Information Management Newsletter March 2007

Information Management Newsletter for Block 6, 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

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 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 would 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 XP to Vista in 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 in Summer 2007 on both new computers and as upgrades.

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

Network Upgrade

You may have heard that we are doing a massive upgrade of our wired network over Spring Break, followed by a complete overhaul of our wireless network this Summer. One of our goals during the implementation of this terrific new network is to make sure you are aware of how it will affect you, and when.

To that end, we've created a website which will be continually updated with the newest information about the network upgrade including the implementation plan and where we are in the process. You can find the website here: http://www.coloradocollege.edu/networkupgrade/ (we recommend you check back frequently, as the site will be updated all the time - especially when it gets close to an event that looks like it will affect you)!

In addition, we have created a listserv called "NetworkInformation." We thought this would be a good way to send out announcements regarding the network -- for example, we will send draft outage notices to the list to see if the time period we're specifying raises any flags before we send the flash out to the entire campus. In the near future, of course, we also plan to send a lot of announcements about the network upgrade (which will cause a lot of brief outages as we cut over equipment), but as the above example illustrates, we'll plan on using it in the future for other good purposes even after the network upgrade is over.

If you would like to be subscribed to this listserv, please notify the help desk at x6449 or HelpDesk@ColoradoCollege.edu.

Managing Assistive Technologies From A-Z

John Bickar, Academic Technology Specialist for Students, and Kari McPherson, Learning Commons Office Coordinator, recently attended the “Managing Assistive Technology from A to Z” Institute in New Orleans. Held from February 22nd through 24th, and sponsored by the Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD), the institute aimed to help Disability Services professionals manage the use of assistive (or “adaptive”) technology (AT) within the specific context of their campuses. Thus the focus was less on the technical aspects of assistive technology, and more on the managerial aspects. Topics covered included:

AT for physical and learning disabilities
AT and the law in higher ed
Web and distance-learning accessibility
Creating an AT management plan
Working with campus IT
AT training in higher ed
On-campus e-text production

Institute attendees came from a wide variety of institutions, from community colleges to major research institutions, and brought a great variety of experience into the daily conversations. The strongest emphasis of the institute was on “being student-driven,” an approach that ensures responsiveness to students with disabilities even within the confines of limited resources.

As a follow-up to this institute, Bickar and McPherson will be working closely with Jan Edwards, Director of Disability Services, to develop a management plan for AT on the CC campus. The plan will balance a holistic approach to making AT available in all of the student computing labs, with several dedicated AT workstations for specialized software and hardware. This close partnership between IM and Disability Services ensures that we are meeting the academic technology needs of all CC students.

Daylight Savings Time

Despite our best efforts to apply patches and hotfixes provided by Microsoft to prepare for the change in Daylight Savings Time this year, we've found that many people are having problems with inaccurate appointment times. Some people appear to be all set, while others have some correct appointments and some incorrect.

Please be aware that appointments on your electronic calendar, whether in Outlook, OWA (Outlook Web Access), Entourage, or on a PDA for the next 3 weeks starting today (3/12 - 4/1) may be off by one hour.

If you use multiple email clients (for example, Outlook at work and Outlook Web Access at home), please also be aware that your appointment times may be correct in one client and incorrect in the other.

We are working hard to determine the best solution for this problem, and you'll be hearing from us soon.

We strongly recommend that you do not trust your calendar and confirm all your appointment times for the day. We also recommend that if you make any new appointments, you include the time in the subject field to help avoid confusion arising from the DST changes.

If you have any questions, please contact the Help Desk.

Academic Technology Incubator Program

This spring, Academic Technology Services (ATS) launched a new faculty program offering – the Academic Technology Incubator Program.

This program aims to better address faculty needs related to production support, resource-intensive academic technology projects, course and assignment makeovers, and pilot or research and development initiatives.

The first call for proposals for the Incubator program was a great success! After reviewing the submissions with the college Information Technology and Library Policy Board (ITAL), it was confirmed that ATS could support all 16 proposals that were submitted.

This season's Incubator projects represent all the academic divisions and a diverse range of initiatives. Projects include:

Keith Kester & Tricia Waters - Searchable Database and Linguistic Analysis of
E-Journaling Data
Anthropology Dept. - Web-Based Senior Paper Topic Development Resource Guide
Rebecca Tucker & Re Evitt - Multimedia "textbook" for Dante and Michelangelo: Art and Influence in the Renaissance
Joan Ericson - Computer-based Testing of Japanese Language Skills
Mark Smith - Field Trip and Graphics Image Library
Gypsy Ames - Slide & Image Digitizing
Re Evitt - On-Line Academic Journal
Eileen Bresnahan - Web Literacy and Portfolio Assignment
Sally Meyer - On-line Quiz Development/Exploration of Best Practices in PROWL
Amelia Taylor - Calculus Testing Solution
Steven Janke - Learning Portal for Statistics
Dennis McEnnerney - Web-based Course Assignment Upload System
Kris Stanec - Technology Enhancement of the 2 nd Annual Girl's Day in the Lab
Music Dept. - Classroom Access/Scheduling Software Solution
Mario Montano - Training in Photoshop and Image Scanning and Printing -Image Digitizing

The next call for proposals will be announced in early October, 2007.