December 2016 Vol. 24, No. 5 Communicator The Middle Tennessee State University Information Technology Division Newsletter Inside this issue Faculty Fair offers tech solutions ITD systems analyst made escape from New York winters. Story on page 6 The annual MTSU Faculty Fair was held Oct. 26 in the Learning, Teaching, and Professor uses tracking "robot" to Innovative Technologies Center (LT&ITC) in the Walker Library. At this open help students watch missed house event, participants learned about grant opportunities, innovative strategies, lectures. Story on page 4 student success initiatives, support for faculty professional development, and more. The event also recognized MTSU faculty members who earned the More news LT&ITC’s Faculty Fellows designation for 2015-16. Pictured above are, from left, front row: Richard Tarpey, Zhen Wang, Heather Dillard, Echell Eady, Gloria Green; Lynda.com update, refresher 2 back row: Ryan Korstange, Kevin Krahenbuhl, Kate Pantelides, Lauren Rudd, Proper computer replacement 3 and Eric Oslund. Not pictured: Kristin Naylor and Catalina Palacios. Pictured Faculty Profile: Nate Callender 4 below left, Lexi Denton, left, assistant director of MT Engage, connects with Digital Signage Corner 5 Karen Dearing, assistant professor for Library User Services. And below right, ITD Staff Profile: Ryan Lau 6 Faye Johnson, left, assistant to the provost for special initiatives, talks to Zada ITD Staff News 7 Law, center, director of the MTSU Geospatial Research Center, and Dia Cirillo, Tennessee Summit 2016 8 representing the AAUW. IT Tips and Tricks 9 Telephone Tidbits 9 Skype for Business update 10 Communicator • December 2016 Lynda.com access proving popular in first few months at MTSU credentials, enter your FSA [email protected]. (For example, if you sign in to your work computer with the FSA username jjones, then you would enter jjones@ mtsu.edu.) Then type in your FSA password. Student startup: Under Work/School Microsoft Account credentials enter your MTMail email address. (For example: If your MTMail email user name is zzz3z, you would sign in as [email protected]. edu). Type in your MTMail password. From here click on Lynda. com and be automati- cally signed in. If you have a previous account, you will be prompted to migrate your old profile. “Lynda” made quite an impression when she arrived on Find these instructions and more resources at campus back in September. mtsu.edu/itd/lynda.php. Faculty, staff, and students now have access to Access via Lynda.com app thousands of tutorials on the website Lynda.com. Topics include writing, publishing, graphic design, animation, • iOS app—download the app from the Apple Store and audio/video programs; career fields like marketing, • Choose Already a Member filmmaking, game creation, IT security, and web design; • Choose the Organization tab and even job skills such as time management, and proj- • Under Web Portal enter mtsu.edu and click Log In ect coordination. • Choose your account (and Work or School Account) As of late November, 1,813 people had regularly • Enter FSA (for faculty) or MTMail (student) password used the MTSU site and viewed 27,372 videos, accord- • Click on Sign-In ing to site tracking data. If you haven’t yet checked it out, here is a reminder of how to access the site: Log in at myapps.microsoft.com. You will see the Learning with Lynda.com Microsoft Azure sign-in page. Students: If you are Learn how to use Lynda.com at this link. already an Office 365 user, Find out more about Lynda.com uses in higher you can access Lynda. education at lynda.com/academic/higher-education. com from portal.office. com/myapps. For more information on “Teaching With Lynda,” visit lynda.com/Educational-Technology-tutorials/ Faculty/Staff start-up: Under Work/ Teaching-Lynda-com/487942-2.html. School Microsoft Account Communicator is a publication of the Editor: Craig Myers 1116-3715—Middle Tennessee State University does not discrim- Information Technology Division, 3 Cope inate against students, employees or applicants for admission or Managing Editor: Robin Jones Administration Building, Middle Tennessee employment on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national Publications Committee: origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, dis- State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee ability, age, status as a protected veteran, genetic information, and Barbara Draude, Emily Harper, Jeff 37132, 615-904-8392. any other legally protected class with respect to all employment, McMahon, Dave Munson, Tyree Nelson, programs and activities sponsored by Middle Tennessee State Communicator is published five University. The following person has been designated to handle Yen Qualls, and Joshua Love times a year and is distributed free of inquiries regarding non-discrimination policies for MTSU: