Technology@Wooster

The fourth of four finalists for the position of Director of Instructional Technology will visit campus on Monday, September 24. The candidate will make a public presentation at 4:00 in Severance 009. He will speak on the role of technology in teaching and learning in the liberal arts environment. The candidate’s vitae is now available online. All are invited to provide the search committee with feedback by completing and submitting the evaluation form.

The third of four finalists for the position of Director of Instructional Technology will visit campus on Thursday, September 20. The candidate will make a public presentation at 11:00 in Kauke 305. He will speak on the role of technology in teaching and learning in the liberal arts environment. The candidate’s vitae is now available online. All are invited to provide the search committee with feedback by completing and submitting the evaluation form.

The second of four finalists for the position of Director of Instructional Technology will visit campus on Monday, September 17. The candidate will make a public presentation at 4:00 in Severance 009. He will speak on the role of technology in teaching and learning in the liberal arts environment. The candidate’s vitae is now available online. All are invited to provide the search committee with feedback by completing and submitting the evaluation form.

The first of four finalists for the position of Director of Instructional Technology will visit campus on Monday, September 10. The candidate will make a public presentation at 4:00 in Severance 009. He will speak on the role of technology in teaching and learning in the liberal arts environment. The candidate’s vitae is now available online. All are invited to provide the search committee with feedback by completing and submitting the evaluation form.

Prior to the beginning of each academic year, the Office of Information Technology conducts a week-long series of training events for the students who will be working for us during the year. This week of activity is informally known as bootcamp and this year’s edition got underway earlier today. During bootcamp, new student workers are introduced to general IT policies and practices, to IT facilities, and to specific technologies in use on our campus. These technologies include the presentation equipment and control systems in our classrooms, our public printing facilities and systems, our anti-virus and anti-spyware applications, our multimedia creation and editing applications, technologies related to the campus network, and the MacIntosh and Windows operating systems. Bootcamp also provides returning student workers with opportunities to become familiar with relevant changes that have been implemented over the summer. This year, our student workers will be introduced to the Network Access Control (NAC) system newly implemented for our residential spaces. During the final three days of bootcamp, our student workers receive on-the-job training as they provide walk-in assistance to new and returning students at the newly relocated student help desk, and on the fourth floor of Morgan Hall. Bootcamp is organized by our tireless Manager of User Services, Mary Schantz.

We welcome our new student workers and welcome the return of those who have worked with us in the past. We wish each of them a productive academic year.

IT will be seeking additional student employees and will hold a job fair for students who might be interested in working with us. Details will be released shortly.

Database Specialist John Ma has left the College to attend graduate school. During his six year tenure in the Applications Development group, John provided support for our admissions and payroll applications. Most recently he worked intensively on the large scale data conversions associated with our implementation of Colleague Advancement for the Offices of Development and Alumni Affairs. We’ll miss John and wish him the very best with his studies.

The search to fill the position of Director of Instructional Technology has been pressed throughout the summer. The search committee has reviewed applications, and conducted phone interviews, and is now working to complete arrangements for candidates to visit campus. These visits are expected to occur during the weeks of September 3, 10 and 17. Additional details will be released as they become available. The Office of Information Technology is very grateful to the faculty and staff members of the search committee for their continuing efforts.

This summer, a number of important responsibilities shifted from Instructional Technology to Networks, Telecommunications and Systems (NTS). These responsibilities include the installation and maintenance of projectors, smartboards, projection screens, speakers, DVD players and similar devices in classrooms and presentation spaces. They also include providing media support for College events. To facilitate these changes, Media Technology Manager Anthony Liccardi has joined NTS and now reports to NTS Director Vince Di Scipio.

These changes will allow us to leverage the NTS group’s considerable experience in equipment installation and support. This will be particularly useful as IT looks to pay increased attention to campus classrooms, meeting rooms and presentation spaces. These changes are also intended to free Instructional Technology of these responsibilities, so that that department can focus more attention on learning space design, the evaluation of new technologies and their pedagogical implications, the provision of new services to faculty and to students, and the provision of more direct support for faculty in the effective use of technology in teaching and learning.

The Office of Information Technology is grateful to Vince and to Anthony for their roles in this transition and is confident that these changes will ultimately enhance the quality of IT services.

IT Administrative Assistant Linda McNeil will be on leave for several weeks beginning Monday, July 27.

During Linda’s absence:

• Questions related to mailing list creation and management using List Serv should be directed to the help desk at 330 287-3000 x1111.

• Requests for toner should continue to be made via the IT website.

• Questions related to Pharos print management accounts should be directed to the help desk at 330 287-3000 x1111 or to Mary Schantz, Manager of User Services, at mschantz@wooster.edu.

• Requests for loaner laptops and projectors should be made by sending an email message to IT_Loaner_Equipment@wooster.edu. These devices are available for check out for classes, presentations and related academic purposes. Devices must be picked up at the IT Help Desk on the main level of Andrews Library (behind the circulation desk) between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

We’ll miss you, Linda.

Linda McNeil

User Support Specialist Leslie Worcester has announced that she will leave the College of Wooster as of August 3, 2007. She has accepted an IT support position at her alma mater. We will miss Leslie a great deal, and wish her the very best as she assumes her new position and the associated responsibilities.  Good luck, Leslie!