November 2015 OET Newsletter

Microsoft Discounts on Surface and More

If you are in the market for a Surface this holiday season, the Microsoft Education Store offers a year-round 10 percent discount for faculty, students, and staff.  To access the discount—good on Surfaces, software, and accessories—visit the Microsoft Education Store online or bring your University of Delaware ID card with you to the mall. The discount is not available through the regular Microsoft website.

Keynote Presenter Announced for UDETC Conference

We are thrilled that Chris Aviles will be our keynote speaker for the University of Delaware Educational Technology Conference. Currently a K-6 teacher for Fair Haven School District in Fair Haven, N.J., Chris is a Google Certified Trainer, Innovator, and a Google Education Group: New Jersey leader. He was named one of Center for Digital Education’s Top 30 Technologists, Transformers, and Trailblazers for 2015. We hope that you will join us on Saturday, March 5, to learn from Chris and many other great presenters. To register or present, visit http://www.udetc.udel.edu/.

Anti-Theft Software for Devices

Is your device protected against theft?  Free and paid options exist for anti-theft software that help you track and recover a device if it’s lost or stolen.

For iOS devices, there is Find My iPhone, iPad and Mac, a free app from Apple.  This app can track the current and past locations of your device, display a message with contact information, remotely lock your device, or remotely wipe it. It also prevents your device from being erased or reactivated without a password.

Prey is a similar product—available for Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, and Ubuntu—that offers a free basic plan.  The basic plan allows you to install Prey on up to three devices and to receive up to 20 reports. Prey will message, remotely lock, and track a device.  A personal plan for $5 per month offers remote wiping of data on a device.

Absolute LoJack is not free but is one of the better protection options for devices.  It offers the services of a security team that works with law enforcement to track stolen devices. LoJack can locate and lock a device and delete data.  LoJack also offers a technology called Absolute Persistence that is installed on the firmware of supported devices during the manufacturing process. This technology allows you to still track the device, even if the device is wiped or reset to factory settings. Absolute LoJack, Prey, and Find My iPhone all require an Internet connection.

Computer Purchases for Work and Home

When purchasing a computer for the office, contact OET to give you a quote on a machine that will fit your needs now and in the future.  We can work with our vendors to insure that you get the lowest possible discount.

If you are purchasing either a Macintosh or Windows computer for personal use, the basic configuration that we recommend is an i5 or i7 processor, 8 GB of RAM, a 256 GB solid state drive (SSD) or a 500 GB hard disk drive (HHD), and a three-year warranty.  Apple and Dell offer discounts on personal machines for University faculty, staff, and students through UD’s website.

In addition, from now until January, Dell is offering students, parents, faculty, staff, and alumni an additional 10 percent off coupon on personal purchases. Visit www.dell.com/DellU/UDEL to get your 10 percent off coupon code in email. The email will contain your code and a link to the University’s Dell online store.

Holiday Phishing

With the holidays, we see an increase in phishing scams as spammers see an opportunity to target busy holiday shoppers.  Be on the alert for email messages about packages you did not order or coupons that you did not sign up to receive.  To prevent a malware infection on your machine, never open an attachment that you were not expecting or click on a link in a suspicious email.  In addition, the University will never inform you that your email account is out of space by requiring you to log into a web site. If you have questions about a message, contact OET or call or write the supposed sender directly.

Security Training Now Available on iPads

Secure UD, UD’s computer security training series, now defaults to HTML 5 instead of Flash to stream videos. This allows iPads or any device that does not use Flash to run the series.

Educational App of the Month: Quizlet

With Quizlet you can create customized flash cards or study materials from others to prepare for exams. You can share the study sets you develop or search for study sets created by others, including individuals, schools, and groups.  Quizlet offers three methods of quizzing: cards (flash cards), learn (fill in the blank) or match (a matching game).  Quizlet is available for free on the web or as an app from the Apple App Store or Google Play.