Campus Technology Services

TechNews - March 2011

This is a summary of the activities supporting faculty, staff and student technology services at SUNY Oswego that occurred during February 2011.

Reminders

1. Routine Service Outage
   As part of Campus Technology Services' efforts to keep servers running at optimum levels, a regular maintenance period has been designated. From 6AM to 10AM on the second Sunday of each month, several services such as E-mail, editing of both departmental and personal web pageswill not be available. The next scheduled outage is Sunday, March 13th, 2011.
2. NYALERT
   For information on NYAlert: http://www.oswego.edu/administration/public_affairs/emergency/nyalert.html or
   visit http://www.suny.edu/SUNYALERTsec to sign up.
3. RAVE Guardian
   For information on Rave Guardian http://oswego.edu/student/blogs/?cat=11 or to sign up: https://www.getrave.com/login/oswego


CTO's Corner    -  Are We Ready For Multi-touch Tablets?

The big news recently in the world of technology was from Apple Computer. On March 2nd Apple announced the release of iPad2. Techies all over the world have been waiting for this day. The original iPad, released last April, was an overwhelming success having sold over 15 million to date. The iPad2 is thinner, lighter, faster, and includes two cameras, one on the front and one on the back, similar to iPhone 4. Sales of iPad2 are expected to reach 12 million in just the first six months of 2011. Although the iPad has commanded much of the tablet spotlight for the last year, it is not the only device making news. Numerous manufacturers including Samsung, Dell, HP, and LG are releasing their own tablet devices. Many of them utilize Google's Android operating system. In 2010, Android tablets accounted for 22% of sales and are projected to grow to 40% of the tablet market within 24 months. Last month, Google released its latest version of the Android operating system which is optimized for multi-touch tablets. Needless to say, the multi-touch tablet has secured a solid place in the end-user computing environment. So, what does this mean for higher education and, specifically, our campus?

Is the multi-touch tablet poised to replace the laptop computer? How rapidly will these devices be embraced by our students? Are our information systems full adaptable to delivering content and services to tablet users? What new and different kinds of things might students and faculty do with tablets as part of the learning and teaching experience? Is the tablet just a fancy ereader and a small television in a compact package? The answers to these questions and many more will define how we utilize this exciting new technology for the advancement of instruction, research, and support. Departments throughout our campus have already begun exploring these issues. The Psychology Department is incorporating tablet technology in their research in trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The Curriculum and Instruction Department is exploring the use of tablets to help improve a variety of academic skills for learners with mild and server disabilities. Numerous other faculty are exploring the use of multi-touch tablets in their respective disciplines. Campus technology services has also acquired a variety of devices for testing and demonstration. The primary question surrounding tablets seems to "when will these devices be a mainstream part of our technological landscape?" rather than "will they become part of our technological landscape?" I don't have a specific answer to the question of "when" other than "sooner than we expect". I hope you will take the opportunity to engage in dialog with your colleagues and particularly the Campus Technology Advisory Board to help craft a campus-wide strategy for exploiting the potential of multi-touch tablets and, more broadly, mobile technologies to support student success on our campus. This will undoubtedly be a very exciting year to be part of the discussion.

Joseph Moreau
Chief Technology Officer
Campus Technology Services

Summer Project Planning
Campus Technology Services has changed its detail planning focus from projects that will occur during the Spring of 2011 to planning for projects to take place over the summer of 2011.

Technology Support Center
TSC continues to assist students with potential virus/malware issues on their machines.

Are you on Facebook? Want to receive updates from CTS on new services, updates, system outages, and more? We recently created a “SUNY Oswego – Campus Technology Services” Facebook group. Become a fan and start receiving updates!

You can reach us by phone at 312.3456 or at 26 Lanigan Hall.

Learning Management System
Please check the ANGEL website for dates and times for spring workshops.

If you are interested in setting up a community group, please visit the ANGEL web site at www.oswego.edu/academics/angel. Community groups are limited to academic and/or university related activities only.

Professional Development
CTS is offering workshops for the spring semester. Workshops on LakerApps Advanced Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sites, using your iPhone/Droid with LakerApps, Mailman and ANGEL Community Groups are available.   Please check the CTS training site for dates and times and online registration.  Note the online registration requires a login this semester so that an automated confirmation can be sent to those who register.

