Technology Professional Practice Board

September 18, 2013 11:30 am

Attendees: Shelly Harkness, Katie Quaintance, Brian Verkamp, Sandra Browning, Audra Morrison, Dani Peterson

Introductions

Board Missions and Objectives

  • Brian Verkamp nominated as chair by Audra Morrison, seconded by Dani Peterson
  • Set policies and standards for the College; any concerns or topics for discussions send to Katie Quaintance for addition to meeting agenda

UCIT Strategic Planning Committee

  • Developed by Nelson Vincent
  • Plan for the mission of UCIT
  • Focusing on disruptive e-learning
  • Representative from this committee will likely be present at the November Tech Board meeting

Technology Grants

  • $20,000 of IT funds
  • faculty and graduate students who apply for these internal grants
  • as a board, we increase knowledge of this grant and Greg Hollon holds a grant writing workshop
  • faculty can request up to $2,000 for various purposes
  • can be used for research, devices, software, external hard drives
  • This group reads, scores, and chooses proposals to approve for funding
  • Calls for proposals will be sent earlier this year (next month)
  • Information will be sent to group for approval before sending it college-wide
  • Funding will not be used for paying people (paying students, etc.)
  • Will need to change criteria in the grant
  • Cannot be used for travel, but can be used for conferences, etc.
  • Type of conference would depend; wouldn’t necessarily need to be an IT conference (for example, could be an educational conference if proposal focuses on using technology)

Other Updates

  • Student email system
  • Upgraded over the summer, which includes an update to Microsoft Lync, office 365 and Skydrive
  • Though much of this does not work
  • Working with UCIT to fix this
  • Receptive to feedback about problems
  • Microsoft Lync
  • New tool provided by the University
  • Enterprise-grade skype
  • Can be used for audio and visual calling to be integrated with student and faculty email
  • Lync “meetings” can be scheduled within outlook
  • Can share desktop, white board,
  • Can be used inter-office, set up office hours, study hours,
  • DaniPeterson has used it for many things but having problems with student version working correctly
  • Many applications, student assistance just one use for it
  • Student version is functional but if they gain the desktop version they will be able to create their own Lync meetings
  • Brian Verkamp (and CECH IT) will provide training, webcam and microphone if needed
  • Available for any faculty in the college
  • Can also be done for laptops to be used at home
  • Advantage of Lync
  • Can’t share desktop with Skype
  • Can’t see more than one person on Skype
  • Because it is on the university email, it is linked through email (so don’t need a Skype username)
  • Linked to office calendar (set to unavailable, etc.)
  • Ease of access, especially for scheduling conflicts
  • Productivity and collaboration when students and faculty are having problems
  • Can help students more effectively-file sharing, desktop control
  • Virtual Lab (VLab)
  • Asked board members to take information back to respective departments
  • good documentation on CECH IT website
  • resource for courses where students need specific software (SPSS, Dreamweaver)
  • formerly had to find an open lab
  • this takes them to the website which they can virtually work on to use the software
  • still working out some small problems
  • any problems using it should re-install the client at the beginning
  • demo can be shown
  • works on macs and iPad
  • great for students who have macs but need PC software
  • next meeting can include tutorial on Lync and v-labs
  • also includes file space saving
  • students can drag into the file space
  • still called a “pilot” because only CECH, College of Business and College of Nursing submitted funding to it
  • But all students actually have access
  • Dropbox is highly discouraged for faculty use
  • No student data can be on Dropbox (against University policy)
  • IT is aware that this is a problem
  • Doc exchanger
  • Functional, but not great
  • Filr
  • Heavily piloting this program now
  • Going to give everyone “Dropbox-like” access to U and Q drives
  • Synchronizes with files on computer
  • Works on iPad, mac and/or windows, Android
  • In use in IT office, working on kinks but works very well
  • More secure than Dropbox
  • Added into the agenda next month for short tutorial
  • Not exclusively for university files
  • Can be shard with files outside of university
  • Security is tight at UC and while things can still be hacked, UC programs are not as high-profile target as Dropbox
  • Still can use Dropbox if collaborating with other people but files involving student data, research data, should be used with filr
  • Question about Lync
  • Can attend meetings with others outside the university (will get invite with Lync)-open webpage and added into meeting
  • Adobe connect used because lync, although great, is not a large-scale enterprise web-conferencing solution
  • Features are more robust in other purposes , especially for instruction
  • The university is pricing WebX vs. Adobe Connect to look into purchasing it on a Lync-level
  • Licenses are fairly cheap if needed (Brian and Audra will talk more individually about her needs)
  • Katie will send out future dates
  • Next meeting is scheduled for October 16
  • Changed to October 23
  • Future reminder emails will be sent prior to one day in advance of the meeting
  • Future Meeting Dates (Tentative)
  • Meetings will take place the third Wednesday of every month at 11:30 am in 439 TC
  • September 18
  • October 23
  • Changed from Oct 16 to Oct 23 due to scheduling conflict
  • November 20
  • December 18
  • January 15
  • February 19
  • March 19
  • April 16