Expected Downtime for Residential Wireless Network Upgrade

Academic Computing & Telecommunications (ACT) has scheduled maintenance of the Residential Wireless Network. This maintenance involves hardware and software changes that will require all Cisco-based Residential wireless networks to be offline until complete. During this time, Residential wireless service will not be available.

START – Monday 6/17/2013, 7:00 AM

STOP – Wednesday 6/19/2013, 4:00 PM

NOTE – This upgrade will have no downtime for any of the campus wireless networks including UCSD-PROTECTED, UCSD-SCRM, UCSD-GUEST and eduroam. The window of maintenance was set to accommodate unforeseen challenges associated to large scale projects. It is our goal to complete the work ASAP.

Upcoming Help Desk Hours

FRONT DESK

Monday – Friday
8 AM – 4:30 PM

PHONE SUPPORT

Monday – Wednesday, June 17th -19th
8 AM – 4:30 PM

Thursday – Friday, June 20th – 21st
8 AM – 6 PM

Saturday – Sunday, June 22nd going forward
4 PM – 7 PM

Monday – Friday, June 24th – 28th
8 AM – 6 PM

Monday – Friday, starting July 1st
7:45 AM – 7:30 PM

We will be staying open until 6 PM from June 20th – June 30th for Conference Guest support.

Please note that Classroom Support / Lab calls will still go through, but we will not have a dedicated person answering this phone during the two weeks between Finals and Summer Session I. We will be resuming classroom support hours / staffing (7:45 AM – 7:30 PM) once summer session begins on July 1st.

ACMS Aces: Erick Cassani

When the ACMS Help Desk hears that a computer is not working in a lab, who do they call? None other than Erick Cassani, Principle Electronic Technician. As a member of the Hardware Technical Services team, it is Erick’s job to handle hardware-related issues for computers in ACMS-managed labs across UC San Diego.

With over 1,900 computers in 110 computer labs throughout campus, Erick has plenty to keep him busy. “Let’s say your computer needs a part or it’s having issues that [are] not software related,” Erick said when describing his job duties, “They call us and we’ll check it.” Erick often interacts with students and faculty when he is out in the field fixing computers, helping them on the spot. “Most [issues] are simple stuff like connectivity issues, but there’s about 30% you find that you’ve got to tell the professor or the students, ‘I’ve got to take this machine out and bring it to the shop so I can work on it, order a part or two.’” Erick always finds it highly satisfying to complete repairs and get computers back into tip top condition.

Erick and Hardware Technical Services use the summer, when there are less students on campus, to do complete upgrades to some of the labs on campus. The process is so intensive that it takes three days of nonstop work by Erick and the team to complete a full computer lab upgrade. Over the course a summer the Hardware Technical Services team will upgrade three or four labs.

Erick also helps solve hardware issues in the ACMS computer room, which houses servers for ACMS, the GoVirtual computing lab, and supports other departments on campus. This summer Erick will be helping to migrate all the servers in the computer room from one physical network to another, as part of an upgrade of the network switches.

A 16 year veteran of UC San Diego, Erick worked at The Library before joining ACMS. When describing why he was drawn to working at UC San Diego, Erick said, “It’s a beautiful campus and I like the people that work here, the community. It feels like almost family.” Two of Erick’s favorite movies of all time are A Christmas Story, which Erick watches at least twice every year, and the classic World War II flick Kelly’s Heroes. What might surprise people if they pop in on Erick while he is in the middle of repairing a computer is the classical music—most often the compositions of Chopin—that he plays while he works.

The next time you encounter a hardware issue with a computer in one of the ACMS labs, just drop helpdesk@ucsd.edu a note and Erick and the Hardware Technical Services team will get everything cleared up as soon as possible. Keep up all the excellent work Erick!

ACMS Aces is a series of articles that highlights the dedicated employees of Academic Computing & Media Services at UC San Diego. Keep checking back to find out more about the people behind the magic at ACMS!

Summer Workshop on Online Teaching

Learn about online teaching this summer. The workshop is being organized by the Division of Social Sciences, in conjunction with Academic Affairs, Calit2, Academic Computing & Media Services, and the Center for Teaching Development, and is for instructors who are interested in developing an on-line course in the coming year. Special focus will be on the use of online material that can be incorporated in existing face-to-face courses (so-called blended classes) and which then also facilitate ‘flipping the class.’

The workshop is open to all instructors on campus, although enrollment may be limited due to space limitations.

RSVP HERE!

Congratulations Graduating ResNet Technicians!

As the end of another academic year approaches, all of us at ResNet would like to recognize the hard work and dedication of our graduating ResNet Technicians! Our student employees contribute a significant amount of time, innovation, and creativity throughout their academic career, and ResNet would not be the same without them. To all of our ResNet Technicians graduating this weekend, we wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors as you go on to do bigger and better things. We are proud of you!

Check out where our former technicians, including this year’s graduating seniors, are employed now!

Cplot Poster Printing Unavailable 6/18/2013-6/21/2013

The ACMS Cplot poster printing service will be unavailable from 6/18/2013 to 6/21/2013 due to remodeling of the computer room.

ACMS Webmail Outage [RESOLVED]

The ACMS Webmail system has been restored to working order. If you are still experiencing problems with Webmail please contact the ACMS Help Desk by calling (858) 534-2267

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We are currently experiencing issues with the ACMS Webmail system and are working to resolve the problem as soon as possible. Please check back for updates.

