communicate + collaborate + innovate

Session Details

Wednesday, June 18th

Thursday, June 19th

Wednesday, June 18th

New CLAC Representative Orientation: Hints, Tips and Tools of the Trade

Ellen J. Keohane, Director, Information Technology Services, College of the Holy Cross

As a CLAC representative, you have access to a rich information resource on the CLAC web site and through the CLACReps listserv. CLAC reps manage web site and listserv accounts for others at their institutions, do surveys and post the results, and keep the vendor database up-to-date, among other things. New primary and alternate reps as well as "old" are welcome at this session to learn what is expected in this regard and how to do it.

To view the presentation, please go to the CLAC website: http://www.liberalarts.org/forum-topic/new-clacrep-orientation

You must be logged in as a primary or alternate rep to view the page.

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Giving Thanks to 20 Years of Bill Gates: And What the Future of IT Will be Without Him

David Strom, Technology editor for Baseline Magazine

As IT professionals, we have a lot to thank Bill Gates for as he retires this month. Microsoft has made our jobs essential by making difficult to use, buggy products that require our constant attention to maintain, upgrade, and configure. But they have also helped make PC's into versatile productivity tools and delivered some amazing technologies, too.

In this speech, David Strom looks back on the past two decades of innovation in IT and weaves his and your stories of support nightmares, embarrassing near-disasters and difficult end users. He'll cover some of his favorite and foolish Microsoft technologies and talk about what the future of IT will look like.

To view the presentation in PDF format, click Here:

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Emergency Notification

Diane McNamara, Director of Telecommunications, Union College
Carrie Rampp, Director, Resource Development & Services, Middlebury College
Rad Taylor, Director, Information Technology Services, Siena College
Todd Gunter, Director, Office of Management Information Systems, The Sage Colleges

Overview of emergency notification systems, policies and protocols currently utilized by higher education institutions focusing on best practices, lessons learned and unique institutional challenges, perspectives and deployments.

To view the presentations in PDF format, select the appropriate link below.

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Adventures with Content Management Systems (CMS's)

Rod Tosten, VP of Information Technology, Gettysburg College
Lisa Bazley, Director of Information Technology Services, Denison College
Marianne Colgrove, Deputy Chief Technology Officer, Reed College
Shawn Shopmyer, Systems Administrator, Web, Union College
Mary McMahon, Director of Instructional Services, Pomona College

Panelists will describe three approaches CLAC schools have pursued with CMS’s. Rod Tosten will describe the current status of Gettysburg’s home grown system. Lisa Bazley will talk about Denison’s experience implementing   'Freestyle'   their customized version of the software built on the open source platform, Bricolage.   Marianne Colgrove (Reed), Shawn Shopmyer (Union) and Mary McMahon (Pomona) will briefly describe their various uses of Hannon Hill’s Cascade software.  There will be lots of time for discussion. Panelists are hoping to hear about others’ stories with CMS’s.

To view the presentations in PDF format, select the appropriate link below.

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One Year of Google Apps for Education at Hope College

Jeff Pestun, Associate Director of IT, Hope College

In April 2007 Hope College began looking at Google Apps for Education.  Four months later all 4000 of our students, faculty, and staff were using the system for email.  Today many users are also taking advantage of the integrated scheduling and document collaboration tools.  We'll talk about how and why we did it, with plenty of opportunity for questions and discussion. For a Google-provided introduction to the features and functionality of Google Apps for Education, please see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpMGcdjshng.

To view the presentation in PDF format, click Here.

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Today's IT Leadership: It's About the People & the Organization.

David Smallen, VP for Information Technology, Hamilton College

Justin Sipher, Chief Technology Officer, Skidmore College

Successful IT leadership is as much about the people and building an effective organization as it is about the technology. IT organizations, no matter how they are structured, require individuals to work together effectively to achieve results. What are the aspects of IT leadership that are most important to creating and maintaining organizational effectiveness? The goal of this highly interactive session is to engage attendees in discussions about organizational challenges faced by all of us, to identify key determinants of effectiveness, approaches to achieving it, and applying them to meet institutional needs.

To view the presentation in PDF format, click Here.

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Using a Wiki as a Project Management Tool

Lisa Spencer, Director, Support Services, Occidental College

Gayle Burns, Manager, Academic Technologies, Occidental College

Working on IT projects requires input across IT teams and often from employees in other departments as well. This presentation will show the solutions that ITS at Occidental College has developed using a wiki to maintain open and timely communication across broad groups.

