Did you know that Hampshire College Information Technology has a Facebook page? “Like” us to keep up to date with IT announcements, tech tips, technology related articles, and more. We even have occasional Facebook-only giveaways.

none

Cloud Computing Calls for Rebuilding Enterprise IThttp://shar.es/pz5Xx

none

We have turned up additional bandwidth traveling over our connection to Paetec Inc. Paetec provides the campus with voice services and until recently they provided 10 meg of internet bandwidth to the campus. We route this traffic over the Five College fiber network, starting at Hampshire and terminating at a router located at 1 Federal St in Springfield, MA. We then travel via fiber leased by Paetec, to Boston and terminate at a router located there.

We have partitioned traffic sending all student traffic out the Paetec link- provisioned at 200 meg. We retain a connection to UMass and route all 5 college traffic as well as administrative traffic (ie: email, servers, DNS, etc) out that leg. The UMass connection is currently 45 meg.

Here is the graph for the new Paetec leg.

none

none

Every year the Hampshire IT department submits a plan of work to senior administration for review. We would like to share that plan with you and hope to keep you informed as to our progress, via this blog, as we work on this plan. We do get pulled off of projects for minor things like Snowtober and other important needs as they arise, but we try to stay on track. We use results from our student , faculty and staff surveys to inform our plan of work creation process.

Keep in mind that we do have a lot of work that involves supporting the community’s computing needs. This list is simply large projects that may require funding or significant resources above and beyond what we now have; it in no way reflects the entire department’s scope of work. The status of these projects will be updated monthly.

The plan as submitted in August 2011  with status of current projects updated:

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

WEB:

Announcement system changes.  Certain shortcomings of the current announcement system were identified during various governance conversations. We have modified the existing on campus announcement system to reflect some changes requested by survey groups. We will make incremental changes to the existing system and examine a total redesign looking forward.    Status:Open

Moodle programming, documentation, and modules.  As a result of our recent migration to Moodle, a new Learning Management System (LMS), we are continuing to install new features and modules. Further documentation and installation of LMS components will continue throughout the year. Hampshire is part of the Collaborative Liberal Arts Moodle Project (CLAMP). During the summer of 2011, Hampshire hosted the biannual CLAMP Hack/Doc Fest. This included the first-ever CLAMP Documentation Sprint, in which the group focused on revising and publishing the documentation being worked on. Hampshire is very active in the open source community.

Status :Open

Shibboleth Authentication. As part of a Five College project to enable multi-campus login to services, Hampshire has gone into production with Shibboleth authentication. This positions Hampshire to allow Five College students to sign on to our Learning Management System (LMS) with their home institution login information. The other four schools are still in the process of installing Shibboleth, while Hampshire has already launched various on-campus services.

Status: Complete

ePortfolio. We have been exploring the development of an e-portfolio system and ways to better manage documents and video content in our LMS. Research on a  Division 3 portfolio project is underway. We expect this work to evolve into a portfolio system for all students. Mahara is an open source ePortfolio system that can be integrated with Moodle LMS. This will allow faculty and students to easily upload, download and  manage files within Moodle. We will research and beta test Mahara.

Status :Open

RedDot. Our current Content Management System (CMS) is starting to show signs of age. We are exploring the possibility of moving to a common CMS platform across most of the schools in the Five College Consortium. Drupal CMS is the platform that will most likely be adopted across the Five College community. We have launched a sandbox instance of Drupal and will continue to explore its functionality.     Other CMS offerings will be explored as well.           Status :Open

Website. As a result of customer feedback, we have been revamping search functions on our web pages for both internal and external customers.

• MNOGOSearch changes to improve internal search function on www.hampshire.edu.      Status: Open
• RedDot template changes to improve external search functions on www.hampshire.edu.    Status: Complete

Online Applicant Tracking System. This system has been tested and deployed for staff to assist the community in better managing job searches. Further vetting and expansion of the system will continue. This is rolling out for faculty this year.

