| IIT Newsletter -- March 2005 |
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by Roberta Lembke, Director of Information and Instructional Technologies |
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| (continued from the front page) Classroom Technologies The summer is our busiest time for classroom work. A number of classrooms are due for technology renewals including new or upgraded computers, software, projectors, etc. We will also be installing technology into a couple of classrooms that currently don't have any technology. In addition we expect to spend between 4 and 8 hours in each classroom doing routine maintenance, cleaning, etc. If you have a room you would like to see included on the list of new/renewal technology classrooms, please make sure to ask your department chair to include this on the April 1st technology request. Business System Upgrades St. Olaf adopted a best of breed approach to our business systems back in 1996. This approach provides numerous benefits to the individual offices but it does cause some headaches and lots of work for IIT staff, as we are continually upgrading servers and software systems. Most times we are forced by the vendors to do the software upgrades or lose our maintenance support! Over the next 18 months, we will be involved in a Lawson upgrade (slated to be completed by March of 2006, a Recruitment Plus upgrade (specific date unknown), and an upgrade to the Millennium system (specific date unknown). Additionally, we will roll-out the new Student System, and begin the serious programming on the new Student Financials module (part of the Student System). Depending on financing, we also hope to address the need for a document imaging system! Luckily, the business systems work is not limited to the summer months and so we have opportunities to schedule these projects through out the year. Student Computing and A/V Issues Over the summer we expect to upgrade a number of student labs. Some are simply machine replacements for dated computers while others involve new services. For example, IIT has partnered with the Library to expand the RML330 lab. For those that don't know, this lab has been set up with high-end computers for video editing, stations for scanning, and both Macs and PC's for general computing use. The lab also has a number of video editing stations. By next fall the lab will have three group computing stations, a number of Multi-Region DVD/VHS viewing stations, and an expanded number of general use computers. This lab is an important access point for student use, particularly as the Library is now open until 2AM. Another new service will be a group video/DVD room (which will also be multi-region DVD capable) that will be set up in the Library. This room should accommodate up to 15 or so students. We estimate that there are approximately 2755 students who own computers and it's likely that 2500 of the students who live on campus have connected to the network. It is critical that these students keep their machines free of viruses, worms, and spyware. To aid in this process, IIT staff will be developing a CD to send to all first year students in the new First Year Student Binder. This same CD will be available to all upper class students upon their return to campus. During the summer we will be developing programs for our campus TV channel. We currently use this channel during registration to show closed and open courses. We have decided to expand the use of channel by developing information programs about technology issues on campus (viruses, connecting to the network, IIT services, etc.). Systems and Networking Every year IIT replaces or upgrades a number of our servers and pieces of network equipment. As most of you know, this often means campus-wide system and network downtime. This year we have a particularly challenging summer as we have to replace our SAN. The SAN (Storage Area Network) is the device that holds all the user files (files you store on Brit, Sven, your e-mail, etc.). This is a serious and time-consuming upgrade and we fully expect that the campus network will be down starting at noon on a Friday and will be down until the following Monday morning at 7AM. The date has not yet been set but it must happen during June or July. We are aware of a number of “bad” weekends but if you know of a weekend that is particularly difficult for you, please let us know! We are 100% positive that someone will be negatively impacted by the downtime but I can assure you that we will do our best to minimize the disruption. On the weekend we do the SAN replacement, we will also upgrade our core campus router, install a Firewall, and install a number of new servers. Needless to say, it will be a long weekend for some of the staff! Routine Operations IIT staff allocate a number of hours to the routine and necessary aspects of our work that can only be done during the summer months. This includes doing targeted inventory of equipment (did you realize that we have over $5.8 million worth of computing and A/V technology that we track?), preparing workshops and seminar materials for the academic year, writing documentation, updating the website, etc. While we have a great many projects that are on the “must do” list, we also accept projects from departments and offices. It is important you realize that our priority throughout the year goes to the core mission of the institution (teaching and learning) and then to maintaining the core business systems, and that during the summer we place an emphasis on those curricular projects that need to be ready by the start of the academic year. If you have a project idea, please give me a call so we can schedule a time to talk. |
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| Information and Instructional Technologies • St. Olaf College |