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Sustainability and the Greening of IT

Randy Stiles, VP for Information Management, Colorado College
Mary Parlett-Sweeney, Director of Academic Computing, Union College
Joel Cooper, Director of ITS, Carleton College

Janet Scannell, Director of Computing Services, Bryn Mawr College
Mark Berman, Director, Networks & Systems, Williams College

This session will provide an update from five different CLAC institutions on sustainability initiatives from both “green” and economic perspectives.

To view the presentation in PDF format, click Here.

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Thursday , June 19th

ECAR Study on Cyberinfrastructure

Mark Sheehan, EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research Fellow

In late 2007 the EDUCAUSE Center on Applied Research (ECAR) launched a study of cyberinfrastructure resources and practices in higher education. The final report, titled Higher Education IT and Cyberinfrastructure: Integrating Technologies for Scholarship, will be published in mid-June (http://www.educause.edu/ResearchStudies/1010) and will be available to ECAR members and non-members alike. It serves as the basis for this presentation. This ECAR study helps us understand the perspectives of higher-education IT leaders about how leading-edge technology resources are utilized, provided, funded, and supported in the contexts of research and instruction. In its conclusions, it points toward institutional factors that can help realize the overarching goal of cyberinfrastructure, the effective integration of advanced technologies to provide seamless support for research and scholarship.

To view the presentation in PDF format, click Here.

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Cyberinfrastructure and the Liberal Arts

Ganesan Ravishanker, Associate Vice President for Information Technology, Wesleyan University

Mark Sheehan, Research Fellow, EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research

Cyberinfrastructure initiatives seek to “radically empower” scientific and engineering communities to pursue research in new ways with increased efficacy. Whereas the goals and initial focus of cyberinfrastructure may not be directly applicable to the liberal arts institutions, are there aspects of this initiative that we can take advantage of? In this session, we will explore the question “How do we go from here to there?” Is there an opportunity for the formation of a CLAC Cyberinfrastructure hub or grid which will not be solely focused on scientific research, but also on teaching and learning, interdisciplinary and inter-institutional research? We will explore the idea of a hub along the lines of Purdue’s Nanohub and Pharmahub and discuss the responses from other CLAC Schools to a question on this topic. We will conclude by making the case that unless we formulate a plan for engaging ourselves in this soon we may be too late to the party!

To view the presentation in PDF format, click Here.

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Strategic Planning for Learning Spaces

Chris E. Penniman, Director of Instructional Technology, Connecticut College Robert M. Johnson, VP for Information Services and CIO, Rhodes College

Connecticut College and Rhodes College each recently developed a master plan for their campus learning spaces.  They will talk about planning processes, designs, and how the plans are integrated into their own campus cultures.  They will show examples of the finished spaces and how they have changed the way faculty and students teach and learn in the rooms.

To view the presentation in PDF format, click Here.

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Federated Identity Management and Shibboleth

Marianne Colgrove, Deputy Chief Technology Officer, Reed College
Joel Cooper, Director of Information Technology Services, Carleton College

John O'Keefe, Director of Academic Technology and Network Services, Lafayette College

Campus identity management systems were designed to provide authentication services and manage user data in the context of a single campus or organization. As campuses collaborate with each other in more and more advanced ways, and as they tap into more central databases and technology services, current practices and systems for providing information on users are no longer adequate and are a serious barrier to working together. Federated Identity Management practices and technologies--such as Shibboleth--can help solve these problems. Panelists will describe the results of a NITLE working group investigating this issue within the small college sector.

To view the presentation in PDF format, click Here.

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Smart Study Spaces: A Good Fit for Small Residential Colleges?

Shauna’h Fuegen, Student Computing Services Coordinator, Davidson College Bret Ingerman, VP for Computing and Information Services, Vassar College Steve Taylor, Director, Academic Computing Services, Vassar College

David Sprunger, Assistant Director, Multimedia Development Services, Whitman College

While group study spaces are found in all types of institutions, the popularity of collaboration software in such facilities is limited to larger commuter institutions. A pilot study was conducted to evaluate its effectiveness in small residential institutions. The results and experiences will be discussed.

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7 Minutes of Fame

Various Presenters

Don’t miss this opportunity to listen to your colleagues share some of their neat, cool, interesting and exciting ideas. You are guaranteed to see and hear something of interest. The perfect ending to a great conference.

To get information on Thoughtograph software, click Here.

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