Technology news for UMD faculty, staff and students
September 2005
ITSS Staff Changes
New staff member
We are pleased to announce that Rachel (Shelly) McCauley Jugovich joined the ITSS staff in July and her responsibilities include providing a wide variety of technology support for the campus faculty community.
Shelly has a B.S. in Instructional Technology from Capella University, Minneapolis, MN. During the past seven years Shelly has been employed as an Instructional Technology Management Analyst at Hibbing Community College, a member institution of the Minnesota State College and University System. In this position she has been the software administrator for the Desire2Learn platform; assisted faculty with integrating technology into their teaching and learning environment, assisted faculty in the development of online courses, taught online course development processes which include assessments, pedagogy, copyright, and intellectual property issues; assisted faculty and staff in the use of techology software and hardware; maintained web pages; and served on several campus and system-wide technology committees. Prior to this position, Shelly also worked for two years at Hibbing Community College as the Computer Lab Assistant. In addition to her employment with MnSCU, Shelly has held various staff and management positions with the Security State Bank of Hibbing, MN, including Marketing and Investment Officer and Customer Service Manager.
Shelly's office is located in Darland 25A. Her phone number is 218-726-6862 and her email address is smccaule@umn.edu.
Barb Johnson leaving UMD
Barb Johnson has recently resigned from her position as a technology consultant for faculty to pursue her career goals and interests in the private business sector. Barb has been with University and ITSS for slightly over 5 years and has provided valuable support to UMD faculty.
ITSS Expands Management Team
ITSS has expanded our management team by hiring Sally Bradt as manager. Sally has worked for ITSS since 1995. Her previous work included providing technical support for students in the ResNet program; acting as security liaison for ResNet issues; providing desktop support for Windows computers, performing Novell account administration and printer setup, leading the ITSS web team; providing web development support; maintaining many parts of the ITSS web site; and editing the ITSS newsletter.
Sally's new responsibilities include managing staff who work in desktop support, maintenance services, Novell and Windows administration, and web development as well as providing cross-functional documentation and desktop security management for ITSS.
Sally joins three other ITSS managers and the director as a member of the ITSS management team. Other managers and their responsibilities are:
- Dan Burrows manages staff who work in computer systems, networking, and telephone services. Dan also provides cross-functional system security and project management for ITSS.
- Jason Davis manages staff who work in classroom services, help desk, student computing labs, evaluations, test scoring and the Visualization and Digital Imaging Lab. Jason provides cross-functional human resources services for ITSS.
- Steve Patterson manages staff who work in billing and accounting, enterprise systems, faculty technology support, and programming and consulting. Steve provides cross-functional financial, inventory, and software licensing services for ITSS.
Novell Office Server to be Upgraded
ITSS will be upgrading the Novell Office Server (UMD-IS3) during the coming months. The new "server" will actually be a cluster of systems to provide better performance, and more redundancy. Currently, a failure on the Office Server could potentially affect all customers. The new server cluster will allow services (like files and printing) to keep working, even if there were a problem with one or more of the servers in the cluster. The new server will also support an upgraded Novell operating system, allowing us to provide additional services.
To minimize the move, we plan to migrate current office server customers to the new server by department. Many of the changes will be transparent to our customers. However, there are several areas that will require adjustments:
- Printing: Customers may need to reinstall Novell printers after they have been moved to the new server.
- Software - Mac: We will be updating our KeyServer software on the new server, which will now allow us to offer OSX applications such as Dreamweaver, Flash, and Photoshop Elements.
- Software - Windows: ITSS will be removing a number of older Windows applications (see list below). Some are being eliminated due to compatibility or license issues; some need to be reinstalled to work with the newer (Keyserver) license manager. We have suggested alternatives for all eliminated programs and will work with our customers to migrate data to the newer applications. These changes will be effective August 31, so it's important that Office Server customers review and update any of these applications that they use.
