“Hot Topics” in Technology:

Information every Dean should know!

Northern Illinois UniversityJarquetta Egeston (Team Leader)

Shaun CrislerDuJuan Smith

How will this presentation help me?

• Do you feel out of touch with new technological trends and resources?

• Do you often wonder what’s new?• What should you know about?• Do you struggle with email or

similar programs?

Let us help you?

• This presentation has been designed to introduce you to some of the “Hottest Topics” sweeping the Higher Education Landscape today!

• We will cover:» E-mail» Institutional Spam» Blogs» Facebook, Myspace (social networks)» WI-FI, (wireless capabilities)

Helping You?

• At the conclusion of this presentation we want you to not only be familiar with what we covered, but gain a better understanding for its usefulness.

• So what exactly are we covering:» E-mail (Electronic Mail sent via the internet)» Institutional Spam (Junk Mail)» Blogs (Online Journal sites)» Facebook, Myspace (social networks)» WI-FI, (Wireless capabilities)

Technology is changing

• Every year new technology that changes the way we see things emerges.

• Last year we saw an increase in usage of the apple i-pod, Bluetooth technology, and portable jump drives.

• So how do you keep up with the trends of this new technology and why should you.

• What advances in technology requires your attention.

We should know that college students today…

• Have begun using computers as early as 5 years old.

• Use Internet communication as a means of social support and networking.

• Use the Internet as a coping strategy to escape from stressors.

• Frequent the internet more than the library.

Electronic MailA Growing Trend

• We chose E-mail because it’s one of the fastest growing trends in our time, able to communicate messages around the world in seconds its faster than “snail mail”.

• As noted in the Internet world stats there are over 1 Billion users of the internet today 1,093,529,692 (Internet World Stats).

• Many students have up to three email accounts.• Email is taking the place of phone calls, hand

written letters, and changing face to face meetings.

Electronic MailCodename E-mail

• E-mail is a system for sending and receiving messages electronically over a computer network, as between personal computers.

• Can be used to foster a relationship between students/parents, campus partners, and outside entities.

• Used significantly by student population.

• Most universities provide students email accounts.

Understanding Electronic Mail

Codename E-mail• Email is a form of communication, like any language

there are linguistic artifacts that you will see often when opening, replying, and responding to your email.

– When using E-mail it will be imperative that certain information is included

• Who it’s from• Who it’s to• The Date and Subject

• Email is simply an electronic letter so consider the information above like you would an introduction. Then compose your email like any other letter or note.

Some Tips on Electronic Mail

Codename E-mail• When used for work purposes…

– Keep your username and passwords in a safe place.

– Your emails are direct messages from you make sure that you are sending them to the right people.

– Use a folder system to manage meetings, appointments, and files.

– Use automatic out of office replies when away for an extended period of time.

– Use professional language.

The Benefits of E-mail

• E-mail can give real time feedback

• Email can take the place of meetings

• E-MAIL allows you to store data and messages

• E-mail allows you to share a vast amount of data

• E-mail can improve communication between departments

Some issues surrounding E-mail

• Phishing: Phishing schemes take spam another step: They trick consumers into surrendering personal data by responding to spam that appears to come from a legitimate

bank or e-commerce site. (Swartz, J. (2004, June 14).

• SPAM: Despite a federal anti-spam law to curb billions of illegal porn and miracle-drug e-mails daily, many of the largest spammers successfully cover their tracks. It cost companies up to $2,000 per employee to block SPAM (Swartz, J. (2004, June 14).

• Viruses: E-mail viruses like SoBig and MyDoom leave security holes in millions of PCs. Hackers can remotely command infected PCs to send spam and phishing scams (Swartz, J. (2004, June 14).

From E-mails to SPAM

• E-mails, like doors can open your computer to a host of unwanted material.

• How do you feel about receiving junk mail at home or at work?

• SPAM is equivalent to receiving junk mail on your computer.

• Lets look at SPAM as our second “Hot Topic”

SPAM Our Second “Hot Topic”

• SPAM: Solicited Pornography and Marketing

• Spamming is the abuse of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages or to promote products or services, which are almost universally undesired (Wikipedia (2007, February).

• SPAM is 2nd and important to our list because it has been rated #1 for negatively affecting the internet by both companies and consumers.