Status: Complete

Community Engaged Learning (CEL) for Div 1. The academic program has introduced a new CEL program for Fall 2011. We are developing record keeping, tracking and evaluation functionality.

Status: Open

E-Commerce 4 installation. We have undertaken a PCI compliance review and will install additional software as a result of the survey.  Status: Complete

Online Directory. The governance task force held a series of focus group meetings with staff and identified dissatisfaction with the existing online directory as one issue. In response, we plan to do a major redesign this year.

Status: Open

Storage Array Network (SAN). We will continue last year’s work on both virtualization and consolidation of file storage and security. Status: Complete

E-Mail Efficiency. Storage capacity and security remain problematic. This service continues to see exponential growth. To address this and create a sustainable model, we have segmented and totally redesigned our email system. This work will continue this year.

Status: Open

Virtual Computing Lab (Beta). As part of the Five College consortium Davis Grant funded project, we will launch a beta test of a Virtual Computing Lab instance at Hampshire. This will install target software with high computational demand.  We plan to offer complex software that demands robust computing platforms to students anywhere, anytime regardless of what personal device the student is using. This is very similar to a thin client model.

Status: Open

OneCard Access. UMass Amherst is currently circulating a Request For Bids (RFB) for a new Card Access system for the Amherst campus. We plan to explore ways to allow Five College students access to facilities and services at all five campuses, solve an access control problem at our athletic facilities that enables us to monitor patrons, and increase card data security.  In order to achieve these goals and position, Hampshire will, with regards to the Five College project, be upgrading our card access system and re-carding the entire campus.

• -Upgrade to CCure 9000:  Access control system upgrade
• -Change door readers to IClass- entire campus
• -Configure 9000 for IClass

Wireless Access. Our fall 2011 student survey identified wireless access in the dorms as the top student concern. To address this shortcoming, we have deployed wireless access in Dakin and Merrill. This has been challenging from both a capital and manpower perspective.

Status: Complete

Prescott Remodeling Construction. Phase two of a multi-year project will take place this summer during which we will install new network and voice access.

Status: Complete

Voice and Data. Hampshire continues to see bandwidth demands increase exponentially. We see a doubling of bandwidth required every two years. Our voice contract with our provider expired in September 2011.  We have negotiated a new contract and have a chance to increase bandwidth while remaining cost neutral. We have split traffic away from our provider, UMass Amherst, to accomplish this.

• -New ISP roll out: new connection to Paetec via Boston for Data and moving of bandwidth from UMass to Paetec.  Status: Complete
• -New Firewall install on Paetec Link.        Status : Complete
• -Install new PRI (voice circuits)                   Status: Complete
• -New Voice contract                                         Status: Complete
• -Research PBX services movement to the Cloud.   Status: Open

Five College OneCard Project. Hampshire College will lead the Five College OneCard project, providing project management and oversight. The initial phases of this project will focus on identifying existing technological conditions. The group will then identify collaborative possibilities and possible impediments to a Five College OneCard environment.

Status: Open

Launch Technology for Teaching and Learning Department. The digital and technical world as we know it is changing and at a pace that has never been seen before. Cisco’s current Visual Networking Index predicts that the Internet will quadruple in size over the next four years. In fact, the incremental growth in Internet traffic between 2014 and 2015 will be 17.2 exabytes per month. That growth alone is roughly the amount of all global Internet traffic recorded last year.

This tremendous increase in technological and informational advances will create both opportunities and of course many challenges to higher education. We will need to deliver instructional materials to “digital native” students who can’t remember a time when Google didn’t exist. Faculty, staff and students will utilize computing devices that are increasingly becoming smaller and more powerful. Software and applications are moving into the Cloud. The digital world as we know it will be unrecognizable in 5-7 years.

