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2008 ResNet Survey

ckeller — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:24:39 -0600

The 2008 ResNet Survey seeks to develop a longitudinal view on certain topics from the 2005 survey, assess technology and other changes in residential student computing support since that time, and take a peek into the future as to what issues might be over the horizon. The results offer an assessment on the present status of student computing in higher education, assist you in understanding your program's present status and how it aligns with other residential support programs, and provides insight into potential future challenges.

CNI Podcast: The Digital Scholarship Lab - Experiments in Twenty-First Century Research and Teaching

gbayne — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:07:40 -0600

This twenty minute podcast features an interview with Andrew Torget, Director of the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond. It was recorded at the Coalition for Networked Information Fall 2008 Task Force Meeting.

The Digital Scholarship Lab is a center for innovation, bringing together scholars, technologists, and the public in order to explore how emerging technology can change the ways we understand the human past, present, and future. Two of the projects discussed in this interview include “Voting America” and the “History Engine.” Both projects experiment with what the future of teaching and research might be in the digital age. “Voting America” employs visualizations and cinematic techniques to make a massive amount of data--the 1.6 billion votes that have been cast in presidential elections during the last 164 years--more accessible to students of history and politics. The “History Engine” captures the research of undergraduate students and aggregates their work to produce a very detailed, very large resource about the American past, one that is valuable both to students within the classroom and to a larger public. Both projects are designed to model how colleges and universities might seize new opportunities and meet the challenges presented by digitized resources and digital techniques.

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2008 Fall Task Force Meeting. The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity. You can learn more about CNI at their web site, http://www.cni.org

Decentralization in a Centralized IT Environment

drupal — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:59:33 -0600

This presentation will review IUP's journey to build an IT infrastructure that takes advantage of decentralized expertise while maintaining a core centralized IT environment. This environment allows us to address the dramatic and continuing increase in demand for emerging IT in higher education. The central IT organization can focus on the expansion of mission while increasing decentralized expertise in the functional areas of the organization. Other institutions may want to consider how we developed this infrastructure to create a best-practice deployment in preparing for emerging IT trends in higher education.

Energy Drain by Computers Stifles Efforts at Cost Control

ckeller — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:47:52 -0600

Many institutions waste millions of dollars per year powering inefficient machines, outdated cooling systems, and improvised clusters of servers stored in lab closets and back rooms.

Scholarly Practice in the Digital Age

ckeller — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:01:03 -0600

Presentation at the 2008 EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) Symposium, December 4, 2008, in Boca Raton, Florida, by Paul N. Courant, University Librarian and Dean of Libraries, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Information technology ought to be an unambiguous boon to scholarship and teaching. It makes it easier than ever to find and to use prior work, to obtain comments and criticism (constructive and otherwise), and to provide high-quality copies of original material to broad audiences, including students. Yet there is widespread concern that traditional scholarly methods are put at risk by easy searches online. The stakes are very high. Scholarly method is more important than ever when some answer to almost any question is quickly available online. And if we are able to combine old values and methods with the best of new technologies, we can transform teaching, learning, and the academy generally for the better. Both the best and the worst of times look to be available. What will it take to choose the best?

How to Cite This Work: Courant, Paul N. "Scholarly Practice in the Digital Age." Presentation at the 2008 EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) Symposium, Boca Raton, FL, December 5, 2008, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.

The Technology Revolution in Higher Education: IT as a Catalyst of Change

drupal — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:55:07 -0600

One thing we can count on is that things change constantly. Whether youre new to higher education IT or youre a seasoned professional, we each face change in our workplace everyday. The technology itself changes and changes the way we work and learn. Disruptive technologies have an impact on our business processes. Students' needs and perspectives change. The consumerization of IT changes what we provide and how we provide it. Cyberscholarship is changing the way we can do research. Environmental issues bring critically important change. Our use of and provision of technology make us key change agents at our institutions. This panel will bring together distinguished leaders in the arenas of teaching and learning, infrastructure and enterprise systems, and e-research and e-scholarship to examine key changes, impacts, and directions for the successful integration of change in our work.

Working within a distributed international project

jhnchart — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 04:02:08 -0600

I just started working within a remote dba services project. This is caused by general strategy of our faculty to outsource all IT operations to offshore companies. This allows us to save money for the major faculty activities. This is very interesting to work with people 10 000 miles away and have very good cooperation. Because of ITIL practices uses it does not matter were the Service desk is situated and we covered whole 24 hours with support because of time zone differrence. I hope that our faculty will eventually outsource at least half of overall IT operations. Will write up here in comments about successes and fails in this start-up project.

Teaching in Virtual Worlds (Second Life)

drupal — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 10:38:46 -0600

Many educators are exploring how they can use Second Life and other virtual world environments to teach online courses or to augment regular courses with online materials. This presentation will explain what Second Life is, how it can be used for educational purposes, and what the faculty and IT support staff are doing at IUP to support the use of virtual worlds for teaching. IUP has four islands in Second Life and is planning to expand. IUP is the fourth most visited higher education site in Second Life.

Virtual Worlds (Second Life) Constituent Group Discussion

drupal — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 10:46:31 -0600

Will teaching in a virtual environment really be the next big thing? A number of institutions and faculty think so, and that number is growing. This group brings together those who want to discuss how virtual learning environments like Second Life impact all facets of the institution, from technology to teaching. The Virtual Worlds Constituent Group meets each year at the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference and strives to meet at all regional conferences. For more information, visit www.educause.edu/groups/vw, where you can also sign up for our mailing list. This discussion session is open to all conference attendees.

Empowerment: How to Attract, Retain, and Develop Higher Ed Technology Staff

drupal — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 11:15:09 -0600

Staffing for technology positions has always been a challenge, especially in higher education, where we often can't compete with large corporations offering top talent big incentives. This presentation will discuss strategies for how we can get a leg up on those large corporations by offering what they can't: a chance to be innovative, thoughtful, creative, and a sense of empowerment by contributing to the fundamental purpose of teaching and learning.