SPAM~SPAM~SPAM

– 40% of all email is generated from SPAM

– 12.4 billion SPAM emails are sent daily

– 2,200 is the amount of annual SPAM received per person

– $255 million is a cost absorbed by non-corp Internet users

– Spam cost to all U.S. Corporations in 2002 $8.9 billion– (Longwoods Publishing (n.d.).

SPAM and Campus Use– Most disregard SPAM and take precautions to avoid most

of the ad’s posted.

– Universities across the nation have embraced the fact that SPAM is apart of the internet.

– However filters used by the university do not prohibit all SPAM from entering e-mail in-boxes.

– Universities have implemented firewall systems and taken other security measures to protect E-mail accounts.

– It’s important to open e-mail only from accounts and names that are recognized to prevent the spread of viruses.

SPAM Prevention and Issues

• Congressional CAN-SPAM Act of 2003– The receipt of a large number of unwanted messages

also decreases the convenience of electronic mail and creates a risk that wanted electronic mail messages, both commercial and noncommercial, will be lost, overlooked, or discarded amidst the large volume of unwanted messages, thus reducing the reliability and usefulness of electronic mail to the recipient.

• Congress urges institutions to implement SPAM protections clauses to combat SPAM on a local level.

Avoiding Institutional SPAM

• Anti-SPAM policies– May be useful if lawsuit is brought by a group viewed

as a spammer group.

• Anti-SPAM software– Is able to filter much SPAM sent through the

institutions’ e-mail gateway.

• SPAM although plentiful not very useful to internet users. Lets take a look at another “Hot Topic” that has proven useful.

What are WeblogsCodename: Blogs

• A third “Hot Topic” that has made it to our list is that of online weblogs.

• Blogs: an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page.

• Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media (Wikipedia (2007, February).

• Blogs were ranked third on our list in importance, because Blogs are quickly becoming on of the hottest ways to communicate.

What are WeblogsCodename: Blogs

• Technorati a search engine took a close look at usage data from companies like Google, yahoo and other sites and they had this to say.

– Daily Posting Volume tracked by Technorati is now over 1.2 Million posts per day, which is about 50,000 posts per hour.

– New blog creation continues to grow. Technorati currently tracks over 75,000 new weblogs created every day, which means that on average, a new weblog is created every second of every day - and 19.4 million bloggers (55%) are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created.

Here's a chart of the number of new blogs created each day, from January 2004 to April 2006:

Weblogs and a host of benefits

• The use of blogs in instructional settings is limited only by your imagination. Options for instructors using blogs:

– Instructional tips for students – Course announcements and readings – Annotated links – Knowledge management

• Options for students using blogs in your courses include:

– Reflective or writing journals – Assignment submission and review – Dialogue for group work – Share course-related resources

• (University of Houston-Clear Lake (n.d)

Weblogs and the issues that surround them

• The use of blogs in instructional settings is both empowering but has its draw backs.– Some of the information has been found to be inaccurate

– Most blogs are not equipped with spell check

– A typical flaw is their ability to be linked with a host of similar websites that offer only the same material

– Some Blogs suffer from a lack of topic focus jumping from one popular topic to the next

– Webblogs continue to grow in popularity, but they have not overpowered the popularity of our next “Hot Topic”

The new water coolers of the social network

• Coming in at #4 social networks are growing everyday. Replacing needed visits to the Mall by teenagers and going out for students, social networks rank high on the thing to join.

• Remember when faculty and staff in your department would gather around the water cooler discussing the highlights and downs of their day?

• Well with the help of social network sites educators can congregate with other professionals all across the country.

• We chose websites like Facebook.com, Myspace.com, and Youtube.com to highlight the new social water coolers of today.

The new water coolers of the social network

• Facebook has its own basic template that needs to be adhered to, whereas Myspace allows the user to personalize their profile page by giving the user a blank slate to put up such items as images, music, different layout structures, and various other types of things to make the user content with their profile (word document).

• Youtube, allows users to upload and trade video clips of everything from amateur comedy acts to news cast. Youtube allows you to record what you want and broadcast it over the internet for free.

• The growing popularity of these sites and others offer users the ability to connect with people across the globe, without conversation sharing likes, dislikes, and other profile information.

The new water coolers of the social network

– Myspace: MySpace, with 70 million visitors, has become the digital equivalent of hanging out at the mall for today's teens, who load the site with photos, news about music groups and detailed profiles of their likes and dislikes.