Retired applications
The following applications are being "retired" and will no longer be available once a customer is moved to the new office server.
| Retired Applications | Status | Alternative |
|---|---|---|
| MS Office 2000 or earlier
(Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Word) |
Licenses have expired. | Office 2003
See: Microsoft Campus Agreement |
| FileMaker Pro versions 2, 3, or 4 | No longer supported | FileMaker Pro 5
Please note that due to licensing restrictions, there will be no future FMPro upgrades. See: Installing FileMaker Pro5 |
| Lotus 123 | No longer supported. | Excel 2003 / Office 2003
See: Microsoft Campus Agreement |
| PageMaker 6.5 | Must be reinstalled to use new license manager. | Keyed version of PageMaker. |
| PageMill | No longer supported. | DreamWeaver MX
See: Installing Dreamweaver MX |
| SPSS 10, SPSS 11 | Licenses have expired. | SPSS 12
See: Installing SPSS 12 |
| WordPerfect 8 | Replaced by Microsoft Campus Agreement. | Word 2003 / Office 2003, with the "WordPerfect" document filter
See: Microsoft Campus Agreement |
Continued applications:
The following applications will continue to be offered through the Office Server or the Microsoft Campus Agreement:
- Contribute 3
- Dreamweaver MX
- Fireworks 4
- Flash MX
- PageMaker 6.5
- Photoshop 7
- SPSS 12
- Keyserver client 5.0 or higher
- Office 2003 (thru Microsoft Campus Agreement)
New applications
The following new applications will be available when customers are moved to the upgraded server:
- Dreamweaver MX 2004
- InDesign CS2
- Photoshop CS2
- Photoshop Elements
ITSS staff will be contacting departments and individuals with further information as we get closer to the migration date. If you have questions about the new server please contact Tim Biles, tbiles@d.umn.edu or extension 6959, and for software updates please contact Steve Patterson, spatters@d.umn.edu or extension 8785.
Novell services /itss/novell/
Turning Technologies Becomes UMD Standard for Student Response Systems
Student Response Systems (SRS) are small handheld devices coupled with receiving hardware and presentation software. The system allows an instructor to present questions, usually via a computer projector, and collect student answers immediately during the lecture. The results can generally be manipulated and displayed immediately and can be used to change the course of the lecture. Emerging literature on the use of this technology suggest that students are more engaged in learning in courses utilizing SRS.
In November of 2004, the University of Minnesota Duluth formed a committee of faculty and staff to explore the possibility of a standard solution for SRS. There had been at least four different products in use at the time. The number of interested faculty was increasing and the faculty who were already using the various systems planned to expand their use into more sections and classes. In some cases, students had purchased different types of handheld response units for different classes during a single semester. Given expected increase in use, consensus that the technology was useful in teaching and learning, and the notion that central support - only feasible for a single product - would improve usage, the Faculty Technology Team and the Classroom Technology Team collaborated to try to set a standard, and pick one product.
The first order of business was to determine what other schools were doing. In the second half of 2004, only one vendor was offering a radio-frequency product. This technology is much more robust than the older infrared technology that all vendors had been offering previously. Some universities made the decision to use the one vendor that offered this new technology, mainly because they were the only immediate option. Other vendors were only a few months behind the first to offer radio frequency, though, so this decision may have been hasty. In many other cases, universities had chosen a vendor based on association with textbook providers, complimentary hardware pricing, or similar one-dimensional reasons. The team could not find an example of another institution developing a reasonably complex rationale to answer the complex question of which product to choose.
The committee developed a rough draft of the standard at the first meeting. Because the committee was composed of faculty who had been using the technology in the classroom and information technology professionals who supported teaching and classroom technology, there was ample brainstorming about known and anticipated issues. Not knowing the precise landscape of possible product solutions, the group decided to categorize the standard into a two-tiered hierarchy of "requirements" and "preferences." By the second meeting, the group had reached consensus on a standard. The next step in the process was to find suitable vendors. The project leader called all known vendors to determine how closely they conformed to the standard, and reported findings to the committee. This process resulted in three vendors that met most of the standard and five that were rejected because they fell short of the standard in at least two significant categories among the "requirements." With the vendors chosen, the next step was to allow the committee to assess each of the three products.
