Out with the old and in with the new. Many technology upgrades and updates have been made for fall 2009, courtesy of University Technology Services.
Wireless Access. In the past years, students have encountered varying experiences accessing wi-fi within the university. Some of the popular spots where students use wi-fi are the Ronald Williams Library, the lounge area across the Building B computer lab, by Café` Descartes and the cafeteria. Due to the limited amount of wi-fi access points, signal was weak in many other areas on campus. University Technology Services have alleviated this problem by installing additional wi-fi access points all over campus and are planning to install more in the future.
New Equipment. During summer break, Technology Enhanced Classrooms, otherwise known as TEC labs, were installed with brand new Dell Optiplex 960’s. These machines are equipped with Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Office 2007, and many other standard software which you would find in all PCs at any of the university public computer labs. Some of the TEC labs include Science building room 242, Fine Arts building rooms 104, and 108, and Lech Walesa Hall, room 2054.
Brand new Intel-based, 20-inch screen, aluminum iMACs were also installed in Building B room 104, which is a TEC lab that can be found inside the Building B public computer lab. These iMACs are equipped with Leopard MAC OS 10.5.8, iLife, Microsoft Office 2008 and many other standard software that can be found in all the iMACs at any of the university public computer labs.
Lech Walesa Hall. Classrooms at Lech Walesa Hall, formerly known as the Classroom Building, were installed with brand new ceiling-mounted projectors. University Technology Services are planning to complete the rest of the campus by the end of next summer. These projectors are equipped with audiovisual inputs for laptops. In conjunction with this, professors who do not have their own laptops are provided netbooks by the university to use in these rooms.
College of Business Management. Student Computing Services is nearly finished with the installation of machines at the College of Business Management building, or formerly known as Building A. Room 119 will serve as one of the public computer labs. Rooms 114 and 158 will serve as Technology Enhanced Classrooms or TEC labs. The aforementioned labs will be fully operational by spring 2010.
For more information on current university technologies, please visit www.neiu.edu, click on the Current Students tab then select Technology Support Services. On the website you can also find information about Student Computing services (www.neiu.edu/~scs) and University Media Services (www.neiu.edu/umsdept), both of which departments are under University Technology Services.