101 Things I Would Change at SMC by Tim Frank
Technology:
Okay folks. Here’s your chance to discuss the changes that Tim suggested in his document. Scroll to the bottom to leave a comment and let us hear what you’ve got to say. We’ll try to respond to your comments as best we can. This is not the whole list, just the technology section.
24. Give RFP faculty members administrative privileges over the computers in their own offices. There are a number of free software packages that I could download from the internet onto my computer if I had administrative privileges. I can’t even buy a new printer, connect it to my office computer, and install drives without administrative privileges. I have been told that by not allowing administrative privileges, the IT department is able to set all computers for automatic updates. If that is actually the case, faculty members could still be given a special password to use on those rare occasions when administrative privileges are necessary, and then use their normal passwords when they are not needed.
25. Give RFP faculty members control over their own web space on the SMCC webpage, and allow them to update their schedule, office hours, photograph, etc., every semester. Much of the information about individual faculty members shown on the SMCC webpage is outdate. Faculty should be allowed and responsible for keeping their own information up-to-date. Most colleges and universities allow faculty to update their own pages. Faculty members often include additional information about their hobbies, families, etc. Why can’t we do this at SMCC?
26. Create a technology equipped classroom that is unassigned to any class. When a class scheduled in a room with less technology needs computers, the instructor can reserve the room for that class period. This classroom would be reserved like our conference rooms, by faculty members when needed for special class sessions. There are many courses that don’t need access to computers a majority of the time, and it is not cost effective to put technology into every classroom when it will only be used on a limited basis. By having a special room that can be reserved, it will no longer be necessary to put student computers in every classroom; however, every classroom still should have an instructor computer and projection system.
27. Students should be given individual logins and disk space on a server. A record of when and where students logged in from should be maintained. This would allow students to save their files and access them anywhere on campus, while also providing a deterrent for student misuse of our computer equipment.
28. Eliminate the generic “Instructor Login” from the instructor computers in all classrooms. Too often the login and password are posted on the computer, and when I enter my classroom there is a student working on the instructor computer before class. Only allow instructors to login as themselves on the instructor computers.
29. Allow full-time students to rent old laptop computers on a semester-by-semester basis. This would seem like a better use of our old laptops than just sending them off to the district to be auctioned off. If the computer works, let our students benefit from it.
30. Provide wireless internet access. This will allow students and employees to use their own laptop computers anywhere on our campus.
31. Eliminate the “Automatic Update” messages on the college’s computers that require the computer to be restarted immediately. This seemed to be much more of a problem last year on the laptop computers I had in my classroom, but it still happened on my office computer at least once this semester. The basic problem is that all of a sudden a popup window appears telling the user that new updates have been installed and the computer needs to be restarted. The window has a button to restart the computer, but it does not give the option of restarting later or minimizing the window. The only two options are to restart the computer or drag the window to a less obtrusive location on the screen. This is a major inconvenience when students are taking an exam on a computer or if I am in a hurry to finish something. Let the user choose to restart latter and then have the window reappear the next.