And it has begun…
May 29, 2012Welcome to the summer edition of the ITC Chronicles blog. I always seem to have the best of intentions whenever I start a new blog post but somehow life and work seem to get in the way. Sooooooo, I will begin this 2012 summer edition of the ITC Chronicles with a preamble of the work that is to be completed over the summer within our college.
I hope to update this blog over the summer but please understand if I get side-tracked with all the work there is to do. In the past two weeks over 200 computers have arrived in Information Technology Services (ITS) to be inventoried for the College of Education & Professional Studies. This is the first step of a long journey that will hopefully be completed by the end of summer. This is but one of many projects that the Instructional Technology Center (ITC) will be working on this summer.
Here is the summer shortlist:
New Computer Installations: The College of Education & Professional Studies has 200 plus computers to configure and install over the summer. This is a mixture of replacements for aging faculty and staff computers to be replaced with new systems, a new ITC Lab, new mobile cart laptops for the ITC, a new iPad cart, and 15 new netbooks for use within CEPS.
Active Directory Project: The EIU Active Directory is being overhauled this summer. Active Directory is the lifeblood for user authentication at EIU (used for logins on and off campus). The AD structure is being changed so that security can be improved as well as for the benefit of better organization and maintenance capabilities for all EIU computing users. In addition, students are being added to the Active Directory that will allow students access various EIU resources using their EIU username and password such as Citrix and Wikispaces.
Learning Management System (LMS): EIU has selected a new vendor for the Learning Management System. The new system will be Desire2Learn and it is planned to be replacing WebCT in January 2013. Since this is a new system there is much new to learn and technical support personnel are getting up to speed this summer so they can provide faculty support this fall for the initial rollout.
Virtual Device Infrastructure (VDI): The College of Education & Professional Studies is in the process of piloting a VDI project for BUZ 2445 lab that involves the use of VMware and terminal devices to create a more manageable lab environment using virtualization technologies. If successful this model will be expanded to other areas on campus.
Old Computer De-installations: Many do not realize the efforts and time involved in replacing faculty/staff computers. First you must load the operating system on the new computer, then the programs, and finish by copying all the data from the old system to the new system. The last step is to tweak the settings for email and other specialized system access to customize for end-user. This involves a lot of time and scheduling with faculty or staff for computer replacements. It typically takes 4 to 6 hours per system from the time a computer hits ITS until the final customized computer is delivered and setup. That means that there will be 1200 person hours of time this summer with replacing the aging computers with new ones.
The work is still not complete as the old systems must be scrubbed of faculty/staff/student data and turned into ITS for redeployment or to be surplused. Many of the systems being replaced this summer will be redeployed within CEPS to update computers that are older than five years. In addition we are trying to replace the very old XP operating system with Windows 7 where possible.
New Webpage Design: EIU is also undergoing a webpage redesign over the summer. More emphasis will be placed upon recruitment of students. More video content is being emphasized so expect to be seeing some new content coming to the main CEPS webpage soon. Regular Day-to-Day work continues: In addition to all the summer projects the ITC continues providing day-to-day operations and technical support. Our summer hours are Monday – Thursday 7:30am-4:30pm and Fridays 7:30am-12:00pm
Exploration and creation of new resources and new learning: I always make it a point to take on some new learning challenges over the summer time. Many think that summer is a time to relax but with the workload to be completed over summer it is easy to not take time to “sharpen the saw” as Stephen Covey says. Keeping up with new technologies is a never ending battle so I use the TechTalk4Teachers podcast as a way to stay current with the latest. Every episode of TechTalk4Teachers offers a Technology Pick of the Week. In recent episodes I have added Dr. Cindy Rich as a co-host and she brings a lot of expertise and a fresh set of eyes to improving teaching and learning with technology. Subscribe to the TechTalk4Teachers podcast and the ITC Techshare Youtube Channel to see what we are up to in addition to the daily grind of keeping operations running smoothly.
Have a great summer and keep on learning!
Dr. Grissom