The committee was able to reach consensus on a single product, which will be the standard beginning Fall Semester: Turning Technologies. Beginning Fall Semester 2005, about 1200 UMD students will use Turning Technologies handheld devices. There will also be a test kit available for checkout from AV. Please contact Jason Davis if you are interested in further information: jdavis@d.umn.edu.
Pilot Study Aimed at Improving Classroom Technology
The ITSS Classroom Team has been investigating ways to improve the usability and functionality of both our basic technology suite (found in all general purpose classrooms with a capacity greater than 30 seats) and in the technology-enhanced MonH 108 classroom.
The team made several site visits to local colleges and to the Twin Cities campus to see what other colleges are doing. We also benefited greatly from a report Don Krueger, Director of Technology Labovitz School of Business and Economics, shared with us. Don has been investigating the same topic and has made numerous site visits in preparation for the new LSBE building.
A common thread among most of the classrooms at these other institutions is an increased ease of use due to a control module that eliminates individual remote controls and power switches. In some cases this control module is networked and monitored by a central station. In all cases this control module eliminates several steps in turning on power and/or selecting inputs and outputs for the LCD projector.
This summer, ITSS implemented control module technology in the MonH 108 technology-enhanced classroom and in a general purpose classroom with the standard technology suite - MonH 203. Our goal is to thoroughly test this technology within our support model and to see first hand how this might improve the useability of our classroom technology. In addition to the help from Don Kreuger, we also have received a great deal of help from Jim Gregory and the Office of Classroom Management on the Twin Cities Campus. We will continue to work with Jim's group so that we can benefit from their experience with this technology.
The new control systems offer a much easier control interface for faculty who are teaching in these rooms, remote monitoring and troubleshooting by classroom support staff, and, in the case of MonH 108, mobile control of classroom devices through a wirless remote control.
If you have questions, concerns, or ideas you would like to share about classroom technology, please contact Jason Davis (jdavis@d.umn.edu).
Improvements to Student Computing Labs
The Student Computing team has made numerous improvements to the computer labs over the summer months.
The ITSS Computer Lab web pages have been updated. They include lists of available software, maps for the locations of all computer labs, a link to the reservations for each lab, and much more.
Hardware
The MWAH 1777 lab was upgraded with new Dell Pentium IV computers with 17” LCD monitors and CPU holders were installed to provide more space on the desktops and better sight lines. Air conditioning has been installed in the Hum 470 lab, which should greatly improve the comfort level of this traditionally warm room.
Software
All Full Access PC labs have been upgraded to Windows XP and the Macintosh labs have been upgraded to Mac OSX 10.4 (Tiger).
Printing
The cost for black & white laser and color printed pages remains the same for this year - $0.05 per 8x11 page, and $0.20 per 11x17 for b&w, $1.00 per 8x11 page and $2.50 per 11x17 page for color. Students will also be able to print directly to the UMD Printshop color printers from the labs. The print release stations were also upgraded to be faster and more reliable.
SunRays
Lab Consultants will continue to work on the 3rd floor of the Library to help with SunRay questions and respond to issues in these areas. The SunRay web pages are a great resource for users new to this platform.
For more information on the Full and Basic Access computing resources, visit the ITSS computer labs web page http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/labs/
Multi-media Hub Update
ITSS provides video editing stations and equipment free for UMD students to use in production of their class projects. Demand and use has risen greatly since Hub opened in the fall semester, 2004.
Recent purchases of an additional Macintosh G-5, Final Cut Studio software, Soundtrack, iLife, and a music keyboard for use with Garageband for mucis production, and the addition of Sony headphones have made this area located in Kirby Plaza 175 a hit with students.
More faculty are requesting student projects using video equipment with the finished product in the form of CD or DVD. Hours are 9:00 - 8:00 p.m. Mon-Thursday, and 9:00 - 4:00 p.m. on Fridays. Hub consultants are available during these hours and provide excellent assistance. Reservations are needed due to the high demand for video editing equipment. Students should stop by Kirby Plaza 175 and sign up for a time to use the equipment. www.d.umn.edu/itss/classroom/video_production.html
For more information, contact Mary Olson-Reed at 726-8544.
