Plenary Sessions
The plenary sessions are designed to motivate and inspire technology staff members. Each day's presentation will include some uplifting commentary and illustrations of using technology in the ministry of Christian higher education.
Keynote Speakers
Dr. Bill Brown
Mr. David Cossey
Mr. David Cossey from
Union College (New York) will be giving us "Glimpses of the Future." Dave's presentation will include projections on the amount of
information produced, discussion of new devices which will impact both libraries and computing, and
comments about significant issues related to converging technologies.
Dr. Wes Baker
Dr. Wes Baker will conclude the conference by
presenting a view of future challenges to be faced in the delivery of education to our students. Dr. Baker, Distinguished Professor of Communication Arts at
Cedarville University, is a nationally
known expert on blended instruction...using a combination of online delivery and classroom participation.
Session Descriptions
Academic Media Support: Meeting User Media Needs from Production to Presentation
- Carl Brandon (Cedarville University)
- Media production and presentation tools continue to change - are we changing to meet the need? To what degree and where do our users need media support and technical assistance?
Automating Endpoint Security Acceptable Use Policies
- Dennis Muley (Impulse Point)
- An in-depth look at computing security problems in higher education and real-life lessons in network access protection. Learn how a college can define, automate, and enforce acceptable use computing policies for users accessing their networks: including anti-virus, anti-spyware, Microsoft security patches, and peer-to-peer music file sharing policies. Protect your network from the threat of malware and educate students on computing security best practices.
Birds of a Feather Discussion
- This session will be a free-flowing discussion of topics that have arisen during the conference. Specific topics will be announced during the morning plenary session.
The Dark Juju of Mac OS-X and Active Directory
- Rich Cook (Asbury)
- For many years Macintosh and Windows computers have been seen as diametrically opposed. This does not have to be the case. Windows machines can now connect to fileshares on X Serves and Macs can now participate in Active Directory Domains. Come hear one college's experience with integrating these two platforms and discover how to ease the cross-platform pain.
Designing and Implementing Cooperative Projects
- Ed O'Donnel (Campus Management)
- This presentation will outline the plusses and the minuses of collaborative technology projects within higher education. How do smaller institutions having students/prospects with the same needs as the Ohio States of the world compete? What kinds of collaborative projects really make sense? Which are just so much froth, full of buzz words and catch phrases and which, on the other hand, contain substance and promise? A real world view of cooperation from the point of view of the individual institution, your potential partner institutions and what makes sense for your presentation to potential vendors who would like to partner with you and your colleagues.
Disaster Recovery: Planning the CCCU System
- Chris Martin (Northwest), Gary Holeman (LeTourneau), Paul DuPree (Asbury)
Evaluating Open Source Products
- Rich Bowen (Asbury)
- Free doesn't always mean cheap, and it certainly doesn't always mean good. With the thousands of choices of Open Source applications, it's important to know how to evaluate which ones are trustworthy. I'll discuss the various metrics that can be used to evaluate the health of a project and of its community, and of course the quality of the software itself. Other important topics include the support channels, licensing issues, and the project's concern with ease of use. Having been involved in various Open Source projects, and seeing a lot of them die, I'll reveal some of the telling signs that a project might not be around much longer, so that you can avoid getting stuck on a sinking ship. I'll look at several case studies, as well as talking about lessons learned in the Apache Incubator.
First Year Experiences Using Moodle
- Chris Martin (Northwest), John Rodkey (Westmont)
- A glimpse of our first year experiences running Moodle in production on Windows (Northwest) and on Linux (Westmont).
How to Get Your Campus on the Front Page of the Chronicle
- Dave Tindall (Seattle Pacific)
- An interactive session (table-top exercise) on campus regarding data management and security, data breaches and exposure, legal implications, incident handling, etc. We'll look at central servers and databases, laptop thefts and data encryption, tracking SPI (sensitive personal information) throughout the campus, creating policies and awareness training.
Implementing Student Print Accounting
- Dawn Bush (Calvin)
- In the fall of 2004 student printing costs at Calvin College were growing by 10 to 15% a year. Students were printing flyers for small businesses they were running out of our residence halls free of charge. Students were printing work required for their off-campus jobs free of charge. Students were printing 45 pages from the internet keeping pages 19-22 and leaving the remainder on the lab printers free of charge. How Calvin College gained control of student printing on campus over 3 semesters!
Making the Grade: How to Measure the Quality of an IT Department
- Paul DuPree (Asbury), Bert Walther (Asbury), Rick Cook (Asbury)
- Do you know if you are improving and growing as a department? Do you need a way to measure your I.T. functions in a way that highlights what you can do to get to the next level of quality? Find out how you can measure your own IT group's quality and move your group to new levels simply by communicating this new 5 point scale with everyone in your group.
A Model for Faculty Technology Support
- John Niedzielski (Calvin), Krista Spahr (Calvin)
- The Teaching & Learning Digital Studio provides faculty with the latest and greatest hardware and software, as well as knowledgeable personnel, to explore educational software, develop curriculum, create digital materials and learn new technologies. Come hear how the T&L Digital Studio, through its unique service model and programs, facilitates the collaboration of faculty members, Teaching and Learning specialists and tech-savvy students to encourage the development and use of technology in teaching and learning.
