Each year the Horizon Report outlines six areas of emerging technology that will impact teaching and learning in higher education.

MOOC’s (Massively Open Online Courses), Tablet Computing, Wearable Technology, and 3D Printing are a few of the technologies outlined in the report.

Several Information Technology Services staff members were involved in personal/professional development the past couple of months.  Curtis Kelch attended the In Control 2012 Web Design Conference where he learned from a diverse array of web experts to use modern tools and techniques to refine his web design skills.

Pat Zehr, Tina Keller, and Michael Gorman attended the Sungard Summit 2012 to learn more about the Datatel/Sungard merger, to learn more about the Banner and Luminis products supported on campus, and to make important contacts with vendors, Sungard personell, and other university representatives that support Sungard products on their campuses.

Trey Short, Lisa Caughron and Ray Martinez attended the Educause Midwest Regional Conference.  This year’s conference, “Measuring Our Present, Mapping Our Future, Moving Forward Together,” focused on three fundamental questions: Where are we now? Where are we going? How do we get there? Lisa lead a presentation with Allison Stillwell of Loyola University entitled Student Employees and Professional Development: A Collaborative Discussion of Best Practices.  Trey took part in the CIO and Senior IT Leader Roundtable.

The ITS staff are holding an Open House for the members of the Alumni Technology Advisory Group who are returning to campus for Homecoming 2011 on Friday, October 21st, from 2:00pm-4:00pm at Tommy’s in the Hansen Student Center.

The ATAG is a group of Alumni who have interest in technology that provide expertise and guidance to Information Technology Services.

Information Technology Services is aware of network performance problems that are affecting access to networked services.  We knew that Internet bandwidth would be at capacity most of the day with the start of the Fall semester and the return of faculty and students to campus.  An unexpected issue with on-campus network performance is compounding overall access to network based services both on and off campus.

What is being done to correct the problem?
The Network Services staff are diligently working to track down the cause of the problem.  Tracking down the cause is quite a puzzle due to the fact that hundreds of new devices were introduced to the campus network over the past weekend.  There are hundreds of new computers, smartphones, game consoles, etc., connected to the network.  We are also aware that many in residence halls have installed wireless routers and network equipment that extend the campus network, which is against ITS Policy, and have a real potential to disrupt the campus computing network.  Improperly configured network equipment attached to the campus network can introduce many kinds of problems that can adversely affect overall network performance.

Internet Bandwidth is scheduled to be upgraded in late September or early November.  Our current 90Mbs DS3 connection is being upgraded to a 155Mbs OC3 connection.  A new, higher performance Internet router is also being installed to support the upgraded connection to the Internet.

We ask for and appreciate your patience as the solution to the network performance problems are tracked down and corrected.  Please call the ITS Help Desk at 309-556-3900 with any questions you may have.

Teaching and Learning Workshop: Innovative Possibilities

The Office of the Provost, The Mellon Center and The Ames Library are hosting an Innovative Possibilities Open House in the Thorpe Center (Ames 301) on Thursday, March 31 from 3-5 p.m. Refreshments will be served.

Join your colleagues and learn how they have been integrating new technologies into the classroom.

* 3:00 – 3:30 — Sonja Fritzsche — Integrating video clips

* 3:30 – 4:00 — Leah Nillas — E-Portfolios

* 4:00 – 4:30 — Diego Mendez-Carbajo — Using Moodle in a writing intensive course

* 4:30 – 5:00 — Allison Weiss — Engaging technologies in the language classroom (Skype, Flip videos, tablets)

Please indicate your interest in attending any or all of these sessions so we may provide adequate seating.

Also, feel free to drop in at any time during the event to see demonstrations of some new and emerging technologies:

* Tablets (iPad2, Samsung Galaxy Tab)

* Document cameras

* Interactive whiteboards

* Flip videos

This year’s conference, “Empowering Today’s Students for Tomorrow’s World,” will highlight the creative, sustainable, and collaborative ways we can promote student success by transforming teaching and learning, research, enterprise services, and the student experience through information technologies. Join your colleagues and leaders in the higher ed IT community at this conference to learn, share, and explore how to provide transformative leadership in attaining this goal.

http://net.educause.edu/mwrc11

The ITS Staff have been preparing for an upgrade to our Sungard Banner

product for some time.  Banner is an administrative suite of software that

helps support areas such as s financial aid, business and finance, human

resources, admissions, and student records.  The move to Banner 8 will

begin on Friday, November 29th.  Access to the Banner system will not be

available during the upgrade.  The upgrade to Banner 8 should be completed

sometime Sunday, with complete system availability on Monday.

The results are in from Illinois Wesleyan University’s TechQual+ survey of student perceptions of technology services. The radar chart to the left is from the Survey Results report. Red indicates areas needing improvement.

You can download the “2008 Student Survey Results” and the “2008 Student Survey Analysis” from the reports section of the IT website. The “Survey Results” were produced by the TechQual+ project, and explain the radar chart, the numeric ratings, and other details. The analysis compares this year’s survey to the 2007 results, and makes recommendations based on the student feedback gathered by the survey.

Thanks to the more than 200 students who responded. Winners of the drawing will be announced soon.

Each year Illinois Wesleyan University’s office of Information Technology prepares a summary report on the state of technology services at the University. The 2008 IT Summary Report looks at “accomplishments, challenges, and opportunities”.

You can download the “2008 Summary Report” from the IT Reports web page.

We’ve begun our 2008 Techqual+ Survey of student perceptions of information technology on campus. The survey will be open for the next two weeks, and responding students will be entered in a drawing to win one of twenty $10 gift certificates from the Illinois Wesleyan University Bookstore.

This is our second time using the Techqual+ survey to assess information technology on campus. For more information about the survey, please see the Techqual+ web site.