Student Technology Assistance Center
The ITSS Student Computing team would like to remind the campus that we are offering a new service to all UMD students. The Student Technology Assistance Center (STAC). The STAC is staffed by ITSS student employees that will provide one-on-one assistance to all students seeking help with software, hardware, password problems, digital cameras, video productions, and other technology issues. Students can also get basic help with virus problems. There is no charge for this service.
Hours and location
The STAC will be open Monday through Thursday each week, from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and will be located in Kirby Plaza 175. For more information, visit the STAC's web page http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/stac/
Update on Voicemail Replacement Project
ITSS is in the planning process for replacing our telephone voicemail system. Our consultants completed needs-analysis interviews with over 50 departments in May. This helped us learn what is and is not required of a new system. Work has now begun on a Request For Proposals (RFP). The rest of the timeline looks like this:
September - RFP to Purchasing
October - Proposals due
November - Proposal evaluations
December - Recommended solution goes before Regents for discovery
January - Regents approval, contract awarded, system ordered
February - System configurations and testing begin
May - User training and system cutover
We'll be having more discussions with departments during the February - April time frame to gather more information on individual mail box configurations.
NetReg: Automated Network Registration
NetReg is a system that registers unknown computer before granting full network access. It is currently being used in the residence halls and many campus buildings. The goal is to restrict UMD network access to authorized users (authenticated via their Internet ID), without requiring them to login every time they user their computer.
NetReg allows you to self-register your computer so that has a network address reserved for it. It also monitors against security vulnerabilities, and quickly removes virus-infected computers from the network to minimize infections on other computers.
How NetReg works
When you connect an unregistered computer into the UMD's ethernet network you are granted limited network access to the NetReg registration server only. This server displays the Registration page, which includes network Terms and Conditions and computer security requirements. You register your computer by entering your Internet ID and password. After rebooting, your computer has full network access.
During the registration process NetReg scans computers for a number of known vulnerabilities. Computers that pass the scan are granted full network access; those that fail remain in the restricted network but are directed to a web site that provides instructions and resources for fixing the problem. During last year's Bulldog Bash weekend, about 15% of the student computers were were found vulnerable Netreg. These machines were patched before being allowed on the network. Most of the students were able to fix the problems using the instructions without help from ITSS. This fall, we expect the percentage to increase with the addition of checks for recent Windows 2000 vulnerabilities.
The future of NetReg
This system has proven itself valuable in providing a secure campus network environment by ensuring a baseline baseline security patch patch level on Windows computers. Because of this success, ITSS will be implementing this system across most of campus by the end of Fall semester. This summer we added the Netreg system to the networks in a number of campus buildings. In addition to the entire residence hall network, we are currently using NetReg in these areas:
| KPLZ 3rd Floor | School of Medicine | |
| Cina Hall | Humanities | |
| ABAH | Computer Science | |
| ROTC | Bohannon Hall | |
| LSBE | Montague Hall | |
| Swenson Science | MPAC | |
| Voss Kovach Hall | Engineering |
Microsoft Software License Program for Students
The U of M Board of Regents has approved the purchase of licenses for Microsoft Windows XP Pro upgrades and the Microsoft Office Suite (Windows or Macintosh) for all currently enrolled U of M students taking at least one course credit.
To obtain the software, students must verify their eligibility by completing an online order form through the U of M website. Order confirmations will be sent via email. There will be a $6.00 charge for each CD ordered that will be billed directly to the student's account. CDs must be picked up at the UMD Bookstore located on the 1st floor of Kirby Student Center.
A free download option for the Windows version of the Microsoft Office Suite is expected to be released in the coming months. This option will only be recommended for students with a reliable, high-speed connection (such as campus Ethernet, DSL, or cable modem).
