Technology@Wooster

On April 10, David Waldron (CITO), Tabby Conwell (Director of Applications Development), Vince Di Scipio (Director of Networks, Telecommunications and Systems) and Janet Russell (Director of Instructional Technology) visited the campus of Ohio Wesleyan. The visit was hosted by the staff of OWU’s Library and Information Services staff. The visit afforded the groups the opportunity to share information about technologies and technology products and to compare notes related to their respective policies and strategies. The two groups also discussed possible areas of collaboration with an eye toward lowering costs and improving services on both campuses. The visit included a tour of IT resources; the OWU library and information commons; and the Sagan Academic Resource Center which contains the Academic Skills Center, the Learning Disabilities Assistance Center, the Quantitative Skills Center and the Writing Resource Center. IT and the libraries have been merged at OWU, and the visit provided the Wooster IT managers the opportunity to discuss this organizational arrangement with their counterparts. We’re grateful to Theresa Byrd and her staff for their hospitality and look forward to returning the favor. On March 7, an IT group paid a similar visit to Oberlin. We also thank John Bucher and his staff for hosting us.

Colleague will be unavailable between 5:15 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on Monday, April 30; Wednesday, May 2; and Thursday, May 3. (ScotWeb will also be unavailable.) During these periods IT will be working to copy large amounts of historical financial aid data from the legacy system to Colleague. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

The digital records storage and retrieval system has recently been upgraded and reorganized to improve service. In 2004, the College entered into a partnership with IBM to license IBM’s DB2 Content Manager System for storage, archiving and retrieval. The initial setup was complete and a limited rollout of service was completed. With support from the Vice President of Business and Finance, The Director of Administrative Services and the Manager of the Digital Imaging Center, a consulting engagement with Silicon Plains was planned. The consultants worked onsite and remotely for four weeks to reorganize the data, rebuild search criteria, normalize metadata and upgrade the application.

John McCreight has recently completed the required class work and testing to become a Cisco Certified Network Administrator. John, in his capacity as Unix System Administrator, has taken an interest in improving electronic communications on campus. To that end, he has begun classroom training and self study courses to achieve the Certified Cisco Network Professional certification.

Over the past several months NTS has been communicating with users of FileMaker 5.5 and 6.0 to begin to move all of the data over to the newest version available. All of the FileMaker databases housed on the FileMaker 5 server have been updated and moved to FileMaker Server version 8. During this effort User Services has been replacing all of the FileMaker 5.5 and 6.0 desktop installations with client version 8.5. This effort has only been possible with the cooperation of the client offices and their willingness to migrate. At this point of the initiative, any user who still has any FileMaker Client version below 8.5 should contact the helpdesk to schedule an upgrade. Also any group that uses FileMaker databases locally should email Vince Di Scipio (* vdiscipio@wooster.edu *) to discuss moving the databases to the server.

NTS is currently working on upgrading our current List server software to a new version. We have installed the new software and ported over the current list information. Several list server users have been asked to test the system, and provide feedback on its usability. Some of the features of the new version are easier list maintenance through the web interface, ability to track usage statistics, and easier removal of old and unused lists. Casual users of lists will not notice differences from the old to the new software and will use the same addresses to send postings.

The Department of Instructional Technology has adopted a proactive classroom maintenance program. Technology-enhanced classrooms are now visited on a weekly basis. During these visits, our technician ensures that the screen and data projector are operating correctly, verifies that the projector is properly focused, checks the quality of sound being produced by the equipment, and cleans the computer and audio/video units. The technician also cleans any overhead projectors that are present and verifies their operation. After visiting all the classrooms in a particular building, the technician emails that building’s administrative coordinators to report on the status of the classroom technology and any repairs or corrections that were undertaken. This initiative complements a similar program for the computer labs. We hope that these efforts will uncover problems before they impact learning activities in campus classrooms.

To report a problem with classroom technology please call x2204. If the problem is an emergency, please call Anthony Liccardi, Media Technology Manager, at 330 201-6165.

The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education (NITLE) and Project Kaleidoscope recently conducted a workshop on Learning Spaces & Technology on the campus of the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. Iain Crawford (VPAA), Simon Gray (Associate Professor of Computer Science), Damon Hickey (Director of the Libraries), Janet Russell (Director of Instructional Technology) and David Waldron (CITO) comprised the Wooster team attending the event. The workshop was designed to help colleges and universities plan effective technology-enhanced learning spaces. These spaces include libraries, classrooms, and computing or multi-media labs.

The Wooster participants discussed how students might best be prepared for life, work, citizenship and leadership in our digital age and the knowledge democracy that is emerging, and how the College libraries, learning support services and the learning spaces across campus might be reimagined to enhance student outcomes. All the Wooster attendees are members of the Wooster’s taskforce on the future of the libraries. The group took advantage of the workshop to further the ongoing converstation about the development of a knowledge commons within Andrews Library. Janet Russell and David Waldron also updated the group on the creation of the instructional technology demo classroom in Taylor Hall and the renovation of Wishart 102 as a prototype technology-enhanced classroom. The group discussed the importance of collaboration and coordination between Information Technology, Instructional Technology and academic offices to ensure that technological operations, facilities and initiatives are aligned with learning goals and outcomes. The workshop attendees have scheduled a follow-up meeting to review the workshop and plan future activities.

David Waldron, Simon Gray, Iain Crawford, Janet Russell and Damon Hickey
during a break at the Learning Spaces workshop.

In cooperation with the Departments of Physics and Math and Computer Science, the Office of Instructional Technology has designated Taylor 210 an instructional technology demo room. The demo room will provide faculty members and instructional technologists the opportunity to experiment with and to evaluate classroom technologies in a classroom setting. The technologies installed in the demo room will change on a regular basis. The experimentation and evaluation that takes place in the demo room will be used to determine which technologies should be deployed in classrooms across the campus.

The Office of Instructional Technology will be soliciting faculty input as to which technologies should be installed in the demo room. Each installation will be announced here in the blog. Questions? Contact Janet Russell, Director of Instructional Technology.

Stay tuned for further developments!