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We'll be showcasing how the
VCU community is using the latest technology to improve teaching,
research, and college life at VCU. Here's a sampling of the exhibitors
(exhibits will be open all day--10-4):
| Psychtek.com |
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The modern
practice of psychiatry involves extensive use of psychopharmacology,
treating psychiatric illness with medication. This usually involves
an initial psychiatric evaluation, followed by frequent office
visits until the patient is stabilized. Once symptoms are in
remission, patients often need to continue on medication for
months or years to prevent relapse. During this maintenance
phase of the illness, internet communication is ideal for ongoing
medication management. Psychtek.com is a website designed by
psychiatrist Linda Bugbee, MD, under the supervision of VCU's
Department of Information Systems instructor Gerry Saunders,
that makes such on-line consultations possible. At Psychtek.com,
patients submit their concerns, identify their symptoms and
review their medications. The psychiatrist later reviews this
information and may ask the patient further questions. When
the doctor replies, the patient is notified by email and directed
to the website. The patient responds to the questions or recommendations
and may ask questions of their own. The consultation concludes
when the patient and doctor agree on a plan. Psychtek.com is
written in PHP and uses mySQL to store patient data. It is run
on a secure server using Red Hat Linux Enterprise System 3.
Numerous security measures are employed to ensure the privacy
of patient records. This technology has the potential to dramatically
improve psychiatric care, by making follow-up treatment more
accessible. Besides the convenience, it frees up the doctor's
schedule to see more critical patients. Better patient outcomes
and more efficient use of resources may ultimately lower the
cost of psychiatric care.
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| Blackbird:
an online journal of literature and the arts |
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Blackbird:
an online journal of literature and the arts is published online
at www.blackbird.vcu.edu by the VCU Department of English in
partnership with New Virginia Review, Inc. At a time when print
journals in Virginia and around the nation face budget cuts
or elimination, Blackbird is finding success with a growing
online audience. Literary print journals—-after the costs
of printing and distribution—-often lose money, reach
a relatively small audience, and remain afloat only through
subsidies. Blackbird, as an online journal, bypasses the costs
of printing and the problems of distribution. The journal’s
online presence extends the possible audience; the first subscriber
to sign on to Blackbird’s email list, for instance, was
from the Czech Republic. In addition, Blackbird publishes plays,
artist "slide shows," and streaming media including
audio interviews with contemporary writers, artists, and critics.
The journal, just in its fourth issue, has already received
national attention and is part of a beta-test of Stanford University
Library’s LOCKSS system, an initiative to archive online
journals with funding from the National Science Foundation,
Sun Microsystems, Inc. and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Blackbird
is published with the help of Virginia Commonwealth University
graduate and undergraduate interns who receive credit for their
work in literary editing and production. Blackbird, as part
of its core mission to cultivate a new generation of readers,
also seeks to encourage teachers anywhere in the world to use
the journal’s text and media content in their classrooms.
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| Innovative
Dissection Alternative Technologies |
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Two
cutting-edge educational applications designed to provide dissection
alternatives will be featured at this exhibit. Each provides
an example of the many academic objectives achievable through
modern alternatives to dissection. The first program, Cat Lab,
is a complete multi-media dissection of cat anatomy. The program
contains separate tutorial modules for the skeleton, muscles,
digestive system, urogenital system and circulatory and nervous
systems. The modules contain self-assessment exams and are augmented
by over three-hundred lab-quality images. The second featured
application, Digital Frog, includes sections on dissection,
anatomy and ecology. The anatomy and dissection modules are
seamlessly linked, allowing for easy study of structure and
function. This application also features a comparative anatomy
section that enables students to observe how frogs and humans
differ internally. Students and educators will have the opportunity
to interact with both of these applications, to ask questions
of exhibitors and to learn of other software and video packages
that may be borrowed for free through the Animalearn Science
Bank.
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| Security
at VCU |
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This
exhibit will display the new security video. The actors from
the video will be making special guest appearances. There will
also be information about VCU-CSIRT, VASCAN and other security
organizations as well as several handouts such as the "Security
Bottomline Check List" and "Security Tips" in
miniature for people to paste on their computer keyboards or
on their mice.
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| PDAs
for reporting news ASAP |
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Students
in Capital News Service (MASC 475) are using personal digital
assistants to take notes, shoot photos, write stories and transmit
their articles and pictures to an editor for publication in
newspapers across Virginia. The technology allows student journalists
to take notes unobtrusively in an editable-text format that
can quickly be turned into news stories. As a result, CNS students
can file stories much faster than other reporters covering the
General Assembly. Most members of the Capitol press corps take
handwritten notes and/or use tape recorders; they then must
boot up a laptop or other computer (wasting several minutes)
and transcribe their notes before writing their stories. CNS
students still sometimes use notebooks and audio recordings
– but whenever possible, they input their notes with a
collapsible keyboard directly into a PDA (which has the bootup
time of a flashlight). This is the most efficient way to take
notes at the press table on the House or Senate floor or at
a legislative committee meeting. The students then can convert
their notes into full-fledged stories and wirelessly e-mail
them to the faculty member who oversees CNS. The faculty member
does final edits and ships the stories to the 35 newspapers
that subscribe to our news service. Circuit City has donated
six PDAs for CNS, and the School bought the keyboards. (Some
students are using their own PDAs.) The proposed exhibit would
show the different PDAs we are testing; peripherals, such as
PDA cameras and voice recorders; and our published news stories.
