Academic Computing Committee
Meeting Minutes
October 8, 2007
Members Present:
University Senate Representative: J. Alvares, R. Wolfson
Faculty Representatives: S. Sotillo [CHSS Faculty Rep.], C. Du [CSAM Faculty Rep], S. Shapiro [Library Faculty Rep.], R. Subramanias [proxy for SBUS Faculty Rep].
Administrative Representatives (Academic Deans): J. L. Hunt [Library Administrative Rep.], A.J. Kelton [CHSS Administrative Rep.], S. Poger [CEHS Administrative Rep], S. Garber [CART Administrative Rep.], S. Shappel [Graduate School Administrative Rep.], P. Kahn [proxy for Associate Vice President for Information Technology]
Non-voting Members Present: E. Chapel, OIT
Guests: M. Gill, M. Heller
Absent: E. Renfro-Michel [CEHS Faculty Rep.], A. Pemberton [CART Faculty Rep.], J. Youn [CSAM Administrative Rep.], R. Salomon [SBUS Administrative Rep.], T. Devlin [Academic Coordinator of Education Computing Network], D. Stevens [Undergraduate Student Rep], A. Mohiuddin [Graduate Student Rep.], VACANT [Undergrad. Student Rep.]
Presiding: M. Kasner, Chair
Reporting: A.J. Kelton and P. Kahn
Distribution: ACC Web at http://frontpage.montclair.edu/acc/
Convened: 3:12 p.m. [Library Special Collections Room]
Adjourned: 4:30 p.m.
1. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 3:12 p.m. when there was a quorum.
2. Minutes: Members postponed approval of the ACC Sept. 10th meeting Minutes.
3. Announcements: Shapiro announced that there will be a product demonstration on Oct. 16th, in Sprague Library, Room 203 (McKenzie Electronic Classroom) at
2pm of the citation index Web of Science as well as Journal Citation Reports which contains impact information on over 7,500 journals. All faculty and staff are welcome to attend. Light refreshments will be served.
Kahn reported that OIT is offering a Term Paper Workshop for students on October 17th and the “No Faculty Left Behind: You CAN Teach Online" forum for faculty on October 23rd. Also, Kahn announced that the Northeast Connect Users Group, formery the NYNJ BlackBoard Group, is hosting a conference on November 16th in New York City at the CUNY Graduate Center, 5th Avenue at 34th Street. The keynote speaker is Marc Prensky from Microsoft. For more information on registration, see the Web site at: http://www.northeastconnect.org
Chapel noted that the NJEDge,net Conference will be held from October 31st to November 2nd. AJ Kelton and Laura Nicosia will be presenting a preconference workshop on “Virtual Worlds: Second Life,” and P. Kahn, E. Chapel, and Prof. Leslie Wilson will speak about “Social Learning using Cell Phone Technology at Montclair State University.” Chapel also announced that the first annual RAVE Wireless Users Group meeting will be held at MSU on November 13-14.. For more information, see http://www.ravewireless.com/uc_info.shtml .
Chapel also reported that the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) is holding its annual meeting on November 11-13, 2007 at the Hilton in New York City. See http://www.nasulgc.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=201&srcid=787
4. Reports
• Chair's Report: Kasner reported that a faculty member wants to know how to disseminate information about technology, such as streaming, on campus. Kahn said it’s done through faculty forums and tech coordinators now, but there are many initiatives for communication still in the pilot stages. Kelton said there should be information on demand. Kasner noted that enhanced lines of communication on campus would be an agenda item for a future ACC meeting.
• OIT Report: Chapel reported that there is a gap in information security that needs to be filled for database/3rd party applications, such as NCATE database, parking. Projects are extracting info from our core administrative services. We didn’t have the security signoff in place. Process will be in place to make this happen – read security policies, agreed to have access, etc.
Faculty/staff computer replacement is happening. 1st iteration of large scale replacement. OIT will collect all info about users and gather add’l info about the inventory.
Software acquisition process – met with David Josephson to establish this account, which would serve as a clearing house for purchases to occur. Adobe suite program is one example.
Bell Tower Initiative – received an RFP, which went to Procurement. Will be given to division heads for input.
Minto Gill gave out a graph that explained usage patterns and connectivity details on major bandwidth usage on campus. There was concern that our statewide network is only with one vendor, Verizon. However, it is a very robust network and constantly redesigned. Eventually MSU will control our own fiber.
Currently, for MSU bandwidth utilization, all traffic is through Internet2, except for special events. Then polycoms, etc. can access alternative packets. On campus, we have flawless connection with a lot of bandwidth. There are 8 videoconference facilities in University Hall.
• Ad Hoc Committee Reports:
a) Learning Management Subcommittee (LMS):
Kahn reported that
1 - Kahn will remain the interim chair until a faculty member assumes the position.
2 - New faculty members
Currently, only CHSS and SBUS are represented by faculty. Kahn asked that the Tech Coordinators reach out to their Deans for a faculty representative. Once we have more participants, we will ask for a volunteer to be chair
3 - Building Block update: Learning Objects, Wimba, etc
Wimba is currently working on production. We will need to upgrade to the latest version by next semester.
Pronto/Wimba - problems getting it to work on the test server. Emails back and forth with Wimba; problems related to Java script,.
Learning Objects - faculty member was not able to work with LO over the summer. Explore at a later date.
4 – BlackBoard (Bb) status and future upgrades
We will be upgrading to 7.3 over Xmas break. We will be engaging.
The plans are to upgrade the test server first from 6.3 to 7.3, along with the latest version of Wimba as well as Rave and iTunes. This will be completed by December.
5 - iTunes U
Installed and working on production. A meeting with the tech coordinators has been scheduled
6 - Next Meeting
once a month - preferably on Monday afternoon
*Next Meeting - Monday, November 5, 1:00 - 2:00, UN5009*
b) MSU EDUCause Representation Subcommittee:
Kelton (Chair) announced the new MSU EDUCause Participating Representatives and Subscribing Representatives and gave the list to Chapel.
c) Digital Repository SubCommittee:
Mallery (Chair) was absent, and the Subcommittee's report on Digital Repositories was deferred for presentation at the November ACC meeting.
5. New Business:
a) ACC Listserv: Shapiro will update the ACC listserv with new ACC members’ emails..
b) Next Meeting:
The next meeting of the ACC is scheduled for Monday, November 12th, in the Library's Special Collections Room, from 3PM-5PM. December 10th ACC meeting will be in the Terrace Lounge in University Hall.
7. Adjournment:
The meeting was adjourned at 4:30 PM.