In order to assist with these challenges and take advantage of these opportunities, Hampshire College’s Department of Information Technology is pleased to announce the creation of the Department of Technology for Teaching and Learning. We hope to strengthen the bridge between Hampshire’s academic departments and IT. We will also assist faculty and students in the exploration of innovative approaches to teaching and learning.

Status: Complete

Research PBX services movement to the Cloud. Hampshire’s existing telephone switches are at end of life. We have deployed a new Voice over IP switch and plan to migrate administrative phones to that new platform. Student voice services remain a challenge and we are exploring a possible move to the cloud for service delivery to that population. Dartmouth College has been successful in offering students software-based softphones. Cloud-based software voice services are the next step in this evolution and offer an attractive platform for deployment to remote populations, as well as customers who may not or do not use traditional handsets.

Status: Open

TEDx-Hampshire College. TED – Technology, Entertainment, and Design is as series of talks, presentations and performances designed to promote “Ideas worth spreading.” TED is multifaceted and multidisciplinary. We feel that it is important for the College to promote ideas generated by thought leaders who represent the best that Hampshire and the world have to offer. TEDx is a local version of the world class TED talks. We hosted the first annual TEDx-Hampshire College series in October 2011. IT played a key role in this project.

Status: Complete

Bob C

 

none

Some of you may have noticed a small snow event in October.   Snowtober as we call it,  certainly tested Hampshire IT’s disaster planning.  I am happy to report that for the most part we managed to weather the “storm” with very little down time.   Our servers and services remained accessable to the outside world.  The  big problem was that the most everyone had no power so access was limited  once laptop batteries died and cell phones ran down.

I came across this interesting article at Gigaom  while doing research on cell tower backup systems.  You will be happy to  learn that we are in fact re-examining the short comings of Hampshire ‘s  Disaster Recovery plan as well as infrastructure shortcomings.    I hope to report back shortly on what the next steps will be .

In the mean time enjoy:  Gigaom

Bob C

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

none

My four-year-old son likes to play a game in which he is a poor orphan and we are prospective parents. After a brief interview, we decide that yes, he is exactly the son for us. Familial bonding ensues.

Much like adopting a child that was yours to begin with, the iPad makes a seamless entrance into one’s life. Its size, its usability,and its speed make it an easy companion, much like that little orphan boy who keeps hanging around. Unlike the little boy, the iPad provides prompt service when asked, and seldom talks back.

Here’s what you can do on the iPad:

• Read
• Annotate
• Write
• Go Online
• Draw or Paint
• Play Games
• Take pictures and video
• Organize and share pictures and video
• Watch shows and movies
• Listen to music
• Connect
• Download apps- which basically means the answer to the question above is “anything you could possibly want to do”.

Here’s what it’s not good at:

• Printing (unless you have a special set-up)
• Organizing files and documents (but there are apps and work-arounds to address that)

The top reason the iPad is so popular is its usability. This device is profoundly intuitive. The touch-screen interface itself is a big leap forward for mankind- it takes the middle men of mice and keyboards out of the picture, and lets you act directly upon the machine. We humans really are still a primitive, tactile bunch so I think feeling like you are doing something with your hands holds a very deep appeal.

There is a complete overload of studies and articles about uses of iPads in education- elementary and up. My technical analysis for you is this: everyone is totally into them. Reed College did a study of Kindles in the classroom and found them lacking. They did a similar study of iPads and ended by saying EVERY single student who participated bought one at the end of the year. Enough said?

At first I was sure I could never read on it, but I got over that very quickly- I use Kindle apps, so can read my books pretty much everywhere, and the iPad was always just THERE- so of course that’s where I do a lot of my reading now. Still not crazy about reading on an LCD, but if the choice is reading on the iPad, or walking upstairs to get the Kindle… well.. you know how it is.

The only real downside I’m seeing to the iPad is that it is truly a personal device. It needs to be “yours” to get full use out of it. It doesn’t allow set-up for multiple users, and trying to share one is a very quick way to sow family (or departmental) discord. But at $500 a pop this is not an easy “chicken in every pot” scenario.

