Technology@Wooster

Over the past three months the Department of Physical Education and Athletics has worked with the Office of Information Technology to consolidate and upgrade the video technology available in the PEC. A new central video lab has been created. It consists of two editing stations, one media conversion station and secure storage for the many portable devices.

The lab received heavy use during its inaugural season. Every fall sport from Field Hockey to Cross Country made use of the new lab space and the freshly trained student videographers. The finished productions can be viewed by classes and teams in the PEC using a new classroom AV-cart, portable LCD projectors, and Da-Lite Insta-Theater screens. The labs contents are listed below.

PC Editing Station

• Dell OptiPlex 745 Minitower
• Canopus ADVC-110 Analog Video Converter
• Sony Mini-DV Watchman
• DVD-VHS Combo Deck
• MyDVD-9 Studio Software

Mac Editing Station

• Mac Powerbook
• Sony Mini-DV Watchman
• DVD-VHS Combo Deck
• Toast 8.0 Titanium

Video Conversion Station

• JVC-HDD/Mini-DV/DVD-RW Deck
• DVD-VHS Combo Deck
• MicroBoards 3 disc DVD Duplicator

Portable Equipment

• 2 FireStore FS-4’s
• 1 Classroom AV Cart
• 2 Portable LCD Projectors
• 3 Da-Lite Insta-Theatre Screens

On Friday, October 26, 2007, Apple released it’s new operating system version–10.5 Leopard. The Office of Information Technology has tested the majority of campus-owned software and hardware with Leopard and  found it to be incompatible with the following: Mathematica, Maple, Pharos Print Management, SPSS 11. In addition, Leopard will not connect to the campus wireless network using LEAP or PEAP. Users who are interested in upgrading to Leopard are advised to wait until the appropriate patches for these applications are released. The Office of Information Technology will update the campus community as these patches become available.

EduCause is a nonprofit association devoted to advancing higher education by promoting the effective use of information technology.  The annual EduCause conference is one of the year’s premiere gatherings of higher education technologists.  The conference provides attendees with many opportunities to talk with vendors about new products and services, to catch up on the latest news from organizations devoted to technology and higher education, and to compare notes with colleagues from other colleges and universities. 

This year’s conference took place between October 23 and 26 in Seattle.  Tabby Conwell (Director of Applications Development), Monica Crawford (OSCAR Project Manager), Vince Di Scipio (Director of Networks, Telecommunications and Systems), and David Waldron (CITO) were among the conference’s 7,000 attendees.  Among many others, Wooster participants attended sessions on IT project management, applications of Web 2.0, learning space design, strategic planning, and ERP reporting.  Participants also had conversations with vendors specializing in web development and content management, project management tools, classroom technology and classroom technology interfaces, audio and video capture equipment, and networking equipment and services.

During the early evening hours of Friday, October 19, College Controller Todd Burson and Analyst/Programmer Connie McCarty worked together to close the books for fiscal year 2006-07.  The College began the use of the Colleague financial system on July 1, 2005, so 2006-07 was the second year that College accounting records were maintained in Colleague and the second year to be closed within Colleague.  The procedure ran smoothly.

In conjunction with Colleague, the Finance Office and IT worked together to implement a new financial reporting tool known as FRx. Fiscal 2006-07 marked the second time that FRx was used to produce the College’s financial statements. Todd indicates that FRx has been helpful to the Business Office in many ways, but was extraordinarily helpful in the production of this year’s financial statements. The financial statements of a given year are required to display information on the prior year as well. Because we now have two years of financial data in Colleague, we are, in Todd’s words, “now able to push a button and get our financial statements from the Colleague software.” This had made life in the Business Office quite a bit easier. As Todd puts it, “This has brought great joy to me.”

SMART Sympodium interactive pen displays have been installed in Mateer G01, 203 and 305.  The Sympodiums, small flat screen devices, have been installed on the tables or work benches in front of each of these three rooms.  They are connected to the classrooms’ computers and ceiling-mounted projectors. The Sympodiums allow instructors to project images from the computer onto the classroom screen.  While facing the class, instructors can add notes to the projected images in multiple colors.  At the end of the class, the presentation–including both the projected images and the instructor’s notes–can be digitally saved and, if desired, distributed.  This distribution can take place via Moodle. 

Also added to Mateer is a mobile cart with a projector and document camera. A document camera is special video camera designed to display documents and three dimensional objects via a projector, monitor or similar device. Document cameras can also be used to project the performance of small-scale lab demonstrations onto a wall-mounted screen.

This equipment was funded by a Hewlett-Mellon grant. The proposal was developed by Sharon Lynn of Biology and Janet Russell of Instructional Technology. The grant application sites the following benefits of these technologies:

• Increased student interaction during class
• Greater flexibility for instructors during class
• Development of notes with students that can be further adapted outside of class
• Improved demonstration of laboratory techniques
• Enhanced motivation on the part of students
• Enhanced retention of material

Installation of the new equipment was overseen by Vince Di Scipio, Director of Networks, Telecommunications and Systems. This role fell to Vince when Media Services was shifted from Instructional Technology to NTS.

A Sympodium and a document camera are currently available for inspection and experimentation in the Classroom Technology Demo Room. Questions about them can be directed to Jon Breitenbucher or Joe Benfield.

After six years, Media Technology Manager Anthony Liccardi has left the College to accept a position elsewhere. We in IT wish Anthony the best as he pursues this new opportunity.

Colleague (Datatel) will be unavailable between the hours of 4:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. on Friday, October 19.  The Business Office will be working during this period to close the books for the 2006-2007 fiscal year.  They must have exclusive use of the system during this procedure. ScotWeb will also be unavailable during this period.

Questions should be directed to Marlene Brown at extension 2304 or via email at mbrown@wooster.edu