– Facebook: Over 20 million users are geared for college students.

– In the case of MySpace and Facebook, the cost of gaining new customers is practically nothing because users join voluntarily and provide their own content through their profiles.

Facebook Example

Facebook and Campus Benefits

• The penetration rate is staggering - about 85% of students in supported colleges have a profile up on FaceBook. That’s 3.85 million members. Chris tells me that 60% log in daily. About 85% log in at least once a week, and 93% log in at least once a month (Arrington, M., 2005, September 5).

• With so many students embracing social networks like Facebook there is no wonder why Deans and department heads should not join. They have the ability to plug into their audience.

Facebook and Campus Issues

• Some of the issues surrounding Facebook revolve around the following:

– Inappropriate pictures

– Verbal Assault

– Verbal Sexual Assault

– Identity theft

Connecting to the WWW

• We have covered E-mail, SPAM, Webblogs, and social networks.

• Lets take a look at what’s connecting them all together. You can reach the internet from your office or the front lawn of your home.

• Let’s see what’s making this all possible, the last “Hot Topic” that we chose is WI-FI connection.

WI-FI the 5th “Hot Topic”

• Our last “Hot Topic” revolves around Wi-Fi which is the ability to connect to the internet wirelessly. WI-FI is important because more and more students are looking to connect to the internet without being connected.

• Growing on college campuses many universities are changing their campus given students the ability to be wireless anywhere on campus.

• WI-FI is possible when students subscribe to the university network. Once in their laptops can pull the internet signal from the air and connect to a server.

The Campus benefits of WI-FI

• Wi-Fi is a global set of standards. Unlike cellular carriers, the same Wi-Fi client works in different countries around the world.

• Widely available in more than 250,000 public hot spots

and millions of homes and corporate and university campuses worldwide.

• As of 2006, WPA and WPA2 encryption are not easily crackable if strong passwords are used (Wikipedia).

WI-FI and some of its issues

• Interoperability issues between brands or deviations from the standard can disrupt connections or lower throughput speeds on other user's devices within range.

• Wi-Fi networks can be monitored and used to read and copy data (including personal information) transmitted over the network unless encryption such as VPN is used.

• Power consumption is fairly high compared to some other standards, making battery life and heat a concern.

“Hot Topics” Recap

• Today we covered some of the hottest topics in Higher Education

• We learned the importance of E-mail, Social Networks, Blogs, SPAM and Wi-Fi

• Lets highlight some of the important points

“Hot Topics” Quiz

• #1 Today’s college students have been using the computer since, what age?– The age of 5.

• #2 E-mail can be used to foster a relationship between ?– Students/parents, campus partners, and outside entities

• #3 SPAM stands for what?– Solicited Pornography and Marketing

• #4 Options for students using blogs in your courses include: – Reflective or writing journals – Assignment submission and review

• #5 About 85% of students in supported colleges have a profile here.– FaceBook.

• #6 Connects you wirelessly to the internet?– WI-FI

Reference Page• Arrington, M. (2005, September 5). 85% of College Students use

    FaceBook. Retrieved February 12, 2007 from, Web site:     http://www.techcrunch.com/2005/09/07/85-of-college-students-use-facebook/

• Internet World Stats (n.d.). Usage and Population Statistics.     Retrieved February 12, 2007 from, Web site:     http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

• Longwoods Publishing (n.d.). Spam Statistics. Retrieved February     12th, 2007 from Longwoods Publishing: Healthcare Quarterly, Web     site: http://www.longwoods.com/home.php

• Swartz, J. (2004, June 14). Is the future of e-mail under     cyber attack? Retrieved February 11, 2007 from USA Today, Tech     Web site: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-06-14-email_x.htm

• University of Houston-Clear Lake (n.d.). Blogs in Education.     Retrieved February 11, 2007 from University of Houston-Clear Lake,     University Computing & Telecommunications Web site:     http://awd.cl.uh.edu/blog/

• Wikipedia (2007, February). Wi-Fi. Retrieved February 15, 2007     from, Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi  

•   Wikipedia (2007, February). Wi-Fi. Retrieved February 15, 2007     from, Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogs

• Wikipedia (2007, February). Wi-Fi. Retrieved February 15, 2007     from, Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPAM