DyKnow 5.0 released!

So I have to give a plug here for the annual upgrade that our team has worked so hard to release. DyKnow v5.0 is generally available and the reader software is available here.

I'm especially excited about a couple enhancements that a lot of you requested. First off, authoring is now MUCH more friendly to the keyboard user. Full Text mode will allow the user to natively type and format text on a DyKnow slide much like the experience in Microsoft Word. Anything typed by a DyKnow teacher will instantaneously appear on student screens and will be available for modification by students after the session has been archived.

Second, I am pleased to tell all you folks doing browser-based testing that we now have URL whitelisting in DyKnow Monitor. This basically means that a teacher can customize a URL or domain name that she wants to allow, or whitelist, for students to visit...while every other URL is blocked. Folks are already using this feature to test through Blackboard, ANGEL, or another flavor of LMS. And yes, HTTPS works in addition to IE 7.0 and Firefox 2.0 browsers.

Finally, the feature that I think will be most valuable and have the most potential for growth is Blackboard LMS authentication. No more manual management of DyKnow users and course enrollments! The DyKnow administrator may hook DyKnow up with a corresponding Bb Building Block such that when users enter their Bb credentials into the DyKnow client, we will bring back the user role and and course associations to populate the DyKnow database. This will save system admins a ton of time. Details are here. No, the Building Block does not work with former WebCT systems quite yet, but this integration opens the door to this and other integrations. Look for some cool stuff in the future!