[MCA INFO] most network and systems offline until storm passes

Montserrat College of Art has taken its network and systems down until the storm passes.

[update: campus network and systems should be back online by 7pm]

[MCA INFO] Moodle refresh

Check out the new Moodle theme...
http://classroom.montserrat.edu
(There is also a link to Moodle on the front page of the Montserrat website)

[Academic Technology] Academic Spaces and IT Infrastructure

Academic Spaces

The classroom spaces in 238 Cabot and in 1A Knowlton will have been outfitted with their own computer and display station, composed of a mac with wireless keyboard + mouse, displayed on a 46" LCD HDTV screen that will be mobile.
• Most lab spaces and campus Macs are having their RAM upgraded for more capable, speedier processing of programs. 
• Areas upgraded: Design Lab, Photo Lab, Printmaking computers, Senior Photo Lab, Senior Design Lab, Writing Center, Library, 301 Cabot, and various Mac Minis.
• Senior Illustration (H307) is being outfitted with two new iMac computers.
• 301 Cabot is getting it's own laptop+projector for classroom use.
• An enterprise anti-virus and monitoring system is being put on all on-campus Mac computers.
• New software is being rolled out to the Animation and Graphic Design labs.
• Animation Lab: After Effects, Unity 3D Pro
  Senior Graphic Design: Fontlab Studio
Although we are excited about the new OS X Lion Operating System, we don't think it is quite ready to roll-out to the Montserrat Community. We are sticking with Snow Leopard for now.

IT Infrastructure/Overall

• A new, high-end Mac Pro Server has been purchased to handle core computer lab services such as data and account services management:
• Increased performance
• Improved redundancy
• Increased storage capacity
The new campus wireless network has been optimized and is ready for full, consistent use come the start of this school year.
• The Google Apps Suite has been rolled out to all faculty, students and staff. Options for collaboration and cloud-based work have never been more numerous.

Write up courtesy of Brett Johnson

[MCA Project] Campus Network scheduled downtime on Friday at 1:30pm

The campus network will be down for about 30 minutes beginning at 1:30pm on Friday August 5th.

The following devices and services will be unavailable:

• computers
• phones
• servers
• internet
• printers

The reason for this scheduled downtime is to move DNS and DHCP from a standalone Linux server to a virtualized instance of MS Server 2008 R2.