link in an email may be legitimate or suspicious is to just hover over the link and look at the bottom left of the browser window. You will see the actual web address where the link would take you should you click on it. (this works with most browsers, but it may not work on some instances of Safari)

Consider these two links:  www.harding.edu and www.harding.edu.

They look the same don't they?

Try moving your mouse pointer over each link.  DON'T CLICK - just "hover".

Did you see what web page you would have been directed to if you had clicked?

(This example is courtesy of John Nunnally.)

Library Donations

Rhema Christian Academy Library

Did you know that Brackett Library helps with various missions here and abroad? One outreach is donating books to mission fields. Lola and David Crouch recently asked for books for a school in Nigeria. Some health science books have been sent to Zambia. One of the latest missions was the Likewise College (overseen by Jeff Kreh), a school that works with those in the prison system in Arkansas. 

These books are either discarded books from our collection or donated books. If Brackett already has a copy in the library's collection of a donated book, it can be used for missions. Discarded books will be sent because many times the library has obtained a newer edition with the older edition being only a few years old. Brackett Library makes an effort to use books in a positive way when they are not needed in the current collection. If you are interested in making a book donation, please call 501-279-4354 for more details.

New Phones on Campus

Chances are you have already received a new phone on your desk recently. We are upgrading the campus to VoIP – voice over IP – phones.

Why are we making the switch? The Nortel phone switch was installed in 1989. It was the “latest and greatest” when we installed it, and it has served the campus well, but its time has come to an end. We need to make the switch to VoIP to keep up with industry standards.

We first installed VoIP phones in the IS&T area as a “pilot” project to test their usability on campus. It didn’t take too long to decide that this was the direction we needed to go. As new buildings were built, we installed new VoIP phones instead of installing expensive copper phone cable. When we did this, it meant that we were “straddling” two phone systems – Nortel and VoIP – and that did make management of both systems cumbersome.

Recently, the decision was made to cut over the rest of the campus to VoIP. Harding Telephone Service (HTS) has been cutting over the campus building by building. As time and schedules permit, HTS is replacing old Nortel phones and installing new VoIP phones. They plan to finish the cutover by this fall.

There are many benefits to the new phones, including allowing the user to make phone changes through an online portal. Once you get your new phone, you can log onto https://phone.harding.edu with your Harding username and password and make changes to your ring settings, forwarding settings, and other settings. You will also have access to Jabber.

Jabber is a set of applications that allows users to connect to each other in more ways than just a desk phone. One feature is an app for Android and I-Phone. Once downloaded, Jabber allows a user to answer and make calls as if using their desk phone on their cell phone no matter where they are located, as long as they have a data connection (don't worry, the app can be turned off/on when needed). This app not only allows you to take calls in almost any location but it also allows you to keep your cell number and private voice mail separate from your office number and office voice mail when you need to.

Another feature of Jabber can be a virtual phone set on your computer so you can answer, make calls and check voice mail via your computer. It’s also easy to save a voice mail on your computer by using this feature so you can keep any messages you feel you should for as long as you need to.

Along with the desktop virtual phone, a chat window can be used to message others who use Jabber. In all Jabber applications, you can set a presence icon that lets others know if you are on the phone, away or in a meeting. These are just a few of the features of Jabber we are excited about using on campus.

New Faces

IS&T has welcomed some new people this semester. If you haven’t already met them, stop by and say hello!

Anora David

Anora is the Office Assistant in the Center for Technology & Learning/AV. Born in Camden, Tennessee, she attended both Michigan Christian College and Freed-Hardeman University. She spent 22 years in Liberia as a missionary. In 1996, she and her husband built Ford-Madden Christian School there which now houses kindergarten through high school grades. Anora’s office is located in Lee 110.

Maren Patterson

Maren Patterson comes to the Center for Learning with Technology from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has been a digital content developer for 18 years and has guided teams to successful publications of various projects.

Currently, Maren is working​ on​ ​the following projects: 3D Virtual tour and interaction​ ideas​, best methods for introducing Virtual Reality (VR) to campus and assisting with planning for the 8th Annual Faculty Technology Showcase. ​He is also collaborating with the Library to create a dynamic video to illustrate library resources for instructors and students.

Maren’s office is located in Admin 212.

Introducing Team Dynamix

For a while, we in IS&T have wanted a better way to help track what we do both from a day-to-day standpoint as well as the projects, short and long, that we work on. Along with that we wanted to have an easier and more consistent way to communicate with you as we work for and with you.

With that in mind, we explored the market and found a company and product called TeamDynamix. Because TeamDynamix works mostly with higher education institutions, they understand the things we in a higher ed IT operation regularly deal with. It appeared to be a good fit so we recently signed a contract and have been implementing the product.

We plan to open it to you around June 1. Your main entrance to it will be a portal linked from Pipeline that will have links to four main areas we think you will find helpful:

A Service Catalog that will contain information about the various software, hardware, help, and other services we provide. Within each service will be information about how to use the service as well as request the service or help with it.

A Ticketing system where you will be able to enter requests and view your outstanding requests. We will be using this much more to to track, but more importantly to consistently communicate with you about what we are working on for you.

A Knowledge Base like Kenobi, our wiki, except tied in with the services and tickets. Over time, the articles IS&T people have created will be moved to the TeamDynamix knowledge base and will be accessible through this portal. (Don’t worry, the other things in Kenobi like Policy Portal, etc. will remain as they are.)

A Projects area where you can see and interact with the projects we are working on or plan to work on.

We are already using this in a limited fashion as we configure it and are already seeing some benefits. It is also expandable and as our use of it grows, it will allow other areas to have a presence as well.

More information will be coming soon. We look forward to being able to use it as we work with you.