Feature Article: New Chief Technology Officer

SUNY Oswego has a new Chief Technology Officer (CTO)!  Joe Moreau started January 3, 2008 as SUNY Oswego's second CTO. 

Joe hails from MiraCosta College in Oceanside, California where he was Dean of Academic Information Services for seven years.  He was responsible for many of the same divisions encompassing CTS now (administrative technologies, telecommunications/networking, instructional technology, instructional support, user support) as well as the libraries, distance education, and the instructional programs in computer science.  

As Chief Technology Officer for SUNY Oswego, Joe provides leadership and vision for achieving overall technology goals.  He works closely with the campus community in evaluating and assessing the technology needs for overall business operations and for future strategic initiatives. 

When asked what Joe looks forward to while working at SUNY Oswego, he notes his excitement about the significant capital construction projects to be undertaken over the next several years.  He is eager to work with the science and engineering faculty to help develop the next generation teaching and learning environment for the sciences.  Joe is very much looking forward to participating in building the School of Communication, Media, and the Arts.  He is also thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with the librarians to further develop a learning commons environment for Penfield Library. 

From a personal perspective Joe and his family are looking forward to purchasing and restoring a historic home in the Oswego area and enjoying a lifestyle absent the crowds and congestion of California.

Joe is located in 509 Culkin Hall and can be reached at x3437 or by email at jmoreau@oswego.edu.

Goodbye Majordomo, Hello Mailman

CTS spent part of the winter break replacing the Majordomo mailing list software with a new and better product called Mailman.  Mailman provides users with an easy-to-use web-based interface to subscribe, unsubscribe, and manage electronic mailing lists.  This product was selected based on user feedback provided to CTS during a product evaluation period conducted in the summer of 2007.

CTS worked with approximately 100 list owners to migrate their lists to Mailman. In total, approximately 300 Majordomo mailing lists were successfully migrated.    As a result, Majordomo has now been officially retired.  All new mailing lists will be created in Mailman.

We will be conducting a workshop on using Mailman on Friday, 2/29 from 10-11:30am in 202 Campus Center.  Registration is available from our workshops web site at www.oswego.edu/cts/services/instructional/workshops.html.

Web Editing Tool for Personal Web Sites Updated

SUNY Oswego gives web space to all faculty, staff, and students for personal web sites.  If you currently have a personal web site or would like to create one, you can use our easy-to-use OU Educate product.  OU Educate gives you the ability to create or edit your site from a web browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox.   No software needs to be installed on your machine. 

When using OU Educate, you will notice a toolbar similar to the one in Microsoft Word.  This toolbar allows you to easily format text, insert images, create links, etc.  Recently, OU Educate was updated with a new toolbar that offers the following:

• Compatibility with the following web browsers: Internet Explorer version 6 and above (including version 7) on the PC, Safari version 1 on the Mac, and Firefox 1.5 and above on both the PC and Mac.  Previously, OU Educate did not function or did not function reliably with IE 7, Safari or Firefox on the mac.
• A new look with additional icons in the third row dedicated to specific table functions and submission forms.
• More control of your web pages with advanced options for certain functions (such as inserting images and links).

When you are ready to start creating or editing your own pages, just click on the Login button on the www.oswego.edu/oueducate page and login with your SUNY Oswego email username and password.

Want to learn more about OU Educate? Sign-up for an OU Educate CTS workshop."

ANGEL Community Groups

Community Groups within ANGEL are an additional feature of the ANGEL Learning Management System (LMS) that allow the campus community to participate in online group activity.  This feature is now available to the campus community.

A community group is an excellent place to share resources with a group of students, a department, a project committee, or a registered student organization. In a group, you can share a calendar, post content, facilitate discussion, allow group members to submit documents, administer surveys and tests, and create teams.  They are a great way of keeping people informed without having to use email.

Did You Know?

SUNY Oswego owns a site license for the McAfee anti-virus software.  This means that all faculty, staff, and students may install the McAfee software at no charge on their computers.  In addition to their SUNY Oswego owned computers, faculty and staff can also install it on their personal computers at home.

To download and install McAfee, please visit the CTS help page at www.oswego.edu/help and click on "Software Downloads" from the left side of the page. 

New Advanced Technology Classrooms

Five new classrooms are getting ready to open in the Campus Center.  Our Instructional Support team has been busy getting them equipped with teaching technology.  Rooms 228, 233, 236, 237, in addition to the auditorium (room 118) have all been equipped with a data projector and a podium equipped with a computer, VCR/DVD player, and document camera.

These new Advanced Technology Classrooms (ATCs) along with the others on campus are featured on our new ATC website at www.oswego.edu/cts/atcs.  If you are looking to see what equipment is in a certain classroom or would just like to see what it looks like, check this web site. 

Spring 2008 ResNet Registration

Over the winter break, the Cisco Clean Access ResNet registration system (used for registering student machines in the residence halls on the campus network) was upgraded to fix some issues on Windows computers and to make it compatible with computers running the Apple OS 10.5 operating system (Leopard). 

All students subscribing to ResNet for the spring will be required to install the upgraded Clean Access Agent.  This is an automatic process that will happen when you first log in to the Clean Access system when you arrive back on campus. 

If you have any problems registering your computer for ResNet, please first consult the instruction booklets available in your room.  These booklets offer step-by-step installation instructions and troubleshooting information for installing the Clean Access Agent.  It also provides instructions for connecting to a hub (if applicable).

If after reading the instructions, you still need assistance getting connected CTS, call the help desk at x3456. 

Notes from the Help Desk

Help Desk hours for the spring semester, effective Tuesday, January 22^nd are:

Monday-Thursday, 8am-9pm

Fridays, 8am-4:30pm

Saturdays, 12pm-4pm (phone service only)

You can reach us by phone at 312.3456, on location at 26 Lanigan Hall, or online at www.oswego.edu/help during normal office hours. We are online via our live chat service.  Just go to our web page and use the web-based chat utility, called Meebo, to ask our staff a technology-related question.

Professional Development

CTS workshops for the spring 2008 semester have been scheduled.  Workshops on Excel, Powerpoint, Office 2003 to Office 2007, Leopard, Microsoft Vista, Google's Picasa, Using an Advanced Technology Classroom (ATC), Mailman, and more are now open for registration. The complete schedule and online registration is available from our main CTS web site at www.oswego.edu/cts.

Looking Ahead

The following are major projects CTS is currently working on:

• Web Server Upgrade:  This project is now in full force.  All major applications have been installed on a test web server machine and web pages and web services are being tested.  It is hoped that the new web server will cut over to production during Spring Break.  A subsequent project to this will be installing blogging software to easily allow departments the ability to blog.
• Construction Projects:  CTS is involved with several construction projects.  We have been helping with the technology design of the Metro Center in downtown Syracuse and are involved in the discussions for the renovations of the science buildings.

Tech Tips

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