Innovating Tradition in the Modern Learning Environment

Join ICS for this conversation about the future of mobility, learning and pedagogy at leading universities on September 25, 10:30 – 11:30 a.m., at The Pyle Center in Madison, WI.

ICS Client Wins National Rich Media Award

Congratulations to ICS client, the UW-Madison Center for Financial Security, for receiving the Rich Media Impact Award for Excellence in Education from Sonic Foundry. Nicole Truog, associate director of the center, and Greg Cichy, ICS Teleconference Technician, accepted the award on behalf of the center and ICS.

The award recognized the center’s innovative use of the Mediasite webcasting technology for outreach to family financial planners throughout the state and nation. The UW-Madison Center for Financial Security and the ICS team work together each month to produce live webcasts and archive them for public viewing on the center’s webinar site. Since the webinar series started in 2010, more than 1,700 individuals from across the country have participated in 13 webinars on such diverse topics as “Public Libraries as Financial Literacy Providers” and “Payday Lending.”

Truog said, “Mediasite facilitates the dissemination of applied research to a national audience and has enabled the Center for Financial Security at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to reach practitioners who are working to improve the financial lives of Americans.”

The Center for Financial Security (CFS) is an applied, multidisciplinary research center that seeks to inform practitioners, policymakers, and the general public on strategies for building financial capability and security over the life course. CFS research examines the role of specific products, policies and advice in helping individuals navigate the increasingly complex financial marketplace.

ICS has been a leader in instructional teleconference services since 1965 and is dedicated to helping organizations and individuals learn to use distance learning technologies and to continuously researching and testing new technologies and applications.

More information is available at the Center for Financial Security’s web site. The award nomination and the May 2012 awards ceremony also is available for on-demand viewing.

Nate Jorgensen Appointed to UW System Committee

ICS’ teleconference technician Nate Jorgensen has been appointed by the UW-Extension / UW Colleges Chancellor Ray Cross to serve as UW-Extension’s representative on the Educational Media Technology Council (EMTC). EMTC’s membership is comprised of one appointed representative from each UW System institution. It provides a forum for addressing educational media and technology issues that affect individual campuses and the University of Wisconsin System as a whole.

In appointing Nate to the committee Chancellor Cross noted that “Nate’s qualifications and experience at ICS make him well positioned to contribute to the council’s work.”

At ICS, Nate provides support for all of the ICS teleconference services and specializes in support for the WisLine Video bridging service. In addition to serving on the committee, Nate has also been elected to serve as EMTC treasurer for the upcoming year. Congratulations, Nate.

Wisconsin Supreme Court conducts first videoconference public hearing

Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson thanks UW-Extension Instructional Communications Systems for assistance

UW-Extension’s Instructional Communications Systems (ICS) recently supported the Wisconsin Supreme Court to successfully host the court’s first-ever public hearing using videoconferencing. Members of the Court needed to receive testimony and feedback from peers in other states, as well as from a law professor and staff of federal rules advisory committees. They chose videoconferencing with ICS’s WisLine Video service to help accomplish their goals.

The hearing, about improving the court’s rule-making process, took place on March 5, 2012, and included video connections with six locations across the country. ICS coordinated with remote sites to schedule services, test equipment and provide desktop videoconference software for a site lacking compatible equipment. The preparation ensured smooth transitions as the court took testimony from each expert.

In recent letters, Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson thanked ICS staff for their expertise and technical support allowing her and her colleagues to host the hearing, now archived on Wisconsin Eye at: http://bit.ly/GIUloC

“It was a terrific success because of your time and expertise,” Abrahamson wrote.

ICS Director Eddie Loo said that credit must be shared: “ICS working in collaboration with the Department of Administration’s Division of State Facilities really made this work. We are proud that we could partner with DOA and share the resources of the University of Wisconsin to serve the Wisconsin Supreme Court. That is part of our mission to carry out the Wisconsin Idea.”

Located in The Pyle Center in Madison, ICS provides tele-collaborative distance education services for educational, governmental and nonprofit organizations in Wisconsin and beyond, helping them to connect whether in person or at a distance. For information, visit http://www.uwex.edu/ics/.

ICS Introduces Reservationless Audio Conference Service: WisLine Anytime

Instructional Communications Systems (ICS), University of Wisconsin-Extension, is pleased to announce its newest service, WisLine Anytime. WisLine Anytime is an on-demand, self-service audio conference service that can be used at any time from anywhere. WisLine Anytime offers the following advantages:

• On demand, anytime access for audio and web conferencing at any time. No reservations required.
• 24 x 7 technical support.
• Ease of use with a dedicated dial-in number and passcode.
• Cost savings through lower per minute rates.

With WisLine Anytime there is no need to make a reservation or schedule a conference. After your new host account is created, you receive your own personal passcode with 75 phone lines available for you to use whenever you need to meet or collaborate.

In addition, as a host, you’ll have access to an online dashboard allowing you to view your usage and even control conference functions. Through touchtone commands you can easily control conference functions such as muting and recording.

To host a meeting you simply send your conference phone number and passcode to your participants. Participants dial in to a toll-free number at the time and date you’ve arranged and your conference begins.

Technical support is available at any time during your conference and you’ll always be assured of high-quality audio. You can even record your conference at no charge and download it from your online dashboard to listen to at your convenience or distribute to others.

The cost for WisLine Anytime is just 2.9 cents per minute (UW departments, Wisconsin state and local government agencies) and includes access to the account dashboard, recording, and technical support, and more. The rate for non-profits and other governmental agencies is 3.5 cents per minute. You are charged only for the time you use the service.

Basic, integrated web conferencing with WisLine Anytime Online Meeting is also available for an extra 5 cents per minute. Web conferences are fully integrated with your WisLine Anytime audio and allow you to upload PowerPoint presentations, Word and Excel documents and pdf files, view web sites and other applications through application sharing, text chat, and much more.

You can request WisLine Anytime account beginning November 21. For more information: WisLine Anytime visit us on the web, www.uwex.edu/ics/wislineanytime, send an email to wislineaudio@ics.uwex.edu, or call us at 608-262-0753 or toll-free at 1-855-289-9177.