So that’s my two cents, see our page for recommended set-up and apps here.

If you have questions about using an iPad for teaching or learning, contact me. For administrative uses please contact the help desk. We have loaners available if you’d like to take a look at one.

- Asha Kinney

none

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” – Charles Darwin

Over the long weekend I had an experience usually elusive to the working mother: going to the movies! We opted for Werner Herzog’s “Cave of Forgotten Dreams,” a documentary about Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave in France and the spectacular cave drawings discovered there in 1994. This being Herzog, he uses the cave drawings as a mere jumping off place for exploring deeper issues, such as what it means to be human and the history (and possible future) of our planet.

At one point in the film he asks the chief archeologist “What is humanness?”. The gist of the answer was our ability to adapt to the world. Which struck a chord with my technological frame of reference.

Anyone using a computer has to deal with a ridiculous rate of  technological change, and thus must constantly adapt to new systems, programs, etc. The RATE of change is faster now than ever before, so the humans of this third millennium are truly testing the limits of our inherent adaptability.

In Chauvet Cave there is one panel with two drawings side by side. By carbon-dating the drawings they discovered that those two drawings were done 5,000 years apart. Five THOUSAND years apart. In 32,000 BP the drawing technology of choice was a burnt stick. Flash forward 5,000 years and the technology was… a burnt stick.

What luxury to have such a slow rate of change! How relaxed the cave people must have been! No need to stress about if a better version of charcoal will come out two days after you bought yours! Yes, early humans were masters at adapting, but they sure took their time about it.

Flash forward 30,000 years, and our technologies change rapidly and continuously, at an ever-increasing rate. We’re able to keep up, because we’re human. Do we like having to adapt and change? Definitely not. But are we still really good at it? Yes!

As much as we all hate change, it’s where we really shine as a species and we should celebrate that in ourselves. Technology doesn’t separate us from our ancient ancestors, it connects us, through our special gift of adaptability. Every time we learn a new operating system, or get a new phone, we are calling back through the eons to the first people who pulled sticks from the fire and walked, in the flickering light, toward the cave walls.

- Asha Kinney

none

Quote from Kevin Kelly’s Techno Life Skills :

“You will be a newbie forever. Get good at the beginner mode, learning new programs, asking dumb questions, making stupid mistakes, soliticting help, and helping others with what you learn (the best way to learn yourself).”

In this day and age we’ll always be beginners at something. For many of us that’s a hard place to be. For others, it’s what makes life interesting.

Learning how to learn: THE most important 21st century skill!

Thanks to John Gunther for showing me the quote!

-Asha

none

 

A challenge!

Unplug

From what you ask?

Well the Internet, TV, email, SMS text, Facebook the list goes on.

Why?

Here are a few reasons:

 

Well attention spans are it turns out are elastic in nature.

There is a school of thought that says, that all of this digital immersion, is in fact reducing out ability to focus for extended periods of time.   Unplugging will help you to focus.

 

Computers are actually quite useful tools when used properly.

But they can also provide a conduit for wasting time.  Unplugging will help you develop a healthy balance and allow you to focus on other activities.  Try exercise, reading, walk that dog!   It will certainly help make you healthy and reduce stress.

 

 

Not everything is important.

Do you wonder why your colleague hasn’t responded to the email you sent 10 minutes ago on a Saturday night?   Well life is about more that email and the digital world!

 

Pay attention to things that matter.

I was at dinner in a local restaurant with my wife and we noticed a near by table.  There sat a Dad, son and daughter engaged in handheld devices, while Mom, Grandma and Grandpa (I assume) sat actually talking.   Kind of sad I thought.

Kind of a strange article to find on a tech blog for sure.

But give it a chance you may be surprised.  There is a whole world out there beyond your computer screen.

Bob C

 

none