The following sites and resources have been added to the K-State website recently:
The Registrar’s Office has developed a new webpage that outlines all drop and refund deadlines for non-standard classes.
A non-standard class is simply a class that meets for a shorter or longer period of time than a regular session class. Regular-session drop deadlines and refund deadlines are posted on the K-State Academic Calendar. Non-standard drop and refund deadlines are prorated based on the start and end date of a class.
Continue reading “New webpage for non-standard class drop/refund deadlines”
Wordle.net is a free application that can be used to create “word clouds”. Copy/paste any group of words from a text or webpage, and those most frequently listed in the source text appear prominently in the cloud.
Developer Jonathan Feinberg allows for Creative Commons Attribution licensing so word clouds can be shared, used on presentations, etc. — as long as the appropriate citation is given (“www.wordle.net”).
Check out the adjacent word cloud based on support services at the Information Technology Assistance Center (iTAC). Create your own word cloud at www.wordle.net.
Social bookmarking is the process of users storing and organizing webpages and web content in an open and public fashion. The end result of this is something called a folksonomy. Where a taxonomy is a strict categorization of the formal structure of a given thing, a folksonomy is a categorization and organization of the structure of a given entity by the common people (“folks”) who choose to help organize the information.
This organizational schema is created by individual users “tagging” bookmarks with keywords that the user think can be attributed to the content (and is usually expressed using a “tag cloud” — see image above). Different from the concepts of folders, tagging allows any individual piece of information to be attributed with a countless number of keywords or “tags”.
More than a subtle shift, the development of social bookmarking — which helped reconceptualize organizing information through the use of tags instead of folders and resulted in the creation of a human-powered folksonomy — is one of the foundational elements to the current dynamic and ultra-networked Web (2.0).
Anyone using multiple computers throughout the day knows how frustrating it can be to have different bookmarks on each machine. The browser add-on Xmarks (formerly known as Foxmarks) allows users to synchronize all of their bookmarks among various computers. The bookmarks are then readily available whenever and wherever needed. It also synchronizes across different browsers.
Simply install the Xmarks add-on and create a username and password. The bookmarks are then uploaded and stored on a server. If you set up a new machine, just install the Xmarks add-on and download the bookmarks. This replaces the prior bookmarks and merges with current ones. You can even create different profiles for work-related or home computers. Once all of your bookmarks are set up, you can then view and edit them at my.xmarks.com and the changes will synchronize with any browser that currently has the add-on installed.
Continue reading “Xmarks, a bookmark synchronizer for web browsers”
Due to the recent cases of swine flu identified in Kansas, K-State Research and Extension has developed a Pandemic Flu & Swine Flu Information webpage that went live today.
The site includes: Continue reading “KSRE webpage on swine flu and pandemic flu”
Now is a great time to change content on department/unit websites to reflect two new systems that were introduced in 2008.
What are the best websites for watching election returns? Which ones have the latest, up-to-date tallies of election results?
That question started a search for reporting sites, but also spotlights the fact that the 2008 U.S. national election is now known as “the YouTube election” and “the Twitter election” due to inclusion of those influential communications channels. Many news sources, both traditional and new-tech, provide up-to-the-minute coverage on national and state elections, with designated election centers on the Web. For starters, check out these sites and the extended list at the end of this article:
Continue reading “Best websites for watching election returns?”
One of the benefits of the switch to a new format and structure for InfoTech Tuesday is the ability to have much more accurate and comprehensive statistics about the readers. Do you ever go to a website and wonder how many other people have seen the site? Ever wonder what browser other people are using? Ever wonder how people end up on a given website?
Over the first five weeks of this semester’s InfoTech Tuesday there have been
Visitors to the site stay for an average of 1 minute 49 seconds each visit. Of all visitors, 62 percent are coming to the site directly, 34 percent are being referred to the site from another site (browse/link in), and 4 percent are getting here through organic web searches. Perhaps most interesting is the browser break down: Continue reading “InfoTech Tuesday stat roundup”
K-State recommends upgrading Internet Explorer 6 to version 7 because the latter provides substantial security improvements. Internet Explorer web browser versions below 7 are becoming more difficult to support for current web-based applications in use at K-State. In particular, K-State Online no longer supports versions of Internet Explorer below version 7.
K-Staters who have problems with K-State Online using Internet Explorer 6 are advised to update to version 7 or switch to Firefox. Internet Explorer 7 and other compatible browsers are available at http://public.online.ksu.edu/support/downloads. If you have any questions, contact the Help Desk, helpdesk@k-state.edu, 785-532-7722.
