Archive for September, 2007

UNE will be one of the first universities to upgrade to the latest version of the Callista student administration system

The Callista student administration system is UNE’s administrative backbone. A major upgrade to the latest version of Callista is scheduled to take place this weekend (29 September-1 October)

The new version of Callista has a number of performance improvements and new functions. The upgrade will also include an upgrade to key hardware and associated operating systems.

There will be interruptions to online services over the long weekend while the upgrade is completed. All efforts have been made to minimise the impact on students and staff. 

A virus is doing the rounds disguised as an Internet Explorer security upgrade.

A number of UNE users have received an email claiming to be a security update for Internet explorer. The email is not from Microsoft. It is an attempt to get users to follow the link and download malicious software to their computer.

If you recieve the email simply delete it - The email itself is not the virus. The virus is only activated once a user clicks on the link.

No more getting caught without your umbrella, MyUNE now includes a three day weather forecast.

With information supplied by weathercom.au and updated every 20 minutes you’ll always be prepared. Developer Matt Peterson expects the weather portlet to be a popular addition to MyUNE “Whenever weather services are made available they quickly become popular.

With plagiarism in the academic world reaching plague proportions UNE is set to take preventative measures with the use of Turnitin plagiarism detection software in 2008.

Academic plagiarism is a serious problem. With the rise of electronic publishing of research ‘cutting and pasting’ online content has never been easier. And it’s not just students who are tempted to copy others’ ideas -  there are no hard and fast statistics (obviously) but one estimate places the number of theses and books in the arts and humanities with unacceptable levels of copied material at around 10-15% (http://www.ucalgary.ca/~hexham/study/plag.html)

Turnitin plagiarism software is able to detect unacceptable levels of copied material in submitted texts. UNE is currently planning for the integration of Turnitin screening for submitted assignments in 2008. See http://turnitin.com/static/home.html for more information and keep an eye out for UNE-official announcements on the subject.

So what is plagiarism and how can you make sure you’re not inappropriately using someone else’s ideas?

Check out UNE Library resources at http://www.une.edu.au/library/eskillsune/using/legal.php

Plagiarism today is a blog that looks at online plagiarism http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/

An article that includes a useful demonstration of plagiarism – what’s acceptable and what’s not http://www.ucalgary.ca/~hexham/study/plag.html

If you are groaning under the weight of your email inbox - its time to take the inbox zero challenge.

For all its advantages email can be a difficult thing to keep on top of. Most of us end up with inboxes piled high with unred or unimportant messages. If this sounds like you, check out the following articles and take control of your inbox.

http://www.43folders.com/izero/  The original inbox zero project. There are a few articles here with tips for reducing your inbox to zero -  daily!!

http://daringfireball.net/2007/08/rethinking_email One guys’ attempt to get to inbox zero at least every week.

Don’t forget, the ITD user forum is on again!! Tuesday 4th September 1-2pm in the Lewis lecture theatre.

Martina Linnemann will outline the new arrangements for desktop support - the options the providers and more. Daniel Gooch will talk about his new role implementing the recommendations from the IT review and the ITD sub-plan. Gordon Smith will talk about the network upgrade and what you can expect over the coming months. Finally Acting ITD director Brian Cameron will talk about new and exciting things on the IT horizon.

So bring your lunch and come along to the Lewis lecture theatre 1-2pm tomorrow. See you there