Incoming Student Technology
389 incoming students were surveyed during the 2012 O&R week about the types of technology they would be bringing to campus this fall

•   96% of incoming students surveyed are bringing a computer with them

•   95% of all computers brought are laptops

•   Computers types - 26% Apple and 74% Windows-based

•   Smart phones – 67% bring them with 54% iPhones, 39% Droid, 4% Blackberry, 3%
•   Windows-based
Game consoles – 42% bring them with 46% Xbox, 12% Wii, 24%
•   PlayStation, 19% othergaming system

•   iPods – 44% bring them

•   Tablets – 42% bring them with 28% iPads, 46% iTouch, 26% other tablet

•   Total number of new devices added to the network fall of 2012……….1133!

IT Space Relocation and Remodel
Most of your IT services are in a different area this fall. We have a more centralized location on the east end of the first floor of Shilling for mail services, duplicating, media, tech support, and help desk. We have designed this area to provide the best service and support to our technology community and a more professional face for IT!

Replacement Computers
A total of 125 computers were purchased with 103 for employees, 13 in the library for public access, and 9 iMacs in collaboration with the music department for the Computer Aided Instruction Lab in Perkinson Music Center.

Windows 7 Upgrade on Thin Clients
All the thin clients in Scovill and Shilling 323 have been upgraded to Windows 7 over the summer. 

Media Room Updates
Several rooms have been upgraded and new media installed. These rooms have new LCD monitors with a teacher station, either pre-existing or new, along with Extron controls.
Collaboration Stations for Students
Special stations that provide a large LCD, a table, and video connections have been installed on the first floor of Scovill in the open area and in the library. The stations can accommodate up to six individuals at a time that can share their computer displays and collaborate on documents.

Additional Printers for Students
Two additional printers have been installed for student use in our highest usage areas. There are now two printers in Staley Library and two on the first floor open area of Scovill.

GroupWise Upgrade
GroupWise was upgraded to Version 2012 over the summer and there are new policies governing the retention of emails. For most employees and all students, instead of having an expiration date of just days, emails will be retained for years and governed by a size limit on the mailbox. Users will be notified by the email client if they are approaching the size limit on their account.
All employees - 4 gig mailbox capacity, 4 year expiration policy
All students and alumni – 2 gig mailbox capacity, 4 year expiration policy
Contracted employees – No size restriction, 90 day expiration policy
Department and Organization accounts – No size restriction, 60 day expiration policy

Walker Hall Wireless
With the re-opening of Walker Hall for student residence, wireless access has been installed that covers the entire residential area.

New Backup Software, Upgrade to Database Software
We purchased a different system for backing up our files which works with all our different systems, including Windows, Linux, and Solaris. It also provides file restores instead of a full database restore, reducing the amount of complexity and time it takes to retrieve data. We upgraded our Oracle Database Software from 10G to 11G, it doesn’t sound like much but it was a major undertaking which took two people months of testing and 14 hours for the actual installation. Oracle is the back end database for Banner, Moodle, and JIRA.

Moodle 1.9 to 2.0
Moodle was upgraded this spring and Rachel Bicicchi, our Educational Technologist, has been offering training classes over the summer to introduce the new features and changes.

Shilling Lab Room 323
BYOD – Bring your own device! Most of the thin clients have been removed from Shilling323. Ten of the clients will remain in the room for use by students who do not own a laptop when computers will be part of a classroom experience. Faculty scheduling this room will need to inform students to bring their own computing to class, if they plan to have students use technology as part of their instruction. This decision was made by the VPAA in conjunction with faculty in order to promote a more discussion friendly environment. The tables will remain with cables to the network and power connections at each station but the large monitors and other peripherals will no longer obstruct the student’s view and desk.

Redundant Cooling in Server Room
A redundant cooling system was installed in our server room this summer. What does that mean? There are now two independent air conditioners to cool our servers, if one fails the other takes over, automatically. The longest outage we have experienced was due to an air conditioning failure. Without air, the server room heats up to over 100 degrees in a matter of minutes, which can damage equipment very quickly. We know that we can never achieve 100% up time, but this will help us lessen the chances for disaster.

Scannable Tests for Faculty
Remember those scannable “bubble” tests? If you would like to use those for student test taking, we now have a system in the library that provides the ability to print the test form on plain paper, print a test key, and then scan and grade the tests. The system provides a report with grades, averages, and other statistics. Watts Copy Systems is the provider and if you would like to know more about it and receive some training, sign up with Rachel Bicicchi, our Educational Technologist for a brief lesson.