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| MidAtlantic
Terascale Partnership |
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The six doctoral institutions
in Virginia and Oak Ridge Associated Universities have formed
the Mid-Atlantic
Terascale Partnership, a consortium to promote access to
high-end computing and networking resources. The consortium
will operate a node on the new National
LambdaRail in the Washington DC area. The NLR was formed
last summer by leading U.S. research universities and private
sector technology companies to deploy a new and unique national
networking infrastructure. This will promote the advancement
of networking research and next generation network-based applications
in science, engineering and medicine. |
| VCU
Files |
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VCUfiles allows instructors,
staff and students to share and manage documents on the web.
Users of VCUfiles can create folders, upload files into folders
and share their documents and folders with other individuals
or groups. All of this can be accomplished using a web-browser
interface that is very easy and intuitive to use. Come get a
sneak preview before the rollout to the VCU community, planned
for summer.
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| Blackboard
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The Blackboard
course management system at VCU will be upgraded to a new version
at the end of the spring semester. The upgrade will provide
VCU faculty and students with many new enhancements, including
advanced content management features, numerous grade book and
assessment enhancements, and a new Collaboration Tool (with
Virtual Classroom and Chat capabilities).
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| Wireless
Networking |
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This month VCU
implemented new security features on its wireless network. These
changes will protect the information that you send and receive
from your laptop or PDA such as IDs, passwords and personal
information. Also, only VCU-affiliated individuals will be permitted
to use the wireless network. Come learn more about it and get
help installing the required software to access the network.
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What's
New at the VCU Libraries?
Patron Empowerment Digital Services |
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Digital services
will be the focus of the VCU Libraries ETD 2004 exhibit. In
America today, empowerment is increasingly valued; "self-service"
is increasingly a part of our culture. In the library community,
the phrase "patron empowerment" is often used to describe
services that enable users to control the digital environment
according to their preferences, and thereby improve their library
experience. We know our students live on the Web - - Web-based
digital services make using the VCU Libraries much more convenient
for individuals who are on or off campus. Digital reference
and resource delivery services will be demonstrated, including
Ask-A-Librarian, a virtual reference or "chat"-based
reference service and features of ILLiad, the Library's interlibrary
loan and document delivery service. Selected features from the
Libraries' new integrated library system, which features a powerful
Web-based catalog, will also be showcased, including course
reserves and My Library. Circulation functions such as courtesy
notices, overdue notification, and online renewal will also
be demonstrated. Libraries staff will be available for questions
and a Web page focusing on these digital services will debut.
Building on the Libraries' 2003 digital showcase, which featured
digital collections, this exhibit on digital services illustrates
the Libraries' commitment to one of VCU's priorities for 2004-07
- - building a student-centered university.
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| WEAVEonline |
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WEAVEonlineTM
is a Web-based assessment management system that allows academic
programs and administrative and educational support units at
VCU to capture and analyze information to support continuing
improvement efforts as well as answer external calls for accountability
including accreditations, annual reports, program reviews, and
state reporting. Each program/unit enters data on its mission,
objectives/outcomes, assessment measures and findings, planned
actions to effect future improvements, and reflective analyses.
There are also planning, reporting, and feedback features. WEAVEonline™
was used successfully university-wide to capture data for the
2002-2003 academic year. The 2004 version has enhancements including
an Action Tracking function, which will track program improvements
over time. Most colleges and universities handle quality improvement
planning, assessing, and tracking by paper, with locally developed,
non-integrated databases on individual computers. WEAVEonlineTM
is Web-based, with much greater flexibility to capture or retrieve
data from any platform, anywhere. The application also supports
Microsoft Word and Excel exporting, allowing users to centrally
store unit/program data, and then export specific data for various
reporting needs. VCU has trademarked the name of and registered
the copyright for this unique program. There are potential national
and even international markets for WEAVEonline™, but the
focus has been on making it right for VCU users. It has been
developed by a VCU team, with significant input from faculty
and staff across the university. Presently, version 3.0 of WEAVEonlineTM
is being developed for the commercial market with major upgrades
in the manager and administrative functions, which will allow
other institutions to tailor the system to fit their unique
needs. NOTE: For evaluation purposes, a demonstration of WEAVEonlineTM
can be accessed at http://www.weave.vcu.edu/demo/ with the password
WOdemo. The proposal is to have a live demonstration of the
application, answer questions, and solicit additional user feedback.
This exhibit will require an Internet connection.
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