| August 27, 2007 | Vol 9. No. 1 |
Angel and Blackboard Both Available this Semester!
There’s a new Angel at Canisius this year. Our new learning management system is now available for fall 2007 courses. Over the summer, Angel workshops were well-attended and participants were enthusiastic about the opportunities for teaching and learning that will come with Angel. If you missed the summer workshops, look for the fall listing on the CTE Web site.
All instructors and students have Angel accounts and will be able to login at http://angel.canisius.edu with their GriffMail username and password. As with Blackboard, all courses have been set up in Angel. They are, by default, “Disabled.” If you do intend to use Angel, be sure to “Enable” your course so students can see it.
In this transition year, Blackboard will be available at http://blackboard.canisius.edu until June 2008. As in the past, all courses have been set up as “Unavailable” and all instructors and students have accounts. If you intend to use Blackboard please be sure to make your course “Available.”
This will mean that some Instructors will be using Angel and some will be using Blackboard. Be sure to let your students know which one you will be using this semester! More information is available on the ITS Web site.
New Library Extended Hours with Limited Service
In response to student requests for late night study hours, beginning September 10, the library will be open (with limited service) Sunday through Thursday, from midnight to 2:00 a.m.
During these extended service hours, the main floor of the library will remain open until 2:00 a.m. for quiet study and use of materials located there. A Canisius College ID card will be required for access to the building. No staffed library services will be available including reference librarians. There will be no laptops, book or media checkout. The second floor and the lower level, including the computer lab, will be closed. The computer workstations on the main floor will be available.
The regular “full service” schedule remains in effect as posted.
Library Open House
Faculty, staff and students are invited to attend the library’s open house on Friday, September 21, from 2:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. The theme will be “Get to Know Buffalo and the Canisius College Library.” Guests will be treated to an afternoon of fun, food and information. Come and see some of the great changes and new services in the library and learn some wonderful things you may not know about the city of Buffalo.
Local writer and entrepreneur Mark Goldman will be on the second floor of the library at 3:00 p.m. to speak about his new book, City on the Edge: Buffalo, NY. More information about this event will follow.
Kathleen DeLaney, archivist, has received a professional development grant from the Western New York Library Resources Council (WNYLRC) to attend the 71st Annual Conference of the Society of American Archivists in Chicago from August 28-September 1.
The conference will provide opportunities to discuss collaborative projects, including the ContentDM project to upload 2,000 historic images to the Archives Web site. Canisius participates with other Jesuit institutions for this venture.
What’s New in Our Classrooms?
Welcome back from the Media Center! This summer, a number of the college’s classrooms received technology improvements. Old Main 223, 403, 423, Lyons Hall 311 and Koessler G-21 were upgraded with new color Crestron Touch Panels and Elmo document cameras. Health Science 217 has been converted from a Level 1 Classroom to a full Level 3 Classroom, complete with a new color Crestron Touch Panel, Elmo document camera, NEC LCD projector, Zenith DVD player, Mitsubishi VCR, laptop connectivity and a resident PC computer. LY 309 was also upgraded to a Level 3 Classroom after the addition of a new color Crestron Touch Panel, Elmo document camera, Denon five-disc CD player and a resident Macintosh computer.
Cables for the connection of auxiliary video and audio devices, as well as VGA & Ethernet cables for laptop connectivity have been moved in a number of classrooms with larger podiums. Instead of having to plug cables into the side of the podium, cables are run to the top of podium for easier access. Old Main 115, 119, 203, 223, 315, 403, 414, 423 and Lyons Hall 311 have all been modified in this manner.
At the Canisius Center at Amherst, a new portable Elmo TT-02 document camera has been added. This unit is secured to a cart and can be used with the LCD projectors (via the VGA cable used for laptop connectivity) in rooms C, E and the computer lab.
In addition to the work in the rooms mentioned above, DVD/VCR combo units were added to Old Main 113, 308, 409, 417, Churchill Tower 206, 207 and Health Science 206. With these latest upgrades, all Level 1 and 2 Classrooms have DVD playback capability.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns about instructional technology in the classroom or would like to schedule training, please feel free to contact the Media Center office at Ext. 2950. For more information on classrooms, please check out the Media Center’s Web site and click the What’s In My Classroom link.
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