IT News for October, 2012

Hurricane Sandy might have a serious impact on many parts of the region. Some University of Delaware students might have difficulty making it to campus; some faculty might need to present material from a “lost” class session.

UD Information Technologies (IT) reminds faculty that UD offers online resources to help instructors communicate with their students, archive resources for students and provide additional instructional material to students.

“Seeing demonstrations of things -- it’s one thing to read about them, but it’s better to talk to an expert and see how it works or can work in my situation,” said one of the approximately 300 participants at the University of Delaware IT Tech Fair, held Thursday, Oct. 18.

The fair offered faculty and staff members the opportunity to learn about existing and emerging technologies.

Jorge Cubillos, an associate professor in the University of Delaware’s Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, helps students to stay connected with one another through Facebook Groups and to demonstrate their language proficiency through multimedia projects posted to a blog.

“Technology, as an integral part of students’ lives, is important to incorporate into their studies. In the area of languages, it is a very simple and logical extension of what they can do to learn and master the language,” Cubillos said.

Information Technologies has upgraded the University of Delaware's Central Authentication System (CAS).

CAS is the interface that allows UD staff, students and alumni to log in securely to University systems and forms. More information about CAS is available at this website.

"Along with a new client interface, the upgrade brings the University up-to-date with a more recent version of JA-SIG CAS, which provides many infrastructure improvements and an opportunity for future enhancements and features," Dave Costrini, manager, IT Web Development, said.