Moodle Noodles: Cookbook for Success
- Chris Martin (Northwest)
- This is a hands-on, double-length session that will give attendees some actual experience using Moodle. Chris will also share some hints on the effective setup and implementation of Moodle.
Multimedia as a Tool for Teaching and Learning
- John Niedzielski (Calvin), Krista Spahr (Calvin)
- See how Calvin's Teaching and Learning Team utilizes a variety of software and technology to empower faculty to incorporate multimedia technologies into their curriculum. Brief abstract: Calvin's Teaching and Learning Team works closely with faculty to incorporate multimedia technology into their curriculum by using digital video, weblogs, DVD authoring and web design/development tools. Specific examples of these learning objects and multimedia technologies will be presented.
Network Registration and Bandwidth Management
- Tim Medin (LeTourneau), Ken Johnson (LeTourneau), Gary Holeman (LeTourneau)
- A session focusing on LeTourneau University's custom solution for network and bandwidth management. Brief discussion of the decision process which led to an internally-developed solution will be followed by details on the development process. The session will conclude with a discussion of the finished product, other projects which have benefited from the solution, and an opportunity to ask questions.
Podcasting
- Rich Bowen (Asbury)
- If you're not already podcasting on your campus, you will be soon. It's
crucial that you understand the technology, and what's involved in
creating and hosting podcasts. Topics covered will include:
- Finding and subscribing to podcasts, on various operating systems
- Obtaining royalty-free and copyright-free recorded materials for your classroom (spokenberg.org and librivox.org)
- XML, RSS, and enclosures
- Distributing your podcasts, 3rd party services vs. your own distribution model
- Podcasting software, including Wordpress, Odeo, and others
- Avoiding the pitfalls of podcasting
- Recording and post-processing your podcast cost-effectively
- Integrating podcasting into your classroom
- The impact of podcasting on your network
Policy Development and Implementation
- Craig Gray (Lee)
- The higher education technology landscape is sprawling at an exponential rate, while budgets and personnel are static, or worse shrinking. Understanding the basis for good policy development in order to more effectively manage IT services for CIO is critical. Gain an understanding of COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology), which provides the basis for policy and procedure development.
Taming the Peer to Peer Leviathan
- Bridget Mercay (Audible Magic)
- Illicit pornography, music and video file sharing are still on the rise and an ever-evolving problem on today�s campuses. Come see how other private religious schools are balancing this delicate issue by using Audible Magic�s unique solution that provides the ability to allow legitimate downloads while blocking child porn, pornography and copyright infringement downloads.
To Filter or Not to Filter: That Is the Question
- Sharon Borntrager (National Coalition) and Jack Samad (National Coalition)
-
Sharon Borntrager and Jack Samad from the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families
will talk about the services provided by this organization followed by an open discussion time on such topics as:
- Should colleges and universities filter internet content?
- What products do you use to filter internet content?
- What polices do you have in place?
- What counseling services are available to help students with pornography problems?
uPortal
- Mark Mazelin (Cedarville)
- Cedarville has been using uPortal for several years. Come to this hands-on, double-length session to get some practice in setting up uPortal and to learn about some implementation issues.
Virtually Hardware-Free
- Phillip Price (Lee)
- The high cost associated with deploying and maintaining servers can be mitigated by leveraging hardware with a virtual environment. Lee University's ESX server implementation will serve as an example of the advantages and disadvantages of using virtual servers. This session will be a hands-on training session that gives attendees the opportunity to try the technology. Attendees will have the opportunity to test implementation, disaster recovery, failover, server deployment, and reporting capabilities of VMWare.
VMWare for Servers
- Tom Miller (Sarcom)
- In this invited presentation, Tom Miller will show how Sarcom is using VMWare for internal operations. Special attention will be given to utilities that simplify creating virtual servers, cloning servers, and rapid failover of servers. Tom's presentation will be of special interest for attendees who enjoy seeing cool applications of technology.
Weblogs in Higher Education
- John Niedzielski (Calvin), Krista Spahr (Calvin)
- Learn how Calvin College is using weblogs effectively for external communications, admissions recruiting, and course-related activities. Brief abstract: Multimedia Specialist, John Niedzielski, will share his experiences deploying weblog software at Calvin College, from pilot project to campus-wide implementation. He will discuss in-depth how the weblogs are now being effectively and pedagogically used for external communications, admissions recruiting, and course-related activities.
What is Educational Social Software?
- Glen Moriarty (Regent)
- Educational social software marries social networking technology with course management system software. This results in a much more accurate reflection of how learning typically occurs in the college or university. Emphasis is placed on how next generation technologies (e.g., chat, RSS, blogging) optimize traditional course management functionalities (e.g., bulletin boards, test managers, gradebooks).
Wikis in Higher Education
- Rich Bowen (Asbury)
- This double-length session will give attendees a chance to design and implement a Wiki. The presenter will also give some examples of using Wikis in an instructional environment.