Mar- Other contributors to this issue: David charge. Portions of Communicator may ian V. Wilson, PhD, Assistant to the President for Institutional Eq- be reproduced in nonprofit publications uity and Compliance and Title IX Coordinator, Middle Tennessee Stevenson, Tom Wallace, and Photographic State University, Cope Administration Building 116, 1301 East without written permission if proper ac- Services. Main Street, Murfreesboro, TN 37132; [email protected] knowledgment is included and a copy of the or call 615-898-2185. MTSU’s policy on non-discrimination can 2 reproduction is sent to the editors. be found at:mtsu.edu/policies/general-policies/I-01-10.php. Communicator • December 2016 Communicator • December 2016 Dispose of properly: Surplus technology needs to be picked up “Let it go, let it go . ” That catchy tune from Frozen could be used as a theme song for the process of replacing computers and other equipment around the MTSU campus. When faculty and staff receive a replacement machine, it’s important they return the old one and not hang on to it “just in case. ” That is because computer inventory needs to be kept up to date. “They might have one machine, but inventory says they have four because they also have three old ones, ” said Tyree Nelson, specialist in ITD client service support. It is critical that ITD be involved in all computer Disposing of IT equipment installs, moves, and surplus activities in an effort to keep the inventory current. The proper disposal process for unused IT equip- Don’t ever try to re-install an unused machine if you ment is as follows: experience problems with your current one. • Identify all items such as monitors, laptops, desk Also, unused computer hard drives can become a tops, printers, etc. that need to be disposed of. security risk if they aren’t properly destroyed. • If possible, stage all the items in one area. If this is ITD staff will work with you to make sure all your criti- not possible, create a location list of the items. cal files and data have been safely transferred over to the • Contact your department’s designated ITD support new computer. person. If you want to save vital documents and files to a • Once onsite, your support staff member will inven- flash drive or back it up to a server or the cloud, you can tory the designated equipment. do that as well. • As a safety precaution, hard drives will be removed The inventory is finally up-to-date and ITD has to from machines and destroyed. If this is your former depend of each of you to keep it current. equipment, important data should have already As we went through the last inventory update, we been preserved and transferred during the replace- found that many computers that were supposed to have ment process. If you are not sure, consult with your been surplused are in closets or sitting on someone’s ITD support staff. desk. • An email will be sent to Receiving and Moving for For this reason it is necessary that all equipment pick up to scrap the equipment. pass through ITD before it is installed, moved, or • The items will be picked up, disposed of, and re- surplused. moved from your department’s inventory. Plus, all hard drives need to be shredded. So that is one more reason ITD needs to touch them. 3 Faculty Profile: Nate Callender "Robot" is resource for students who need class rerun Nate Callender, associate professor in the MTSU Department of Aerospace, uses the Swivl Capture Robot camera in a recent class. Callender has used the device for about 1½ years, primarily to help students who miss a lecture. The "robot" tracks his movements using an infrared neckpiece, which doubles as a microphone. The days of trying to decipher a classmate’s notes to “This allows them to get the content and the discussions. ” catch up on a missed lecture are over in Nate Callender’s A smaller percentage of students request the videos to classes at MTSU. review a class they have attended, he said. And if students are a little too groggy at 8:30 in the But whatever the reason, they all have something in morning to fully comprehend the Continuity Equation, they common—those who watched video lectures passed the can review it again later. class more than those who didn’t, he said. That is based Because every note is being tracked and every word on a review of final grades of students who requested the picked up by a Robot. video links. For a year and a half now, Callender, assistant professor “It may be they were already motivated students anyway, in the Department of Aerospace, has been using a Swivl or it could be that the video helped them, ” he said. Robot Capture system. Taylor Linton, a senior Aerospace student, said she has He wears a neckpiece that includes a microphone and watched a video lecture after missing class due to being infrared tracking device that allows his iPad Air 2 to move sick.