Meet Instructional Technology Support!

Long time veterans of UC San Diego will be familiar with Instructional Web Development Center (IWDC), a branch of Academic Computing & Media Services (ACMS) dedicated to supporting the web needs of instructors. Over time, this group has steadily expanded in its role and the IWDC acronym no longer captured the full scope of everything that they provided to the campus.

As a result, ACMS is pleased to announce that the group will now be known as Instructional Technology Support (ITS). ITS is responsible for maintaining and supporting Ted, UC San Diego’s learning management system (LMS), which supports over 22,000 students every quarter. In the 2012-2013 academic year, over 650 classes were supported each quarter. Instructional Technologists provide faculty with assistance integrating Ted and other educational technologies into their courses to enhance student learning. If you want to learn more about what they do, check out our interview with ITS team member Joan Holmquist. Additionally, ITS will be co-leading ACMS’s involvement in UC San Diego’s exploration of online courses as part of its partnership with Coursera.

Instructors who came to IWDC in the past will find the same friendly faces there to help them and all services are continuing without interruption. We just a new name to reflect all of the great services that we already provide UC San Diego’s instructors and students.

iPad Pilot Update 2

Academic Computing & Media Services (ACMS) hosted the second lunch meeting for participants in our Spring 2013 iPad pilot program. The program put iPads into the hands of UC San Diego faculty for use as part of instruction in a wide range of classes in order to explore the educational possibilities of iPads in higher education.

Handwriting

Discussion in the first lunch focused on how each participant used their iPad in the context of their discipline. In the second lunch, one of the biggest points of conversation was the role of writing on the iPad using a stylus.

One participant found that handwriting during lecture has worked very well. However, the professor noted that writing on an iPad is different from writing on a chalkboard during lecture. In particular, he noted that he had to train himself to slow down his handwriting when using an iPad as his regular writing speed often resulted in some “skipping” where parts of his writing would not register on the iPad, creating gaps.

The participant also shared that he uses his iPad in conjunction with screencasting, which ACMS offers as part of its podcasting services. Screencasts capture everything projected and pairs it with the audio from lecture, giving students a resource to refer to when they have questions about material covered in lecture. This participant said that he put blank slides in the middle of his lecture slides to give him space to do work by hand in a way that students could see in the screencast. Student response to having this resource available to supplement lecture has been overwhelmingly positive.

Some participants tried out the Hand Glider glove at the meeting, which is designed to improve writing on an iPad by covering the wrist and the pinky finger (some designs include the ring finger as well, but the testers preferred only having the pinky finger covered). The testers felt that using the glove drastically improved handwriting on the iPad as it allowed them to rest their hand and wrist against the iPad, rather than having to hold their hand above the iPad to avoid contact with the screen.

Other faculty shared that students told them that their handwriting on an iPad was not as legible as their handwriting on a blackboard. However, the professors also noted that students preferred a professor writing by hand to only using prepared lecture slides. Improved handwriting technique, coupled with use of a glove for writing, showed potential to meet students’ educational desires.

Handy Apps

Several interesting iPad applications were also shared with the group.

• Dropbox is a popular application to access and share files on an iPad. One participant recommended turning on the passcode function on the Dropbox application. In the event the iPad is lost or stolen the passcode prevents unauthorized people from accessing Dropbox files. To add a passcode, go to the menu, select the gear icon to access the Settings, and there is an option to enable a Passcode Lock.
• MyScript Calculator is a highly popular application for the math and science fields. It takes handwritten equations and not only makes them neat and legible, but also automatically computes the answer. One professor even shared that she used it as her calculator because it was such a great application.
• One professor had trouble importing slides in PDF from Latec to notate during his lecture using Notability. The problem was solved by using TopNotes. Another popular program for combining handwritten slides and prepared lecture slides was Good Notes, which one participant used with great success.
• Molecules provides three dimensional models of molecules in a way that can be manipulated through the iPad. A participant also said that he uses iSpartan extensively to convert two dimensional molecular models into three dimensional models.
• History: Maps of the World is a free application that has a large collection of maps from different periods of history to show the state of geographic knowledge at different times. Users can zoom in and out of pictures to examine details and many maps have links to additional information as well.
• Virtual History Roma features photo galleries and art of Rome as it stands today and recreations of what it looked like thousands of years ago. Historical information supplements many images. One of the most impressive features of the application are the 360 degree views of historic buildings and sites. Some views even enable the user to toggle between contemporary and historic recreations of the location.

The Teacher’s iPad Spectrum was also shared with the group. The Spectrum grouped apps under the headings of “consume,” “collaborate,” and “produce” and made suggestions about how to use each one as part of instruction.

The program participants will gather for one more meeting before the end of the quarter. Check back later to find out what their final thoughts are!

Congratulations Lucy!

Everyone at Academic Computing & Media Services (ACMS) would like to congratulate Lucy Devan, a longtime member of our team, on her retirement after a 41 year career at UC San Diego. When Lucy started as a student worker in 1972 she joined the Computer Center and never left! Her entire career was spent with ACMS and its predecessors. For the last few years, Lucy has been a member of the Applications and User Support/Resource Administration team. It is hard to imagine ACMS without her, but we still wish Lucy well in her retirement. Thank you for everything Lucy!