Meeting Minutes

Columbia College

April 10, 2008 – Community Ed. Room

Attending: Gary Mendenhall; Melissa Colon; Brian De Moss; KC Marshall; Robert Gritz, Susan Vegter-Slape; Brian Greene; Wendy Link; Connie Mical; Don Smith

1. Progress report on expanded wireless access – Brian De Moss

Wireless Access – Brian De Moss reported District IT will be installing staff wireless across campus within the next few weeks. He also noted IT will be requiring all students to log into the wireless network. The Columbia College Technology Committee voiced displeasure with this procedure explaining the College serves a different function than district office. The College serves a community population in a rural area and serves a different mission. Connie Mical suggested we create a dialogue to determine the best configuration possible in order for Columbia to provide a wireless network to students. Brian will further discuss this issue with Gina Rose.

NEEDED ACTION: Brian De Moss will discuss student log in (wireless network) with Gina Rose.

Broadband issue – ATT and the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC), the District’s internet provider, will soon be upgrading and installing physical equipment at the District very soon. Within a month, MJC will be upgraded to a gigabit connection which will alleviate some of the broadband restrictions Columbia now has. Within a one year period, Columbia will be upgraded to the gigabit network.

2. FrontPage/Faculty web page update – Brian De Moss

No decision has been made as to what software application Columbia will be using after the FrontPage demise in April, 2009. All faculty, departments and programs will be involved in the decision-making process. Best Practices and generalities have been agreed upon, but actual web page design still needs to be developed.

Gary Mendenhall suggested the Technology Committee develop a proposal offering direction for the Web Focus Group as follows:

o Reconvene the previous Web Focus Group – add additional participants as necessary

o Start with work completed by the previous group

o Identify 2-3 designs and bring back to the Technology Committee

o Review Best Practices – take to Faculty Senate and all representative groups

o All information to come back to the Technology Committee who will make final recommendations as appropriate.

NEEDED ACTION: Brian De Moss will submit the Technology Committee’s web page proposal to Dr. Joan Smith for her perusal.

3. Technology updates - Brian De Moss

Brian De Moss reports Block and Lottery technology purchases have been completed.

Brian Greene reports two accessibility scanners have been purchased by the Library.

Robert Gritz reports Datatel will be coming to audit the College’s Datatel processes. This service is offered to us by the District as part of their Datatel contract.

Moving to Datatel V.20.

CurricuNet has been purchased and faculty training will be offered in the fall.

HelpDesk staff will be coming up to give student email training to Brian D., Melissa Colon and other interested staff.

VEMS upgrade – Connie Mical states the College is considering the possibility of purchasing VEMS Campus Ed. software which will interface with Datatel.

SharePoint – District’s SharePoint servers are up and running.

4. Instructional Technology Center (ITC) Report – Melissa Colon

Melissa distributed a flier regarding the California Educational Technology Collaborative (CETC) which lists all free programs and services.

Through @ONE training, Brian Greene has taken advantage of a podcasting class. Melissa has asked Brian Greene to eventually offer podcasting training on campus.

Future Training:

WebCT will be/is now called Blackboard. Melissa will be calling together the Blackboard Users Group. The end of April Melissa will offer Blackboard training for faculty to respond to housecleaning type questions on a drop-in basis.

CCC Confer Training – April 29. This is a follow-up to the training offered previously by our district education consultant. Brian D. and Melissa will conduct the session.

Wireless Access on Laptops – Don Smith will be offering training on May 7 on the wireless network for faculty/staff.

5. Next Meeting Date – The Technology Committee will next meet Fall 2008, 08/09FY

6. Final Announcement:

The Columbia College Technology Plan has been accepted/adopted by the Columbia College Council.