Technology Committee minutes of meeting on 11/27/2012
Members present;
Norman Buchwald
Gordon Watt
Kurt Shadbolt
Minta Winsor
Lisa Ulibarri
Carlos Enriquez
Nancy Cheung
Rachel Ugale
Jeannine Methe
Desmond Chun
Tom Clark
Susan Isagara (ASCC rep)
Zarir Marawala (Chair)
1. FLEX DAY on line—proposed in COOL. What is our opinion and how would the
dynamics work? The committee members offered various ways in which this can be
done but first we would need to verify this plan with the office of the Academic VP
and President. Mechanisms used to produce such a FLEX day Online could be done
using Blackboard Collaborate or other platforms like CCC confer where zero
personnel would be involved.
Key sessions on campus FLEX events could be televised or recorded (through
Sujoy’s efforts) and then held online for viewing by those who may have missed a
FLEX day or those who may have wanted to attend more than one workshop.
CCCConfer sessions could be archived for an interim period, but that would provide
only the audio and presentation materials with no video of the instructor and
attendees, but this option requires no extra resources.
2. Polling system used in class room real time to help lecturers adjust their
strategies based on what feedback they get immediately from their students.
Some suggestions were made on products that faculty have used for polling
students which are zero costs. This is still a possibility as there are enough students
with ipads, or other internet accessing devices but better internet access is needed.
3. Internet access points: Teachers who wish to use online tests using Blackboard
often get delays due to internet access issues. The problem of bandwidth vs.
internet access was brought up. Jeannine confirmed that to date, bandwidth
overload has not been an issue based on the network traffic statistics. There was
discussion on the wireless and the new cabling which is available in all new or
renovated buildings, but not in the old buildings where the old cabling impacts the
speed of internet access. Some of the older buildings mentioned such as 3400 for
the Automotive area and 100 for the library have the old cabling and that is
probably the primary cause for any slowness in those areas, not the bandwidth or
the wireless access points. Due to the costs of recabling, those buildings are
dependent on whether a future construction project is prioritized. Some members
felt that more wireless access points could alleviate the problem in some areas
around campus. The technology staff was waiting on inputs for other buildings to
add wireless APs to proceed with ordering more APs. Chabot currently has 44
wireless APs in 27 buildings with buildings still under renovation remaining. The
members of Tech Comm agree that a person should be able to connect the minute
they get on campus. Everyone was reminded that the wireless APs are inside the
buildings and they provide outside access within a specific distance from the
building.
4. Based on the above discussion, the Chair suggested that building 400 which has
long been a location whose inhabitants have complained of lack of internet access to
be used as an example of remedying the situation by installation of more access
points. Jeannine confirmed that we can take action right away to order more APs
and members of Tech Comm moved to have 8 additional access points installed in
building 400 as soon as possible. The District (Jeannine) will order the necessary
access points and do the installs as soon as possible.
5. Other areas identified for survey or immediate addition of access points These
are: building 2100, 2000, where WIFI access is poor at best as confirmed by
teachers, students, and the Division administrative assistant (Chasity Whiteside for
building 2000). In some situations, it may be possible to identify specific rooms that
may need an access point if internet access traffic there is heavy.
6. Our new ASCC rep Susan has identified the following buildings that are heavily
populated by students:
800
2300
cafeteria
Norm advised us of the library’s need for more access points. Jeannine will have
Gordon work with Mark Smythe to look into doing a need survey for these buildings
ASAP.
7. Facilities Committee has been reprioritizing what construction will be done at
Chabot with the remaining bond funds. Those funds are left over from those
projects that are fully complete. As buildings are renovated, the new cabling and
wireless APs are installed for better Internet access. Gordon will work with Mark
Smythe to identify which buildings still have old cabling vs. the new cabling that
would impact the speed of the Internet access. The Chair asked for a follow up
revisiting of Internet access to the athletic fields as requested in an earlier meeting
by member Ken Grace. The hurdle there as explained by Gordon is that the basic
conduits were installed along with another project but no individual funding was
assigned to actual being installed that cost 60K to 100K dollars and which is needed
to have Internet access in that area.. This may be most of or more than what
Facilities may have left over to reassign. The possibility of partnering with a private
enterprise to gain funding to complete the Internet access to the athletic fields was
also proposed. Is it better to do a lot of little or one big project? That is something
that Facilities will have to ponder.
8. Saturation testing in high volume class room areas has been reiterated by Kurt.
Des has made this recommendation at an earlier meeting and Tech Comm concurs
with this recommendation that such a testing be scheduled at some point soon in
the future.
9. Issues of Internet access with Building 100 for the library is more involved as it is
operating on an old CAT 3 which needs to be upgraded.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:59 pm.