October 17, 2008 Minutes
Information Technology
MEETING MINUTES
Friday, October 17, 2008
10:00 am T-12
Members Present: Adrian Agundez, Dave Berry, Bill Devine, John Eigenauer, Rick Garcia, Mark Gibson, Richard Hudson, Brian Jean, Ruby Payne, Tiffany Rowden, Linda West, Henry Yong
Recorder: Michaela Young
Meeting start: 10:05 am
- Approval of minutes from ITC Meeting on September 19, 2008
The minutes were approved unanimously
- Replacement of Computer Lab
Adrian advised that IT would like to stay with equipment they can support. The oldest equipment is currently located in T6, T10 and Westec. TCI (T5 and T7) have the newest equipment. Henry commented that new computers were purchased for the math labs last year; therefore, they are fairly up to date.
Adrian recommended 19” monitors instead of the 22” monitors as table space prohibits the larger
monitors. Brian Jean added that the larger monitors pose too much of an obstruction between the student and instructor. He then asked if there were enough servers to keep up with the demand. Mark said that they are up to date with servers. Adrian stated they are getting away from the towers and are going to smaller boxes as floppy drives are hardly used anymore. That would also allow for larger monitors.
Brian said that in the lab setting the 19” monitors might be preferable.
Dave suggested as an alternative to go with the setup in T7 where the computers are located around the outside perimeter of the room. Adrian said there is discussion around campus on how to fund the replacement of computers in the labs. He wants to set standards for computers as well as printers and data projectors. They are unable to install Vista at this time as the machines are not strong enough to handle that.
- New Web Server/Mark Gibson
Mark stated that his goal was to remove some of the old server hardware which is 5 years old. There are some issues with no front page extensions. They will run more PHP scripts. Moving the main site over to the new server will be done slowly -some of it will not be moved over. Tiffany asked if this will affect Banner; Mark advised it would not. Any problems will be reported to Rick Garcia. Brian asked which sites will be on the new server. Per Mark, it will be the www.taftcollege.edu sites as well as some sites affiliated with the city. Bill asked how to secure his website. Rick explained that the FTP program will allow him to log in. Tiffany commented that several instructors have submitted requests to get instruction on how to create websites – it should be part of in-service. Brian inquired about the cost for campus-wide software licenses Mark said they could look into a site license for dreamweaver. Bill suggested having a link for students to check on their grades. Adrian said they have reached the limit on Micrograde; they have moodle, etudes and something in Luminis available (Luminis not up running yet) Ruby commented that Micrograde is very user friendly. Brian asked when Gradebook in Luminis will be up. Adrian replied he didn’t know yet – they do not have the time to do the development right now. It doesn’t do weekly grading and is geared more toward mid-semester and final grading. The College is also in the process of purchasing Argos which can do a number of reports. With everything else going on it will take approximately 1 year to build it, however. Adrian then addressed student wireless; they are asking to replace older equipment which routes data. There has been a problem with music sharing among students. Mark added that they are trying to block peer to peer software (e.g. Napster) without affecting anything else in order to stop copyright infringement of any kind. Adrian suggested virtual tutoring as another option and said they want to leave themselves open to new things in the future. Bill brought up a concern with losing data if kept electronically; until this semester he has always kept grades on paper for that reason. Adrian explained that backup is done every night and suggested putting data on the shared network. (cougar-fs)
- Spec Sheet for Recommended Equipment Adrian presented a spec sheet containing information on equipment along with cost estimates. The reference information is valid through at least December. (Shipping and taxes are not included)
Under printers, the “n” stands for “network”, the “d” stands for “duplex” Several of Ikon’s copiers on campus have the ability to be mapped to directly (e.g. mailroom copier). Adrian has purchased some smaller data projectors which are appx. $650.00 versus $1,500 spent previously. The audio of the cheaper models is not as good as the previous ones. The new projectors are designed to be mounted on the ceiling; they are very light and portable.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:00 am.