New Features — Fall 2008
Fall 2008 Technology Update
Posted September 3, 2008
Communications Labs Orientations and Temporary Accounts
Lab Orientations
All students are required to complete a Communications Lab Orientation in order to use the labs. To find out if you need to attend an orientation, follow these guidelines:
- Students who have previously gone through the orientation do not need to do so again.
- If you are enrolled in any of the following classes, you will receive an in-class orientation:
- COMM 121 Section 3: Visual Communications
- COMM 123 Sections 1 & 2: Communications Technology
- COMM 220: Video Production
- COMM 222: Animation
- If you are not in any of the classes listed above and do not already have a Comm Lab login, you must email commlab@simmons.edu to schedule an orientation.
Temporary Accounts
In order to accommodate class work at the very beginning of the semester, each computer will be set up with a temporary login. If you do not have a login, make sure to email commlab@simmons.edu to schedule an orientation immediately. You may use the temporary logins for your classwork until you receive your normal logins. The temporary logins will only be available for the first two weeks of the semester.
To use a temporary account, look at the name on the top right of the computer. That name is both the username and the password. So for the computer Ivy it is Ivy/Ivy, Oracle will use Oracle/Oracle and so on.
Lab Computer Changes
Operating System Upgrades
All of the Comm Lab computers have been upgraded to OS X 10.5 (Leopard) for this semester. While Leopard offers some new flare, if you have used any of the previous versions of OS X in the past you should feel right at home using the new version.
New Applications and Updates
We have upgraded several applications in the Comm Labs:
- iLife ‘08 (includes iPhoto, iMovie, iWeb, iDVD and GarageBand)
- iWork ‘08 (includes Pages, Keynote and Numbers)
- Microsoft Office 2008
- Final Cut Express 4
- Adobe After Effects (On Ivy, Storm and Psylock)
- Transmit 3 (FTP software)
iMovie and Final Cut Everywhere
For those of you using iMovie in your classes, you might already be aware that iMovie ‘08 is a very different application than the previous version (iMovie ‘06). This semester both applications will be available on the Comm Lab computers. Unless you are moving an iMovie project from a home computer, you will most likely be using iMovie ‘06, which is located in /Applications/iMovie '06.
In anticipation of the changes in iMovie ‘08, we have purchased Final Cut Express for all of the lab computers. While slightly more complex, it is the application that most closely resembles the functionality of iMovie ‘06. If you’re interested in video, make sure to check it out!
For those of you that need the most advanced video editing, Final Cut Studio and Adobe After Effects are available on Ivy, Storm and Psylock.