For more information about this program, computer system requirements, or to place an order, please visit: www.umn.edu/ms4students
Music and Video Options for Students
Tired of spyware and adware? Looking for a faster, safer and easier to use alternative to P2P? Try one of these three legal music and video options.
Ruckus
New this fall, the University of Minnesota has arranged for its students to use Ruckus, a digital entertainment service for universities. Ruckus provides both music and video content. Students can watch hundreds of movies and TV shows or listen to music from the library of 1.2 million licensed tracks of music.
Community features allow students with similar music, video and programming interests to connect, share and explore on their campus. www.techmart.umn.edu/HTML/ruckus/
Rhaposody
Last year, the University of Minnesota negotiated special pricing for students for the Rhapsody Music Service, and will continue to offer the pricing this year.
Rhapsody allows you to hook up your residence hall room to a collection of over 730,000 songs contained in more than 58,000 albums, with more being added each day. From rock, hip-hop, and r&b to indie, funk, and house, Rhapsody is complete access to one of the largest catalogs of music on the web. www.techmart.umn.edu/HTML/rhapsody/
iTunes
Apples iTunes is the music alternative for Mac users. The iTunes Music Store features more than 1.5 million tracks. Additionally, you can subscribe to free podcasts in 20 categories; purchase and download songs or albums with music videos; view movie trailers; and share music with up to five Macs and PCs. www.apple.com/itunes/
A note about copyright infringements
Media industries have stepped up their efforts to eliminate illegal file sharing on the Internet, and they are targeting campus networks in particular. Please be aware of the risks involved in illegal file sharing and take steps to ensure that you are using your network access legally and appropriately. Those using anonymous file-sharing programs such as Morpheus and Bit-Torrent are particularly at risk.
If you live in the residence halls or use the University network, you should be aware of the University's responsibility and policy on Copyright Violations.
For more information and links to sign up: www.d.umn.edu/itss/labs/music/
Policy on Appropriate Use of Information Technology is Updated
The UMD Policy on Appropriate Use of Information Technology has served as the cornerstone for campus technology policy since it was first written in 1996.
www.d.umn.edu/itss/policies/appuse.html
The Educational Policy Committee's Subcommittee on Information Technology and Library spent a good part of last year reviewing, revising, and modernizing this policy. This policy is a good, all-purpose reference to a host of university policies and resources related to technology. The policy addresses issues of limited resources, privacy, network citizenship, property, and system security.
If you can only take the time to read one policy on information technology, this is the one to read.
UMD Provides a Portal for Easy Access to Web Resources
The UMD Campus Web Committee has been working with the Office of Information Technology to develop a new way of delivering web resources, the portal, MyUMD.
Although you will already be familiar with many of the resources available through the portal, MyUMD provides a new way of looking at them:
- MyUMD provides individualized information that is relevant to you
alone. By authenticating once, you can view a variety of information
that is personal to you, such as calendar, portfolio, training, class,
and advisor information, in the My Toolkit tab of MyUMD.
- MyUMD is customizable. You can choose which news feeds you would like
to view in the My News Tab of MyUMD. If you are interested in helping
us develop more news feeds for UMD, please contact Linda Deneen (ldeneen,
7588) or Cheryl Reitan (creitan, 8996). You can also add your own web
links to either My News or My Toolkit, making it easy to get to your
favorite web sites from any networked computer.
- MyUMD provides access to a new University service, Jabber, which is an Instant Messaging (IM) solution. Using Jabber may help limit your exposure to viruses and other nasty things currently coming through commercial IM services.
MyUMD is still under development, and we expect to add more content and functionality to it throughout the year. Please give it a try and send us your ideas and feedback. Send comments to Linda Deneen <ldeneen>.
info.tech.News is published monthly during the academic year by ITSS. An email digest is also sent to all users subscribed to the infotech.announce, UMD.business.announce and studenttech.announce. The goal is to distribute information useful to the daily routines of the University of Minnesota Duluth campus community in conjunction with computer and telephone technologies. Comments or suggestions may be sent to the editor at: sbradt@d.umn.edu.