Administered 3423 non-student accounts, for faculty, staff, retirees, and others.
Processed purchasing and billing on a total annual budget of $5,974,416.
Completed 6 billing cycles on time.

Ten Years Ago in ITSS - December 1999

High-tech classroooms added
After consultation with Bob Krumwiede, the following classrooms were selected to be developed into high-tech rooms spring semester: ABAH 225, SPHC 207, 208 and 210 (completed) and Cina 102.

Fall 2009 Training Offerings

Fall training is wrapping up during the month of December as we approach the end of another busy semester. If you are still using Mulberry, you'll want to continue migrating to another email client. For more information, please visit our "Mulberry reaches retirement" web page:

To receive one-on-one assistance for Moving away from Mulberry, join us for one of the hands-on sessions below:

Tues Dec. 15: 11:00-Noon (VizLab)
Wed Dec. 16: 2:00-3:00pm (VizLab)

Spring 2010:

We're in the process of designing and coordinating Spring 2010 training and learning opportunities. We'll be posting them on our website over the next couple months, so check back or subscribe to the technology training listserv.

Have suggestions for ITSS technology training? Complete the ITSS Technology Training Idea For.

Mulberry Closes in on its Last Weeks

Mulberry has been with UMD for longer than most faculty and staff can remember – but it's showing its age. Mulberry has security issues, lacks many of the features of newer email programs, and isn't able to display the graphic-rich nature of what we now send and receive. Other UofM technology changes in the near future would also have made Mulberry nonfunctional.

Most Mulberry users by now have exported their Mulberry addressbooks amd grous and imported them into Thunderbird or Apple's Address Booksl

For those who haven't migrated their Mulberry addressbooks, we have step-by-step instructions (below).

Google Services Coming This Spring

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) continues work on integrating Google applications for use at all campuses of the University. ITSS staff are collaborating on this project, since we run our own email system here. Services will be aimed primarily at students, although faculty and staff may opt in to use services as well.

At present, UMD will follow those on the other campuses for the opt-in process to use Google's servers to store our email. We will be letting the other campuses work through the opt-in process before applying it to our email system here. We hope to be testing in December and making the service available starting in January. It will take some time to roll this service out to all users on campus, so please be patient.

For more information, please see the OIT Google Initiative site.
The Questions and Answers section is particularly good for those who want to see details. and See also this article of interest.

Security Software for your Home Computer

Looking to protect your personal Windows computer from Internet security threats? CNET has put together a list of security products in six major categories:

Antivirus
Anti-spyware
In-browser Security
Firewall
EncryptionParental Control
CNET: Security Starter Kit

Check out the complete list here: here

Considering Windows 7?

ITSS staff have been testing Windows 7 since its beta release. Overall, our staff and other technical reviews have been positive about the new operating system. Compared to Windows Vista, it appears to run faster on the same hardware and has a number of features we believe our customers will use and enjoy.

However, as with any new operating system, not all computers are candidates for an upgrade to Windows 7. Additionally, there are some applications that may not run reliably with this first release on a new computer. At this time, for example, neither the Novell client or the latest version of Symantec will run on Windows 7.
If you are purchasing a new computer or considering upgrading your current OS to Windows 7, some questions to ask are:

Will your computer run Windows 7?
Which version of Windows 7 should you purchase/install?
Should you choose 32-bit or 64-bit?
What is the best upgrade path from Windows XP? Windows Vista?

Updated information on these topics and others can be found on our web site at: Windows 7 support

iTunes U and Youtube at UMD

The University of Minnesota has partnered with Apple to launch the University of Minnesota on iTunes U. The partnership provides the University an opportunity to use Apple’s iTunes software to privately share content with the University community, as well as a dedicated presence for public content on iTunes U in the Apple Store.

UMD is participating in this initiative, and we have content up on both the public and the private sections of iTunes U. The collegiate units each have a designated section within the private portion of iTunes. Faculty may submit content for classes that can be restricted to a class. ITSS will provide support for iTunes U through the Multimedia Hub and the Visualization and Digital Imaging Lab .

ITSS has also established a presence for UMD on Youtube . We are looking for content to add to Youtube. If you are interested in submitting content, please follow these instructions.

ITSS Spotlight On: Amanda Evans

Each month ITSS highlights a different member of the staff to let you get to know some of the great people who are working "behind the scenes" to make technology work for our campus. This month the spotlight is on Amanda Evans.

What Amanda does for ITSS
Amanda assists the campus community with the integration of technology into the teaching and learning environment. She typically works with faculty and the various educational/academic technologies: These tools are used to support all models of the teaching and learning landscape (face to face, hybrid, online). Amanda also works with staff and partners with students and Student Association on a variety of projects. If you have questions, ideas, challenges or opportunities within the world of educational technology and instructional design, Amanda is interested in hearing about them.

Background:
Amanda has a Bachelor of Applied Science degree from University of Minnesota Duluth in Early Childhood Studies and a Minnesota State Teaching License. She has also completed the Transformational Leadership Program Performance Excellence Training. Amanda started at UMD as a student in 1999 and has been employed in various departments on campus throughout the past decade, but has maintained a position within the field of educational technology for over 5 years. She joined ITSS December of 2007.

Interests/Hobbies:
Amanda enjoys hanging out with her family and friends, hiking, camping, gardening, snowboarding, traveling, listening to music, baking, yoga and anything arts & crafts.

Interesting Facts:
Amanda is married to Ben and they have two beautiful, energetic and happy children. Their 14 year old dog, Trudy, passed away this last spring, but she is remembered and visited often.

An Example of Amanda's Work for ITSS:
Faculty members have commented about Amanda's excellent dedication, support, and her technical knowledge. Comments include - "Amanda's fine effort to provide Moodle support for classes; she is thorough, patient, and above all, very knowledgeable of the intricacies and complexities of integrating technology support into the classroom learning experience; and through the total quality of her assistance, my confidence level in using technology is greatly enhanced."

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