Information Management Newsletter February 2007

Information Management Newsletter for Block 5, 2007

The Information Management Newsletter is a periodic publication during the academic year to keep the community informed about developments in information technology on campus.

We will announce publication of a new issue via divisional listservs and campus digests. If you aren't subscribed to one of these lists and would like to receive an e-mail notifying you when a new issue is published, please send your request to mbrenceaustin@coloradocollege.edu

Introducing RenewNet: The Network Upgrade Project Website

One of our goals in Information Management is to keep the campus connected to and informed about important technology projects that affect the CC community. In this spirit we have created a special website about the impending network upgrade project for 2007. Please visit it at: http://www.coloradocollege.edu/networkupgrade/.

This website has been created to deliver more information on the project, to meet the people who will be doing this work, to communicate and archive all notices to the campus, and to view a “frequently asked questions” (FAQ) resource. We will keep this website up-to-date through the summer of 2007. If you have a question that is not answered on this website, please feel free to email your question to networkupgrade@ColoradoCollege.edu.

As we prepare to do much of the work to upgrade the wired portion of the network from March-May 2007 (after which the wireless upgrade will follow in the summer), we want to keep you well informed. We hope you find this website to be a valuable resource; check it frequently for scheduling updates and so forth.

Windows Vista

You may know that Microsoft recently released its new operating system, Windows Vista alongside its new Office product, Office 2007. We in Information Management have had many discussions about how to proceed with these new releases here on campus and wanted to let you know our plan.

It is generally a good idea to wait several months (at a minimum) on these upgrades so that the initial bugs can be worked out. Currently, there are security issues with Vista, and many peripherals (i.e., printers and scanners) and software versions are not yet compatible with this new version of Windows. Many of our current computers could run Vista, but the performance would be very sluggish. Based on these and other considerations, we are going to delay implementing Vista on campus computers until 2008.

We plan to start installing Vista on all new computers that arrive starting in January 2008. Once these new computers start trickling in - and in order to be the least disruptive possible during the academic year - we'll then start taking requests for upgrades from Windows XP to Vista in the Summer of 2008.

Office 2007 will be implemented on the same schedule. The new features in Office 2007 are not significant enough to recommend a faster upgrade schedule, and there are some major interface differences between the current version of Office (Office 2003) and the new 2007 version, as well as some file compatibility issues. We are spending this semester and summer creating documentation and a training/support strategy, as well as waiting for some software patches to fix current Office 2007 issues.

Look for additional announcements about Vista and Office 2007, including some pre-emptive training, later this calendar year.

Also of interest, Mac OS X.5 (Leopard) is going to be released this spring. We'll plan on implementing it in the Summer of 2007 on both new computers and as upgrades.

Please let us know if you have any questions, and stay tuned for more information!

Daylight Savings Change & Computers

As some of you may recall, Congress enacted the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which among other things changed the start and end dates for Daylight Savings Time beginning in 2007. This year, Daylight Savings will come on March 11 (instead of April 1), and end on November 4 (instead of October 28).

While this Act will likely save on our nation’s energy costs, it does provide some challenges to the Information Management department. Our Windows and Macintosh computers are normally scheduled to change their clocks automatically for Daylight Savings. They will therefore all need to be patched to account for the date changes. Microsoft released their patches on Tuesday, February 15, 2007 and they are now being distributed to all of our computers on campus via Windows Update and our Altiris management software. Apple released their patch quite some time ago; any computer with OS X 10.4.5 or higher is not affected by this issue. If you are running an older version of Mac OS X, you should contact the Help Desk at x6449 to update your computer. To check your version, click on the blue Apple icon in the upper-left corner of your screen and select “About this Mac.”

Despite our best efforts, there may be issues with unpatched computers. The most disruptive of these is with Microsoft calendar products; appointments made in Microsoft Outlook or Entourage on unpatched computers will be incorrect, and may cause meeting/scheduling problems. If in doubt, it is probably best to contact meeting invitees by phone or email to confirm appointments during the March 11 to April 1 time period (after that, any computers that are behind will catch up). Please let us know if you have any questions regarding the Daylight Savings Time change.

Academic Technology Services Biannual Survey Process

Over the past year, the Academic Technology Services team (ATS) has worked with Institutional Research to craft a biannual faculty/academic staff survey. We have researched instruments in use by other institutions and national organizations and have worked hard to create a "best in breed" offering of questions, with the goal of better understanding and serving academic technology needs.

ATS has created a parallel survey for students, to better assess and serve their academic technology needs as well. We anticipate that some interesting community conversations could arise when comparing the faculty/staff and student data! We plan to share our findings before the end of the school year.

While we know that this is "yet another survey" that you're being asked to respond to, we are very grateful for your time and your thoughts! ATS has spent the last year and a half working to become increasingly flexible and responsive to ever-changing and growing academic technology needs. We are poised and prepared to modify and enhance our services, but really require faculty input in order to be successful. While a survey cannot (and is not meant to) replace face-to-face conversations, it is another means by which we can better assess our performance and service impact. We will administer this survey every two years from now on, in order to track trends, perceptions, and issues over time.

Thanks in advance for your participation in this important initiative! If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact Marla Gerein at x6738 or via email at mgerein@coloradocollege.edu.

Introducing the Academic Technology Incubator Program

The ATS team is excited to introduce a new program to better meet some of your instructional technology needs - the Academic Technology Incubator Program.

We will continue to offer the daily and blockly instructional technology support and consultations that we have always offered. But in addition, twice a year ATS will promote a “Call for Proposals” to faculty, asking for project proposals in the following categories:

* Production Support
* Resource-Intensive Instructional Technology Project
* Course or Assignment Makeover
* R&D or Pilot Project

Submit a short proposal, and the ATS team will work to bring human and financial resources to the table to help see your project through to completion. The first proposal due date is February 28, 2007.

Please visit http://www.coloradocollege.edu/ats/grow for the proposal form, examples of completed proposals (all taking less than 15 minutes to complete!), and more program details. Proposals can be emailed directly to mgerein@coloradocollege.edu, or to your divisional academic technology specialist (Sarah, Justin, or Peggy).

For your proposal, you don't need to have all the details "figured out" already. For example, you may not know how many hours it will take to scan your slide collection, or what software/hardware your project might need. The purpose of the proposal is to provide us with the goal/intent of your project, and any other information that you can provide. We will follow up and consult with you to clarify important details after you submit your proposal, as necessary.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your divisional academic technology specialist. This is the first call for proposals for the program, so any feedback on the process would be greatly appreciated as well!