The University Gazette celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Carolina Computing Initiative. A Daily Tar Heel article focused on the ITS campaign to discourage illegal file sharing, while Priscilla Alden, assistant vice chancellor for user support and engagement, tackled a question on saving .wdb files as .txt files in the Raleigh News and Observer’s Stump the Geeks column.

The UNC Teaching and Learning with Technology Conference, with a focus on “Teaching Towards Tomorrow,” will explore best practices, new perspectives and innovations that effectively prepare students for tomorrow’s world. The conference will take place March 16 to 18, 2009 at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel and Convention Center in Durham, N.C.

This annual conference, held since 2000, provides a statewide forum to network and exchange information about the effective use of technology for teaching and learning and is co-sponsored by UNC TLT Collaborative and the UNC Faculty Assembly.

To learn more, please visit the conference web site.

ITS Teaching and Learning will demonstrate Interwrite pad and Panopto Coursecast, two low-cost solutions for enhancing same place and time presentations, at the September meeting of the Instructional Applications Interest Group (IAIG). The event will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 4, in Health Sciences Library room 328.

The September Webmasters meeting will feature Andrew Synowiez, VoiceThread co-founder, developer and UNC alum. The meeting will be held on Thursday, Sept. 4, from 2-3 p.m. in ITS Manning 2400.

“Welcome to Carolina!” So began the personal phone call that 80 percent of new students received from the ITS Response Center (ITRC) this summer.

About two weeks after freshmen and transfer students took ownership of their Carolina Computing Initiative (CCI) laptops, they received a telephone call offering technical support and a Carolina welcome.

“We often ended up talking to the parents if the student wasn’t available,” said Cherritta Nickerson-Salter, manager of the University operators who made the calls. “They were excited that Carolina provided a resource for their child before they even arrived at the University.”

When contacted, the students were asked if they were using their computer. Many incoming students were computer savvy and began using their laptops immediately. Others needed a little more encouragement – and guidance.

“One student told us how she always wiped her entire computer down with Lysol every time she used it,” said Nickerson-Salter. “We were able to teach her the right way to clean her laptop.”

Other concerns voiced by the new students included connectivity, viruses and spyware.

Through the welcome program, students become familiar with the ITRC and start to understand that it will become their technological lifeline at Carolina.

According to the University operators, Carolina alumni were particularly excited to speak to the operators.

“They felt like they were reconnecting with their youth. They remembered what it was like to go to Carolina as freshmen,” said Cynthia Haymer, University operator.

Four ITRC staff made the calls each day, fitting them into already busy work schedules.

“We laid out the welcome mat for Carolina,” said Haymer. “It helped relieve some of the freshmen’s nerves – and the parents’ too. They were often more nervous than the child.”

Farewells to Jin Shang and Josh Tewell, both from Enterprise Applications, effective Aug. 8

The ITS Employee Council sponsored the August food drive in response to increased need in local communities. According to Employee Council President Leslie Kreizman, about 150,000 children in the Food Bank service area are at risk of hunger. In the six-county Durham area, there are 23,000 children who live below the poverty level.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the food drive!

Co-chaired by Doug Edmunds from the School of Law and Susan Kellogg from the School of Business, ITEC held its first meeting on Thursday, Aug. 7.

“The membership of the group provides a good representation from campus units at an IT director level,” said Conrad. “ITEC is an excellent vehicle to coordinate IT activities across campus, and I see it as a critical source of input on priorities and services provided by ITS.”

Schools and departments currently participating in ITEC include:

• School of Information and Library Science
• School of Public Health
• School of Nursing
• Carolina Population Center (on behalf of other campus research units)
• School of Law
• School of Dentistry
• School of Social Work
• Campus Services
• School of Business
• College of Arts and Sciences (OASIS)
• School of Pharmacy
• Academic Affairs Libraries
• School of Government
• Division of Student Affairs
• School of Medicine
• School of Journalism and Mass Communication