NVCC Computer Services Newsletter Feb. 22, 2000
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Office 2000 NewsNew FrontPage WebsE-Mail IssuesWebCT Need training? Need an account for e-mail, Banner, or network
access? Click here. |
Office 2000 News – It’s coming! Our campus will be upgrading to Office 2000 applications
during the summer months. While this
may sound “intimidating”, actually this installation is expected to go
smoothly. Office 2000 and Office 97
can “co-exist” on the same computer, allowing students to use either
program. Files created in Office 97
or Office 2000 can be opened by either program. (The only exception is Access databases!) Also on faculty and staff computers,
Outlook 2000 replaces Outlook 97, and that’s a “good thing”. Minimum requirements to run Office 2000 is 64 MB RAM and
200MB for a network installation, or 600MB for a local installation. Computers that don’t meet the 64 MB RAM
requirement will be upgraded this Spring.
Our staff is in the process of doing that now. Computer Services is offering a 1 ½ hour class that will provide an Overview to Office 2000 starting in late March, after Spring Break. We will focus on what’s different in Office 2000, including Outlook 2000. Signups can be done at our website: http://www.nv2.commnet.edu/csv99/Training.htm What about Windows 2000?
Minimum requirements (according to Microsoft) is: 133 MHz or higher
Pentium-compatible CPU. (While Microsoft recommends 133 MHZ, performance may not be
acceptable.) §
64 megabytes (MB) of RAM recommended minimum; more
memory generally improves responsiveness 2 GB hard disk with a minimum of 650 MB of free
space. The good
news is that many of our lab computers can support Win2000. However, faculty and students will need
some training to use the new Win2000 operating system. No immediate decision has been made to
move to Win2000. However, any faculty
or Division offering courses in Win2000 needs to make immediate arrangements
with Computer Services to assess hardware needs for the intended lab. During
the month of March, Computer Services will be meeting with each Division to
review Fall course offerings, software and hardware needs. Your Division director will be notified
to schedule a meeting for planning purposes.
Start thinking now for Fall 2000! FrontPage Webs February training in FrontPage produced a ”high school” website
that helped participants learn the fundamentals of FrontPage 2000
development. (December’s training
produced a “Millennium Website” that was quite entertaining!) Regardless of the application,
participants are finding that a website to host coursework is becoming
important and necessary to provide support and easy communication. The following website is an example of a web-enhanced
course that followed from our Febuary training: This website was created by Henry Cipriano for his Visual
Basic courses. (Sorry, Henry, hope
you don’t mind.) Click on the button to preview the four courses
that any of his students can link to.
No more excuses that “the dog ate my diskette…!” Also, check out Henry’s favorite links –
especially the one for his famous
brother. Snow days during the winter months especially can take
their toll when trying to meet course requirements. Websites are an ideal way to provide that extra assignment or
communicate to students what to expect when returning to class. E-Mail IssuesOnly one recommendation here – keep it
lean and clean! In other words, as
soon as e-mail is received, read it, print it, save it, or delete it. Don’t let your mailbox fill up. This popular communication tool is
sometimes over-utilized and as a result, the really important mail can’t get
through.
Two points to check in Outlook are: 1)
Set your Deleted Items folder to empty upon exiting
the program. That way you won’t
forget to empty Deleted Items. Do
this by selecting the Tools menu, and then Options. On the General Tab, check the second box, “Empty the deleted
items . . . “ 2)
Be sure to delete the items in the Sent folder. E-mail sent out is also saved here. Those messages count towards your quota. WebCT Several online courses are now rolling out in WebCT. The ease of use of the software is
especially appealing to both the student and faculty member designing the
course. Our campus is considering
additional licenses so that more students can participate. Watch your e-mail for upcoming news on training for
designers in WebCT. A “Spring Break
Special” will be offered at NVCC.
Anyone interested in delivering online courses should attend. As reviewed in the January Newsletter, WebCT is
"An
Overview of WebCT" If you are interested in learning about WebCt, please
visit the following links: |
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