The Skillport e-learning software was recently upgraded. Skillport includes business and technology-related courses as well as courses and test preps needed to prepare you for many business and technical certifications. Get started at the Skillport home page.

Software News
An official project to upgrade the campus to Microsoft Office 2010 (PC) and 2011 (Mac) has launched. A pilot project is currently in progress with volunteer departments and offices.   CELT, CLAS/CMA Dean's Office, SA/The Point, VTP and C&I Advisement have been upgraded.  We have discovered a few technical gliches in the process to iron out before a full campus upgrade this summer. For more information, visit the CTS Office Upgrade site.

We are advising people to refrain from upgrading to Windows 7 as, currently, not all campus applications are compatible with it.

Microsoft is offering students a significantly reduced price on its Microsoft Office Ultimate 2010 software. The "Office Ultimate Steal" entitles eligible students to the Microsoft Office Ultimate 2010 software at a price of only $79.95. Microsoft's store price for the same software is $679.95! The Ultimate edition is packaged with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Groove, Publisher, Access, InfoPath, and Accounting Express. To determine if students qualify for the special price and to buy online visit www.theultimatesteal.com.

UBMicro has a great new site for purchasing various software products for your home machine. They include Microsoft Office and some of the Adobe products. Visit their site at http://www.ubmicrosuny.com/

Web Update
We are working on testing our many applications with the newly released Firefox 3 browser as well as Internet Explorer 8.

AER
CTS is working with the Provost's Office to supplement the AER funding of the technology related requests.

Desktop Support
Campus Technology Services technicians have continued to aid faculty, staff and students in resolving hardware, software, and account related issues. Since the beginning of February Campus Technology Services technicians have assisted in the resolution of 59 hardware, 105 software, and 18 account related support requests.

Enterprise Desktop Services Committee
EDSC has continued  ongoing work with LANDesk, the evaluation of hardware and software compatibility with Window 7, the Microsoft Office 2010/2011 pilot project, and has been preparing for the next round of deployments of the campus voice over IP solution. Further testing of Avecto Privilege Management software including CTS rollout of policies. Further removal of McAfee installations and replacement with Sophos.

 Equipment Deployments
 During the month of February, new equipment has been configured and installed within: Admissions, Anthropology, Biology, Chemistry, History, International Education, Mathematics, Residence Life and Housing, School of Business, School of Education Labs in Park and Wilber Halls, and Vocational Teacher Preparation. We also completed the upgrade of the 14 Apple Kiosk machines. Swapped out laptops for desktops in Wilber 117 & 121.

Virtual Lab Pilot Program
Currently 2 classes are piloting the utilization of virtualized applications to augment teaching. These classes include an Art class utilizing Adobe Creative Suite 5, and an online based class utilizing SPSS. Work is continuing to address issues with authentication and authorization, and utilization statistics/reporting that have been identified so far by the pilot group.

Provided AV support for the following events

Campus Projects

Department Support

CTS Projects or Support

Banner 8/myOswego

• Completed mods to the myOswego Financial Aid menu and set up rules and processes to load 1112 aid year apps
• Continued development of the dynamic New Student (myOswego) menu for Orientation
• assisted Orientation with the April TransferEdge program.

Document Imaging 

• Continued to meet with pilot departments regarding BDMS implementation
• Continued the development of myOswego BDMS access
• adjusted access as requested by the Advisement BDMS access

Other Administrative Support

Future Development

• Integration of Graduate student application data from Intelliworks to Banner Student
• Banner Upgrades for General 8.4, Student 8.5, Alumni 8.4, WebTailor 8.4, Finance 8.5 (planning March installation on test database)
• Introduction of LakerNetId login option for myOswego; prototype currently on test site



 Telecommunications Administration

• 7 Adds
• 0 Changes
• 4 Disconnects
• 1 Moves
• 2 Swaps
• Generate Monthly Bills.
• PBN Audit
• Contact list audit

Networking Updates

Staff News 

Call Logging Statistics - 2/1- 2/28/2011