ETS 2006-2007 Annual Report

Convergence

Dr. Jeffrey Bartkovich,
Vice President,
Educational Technology Services

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Since 2004, the ETS Annual Report has focused on big projects and daily jobs that get the work done through the many responsibilities and talents of the division faculty and staff. Each year we have documented how technology follows, supports and sometime leads the academic and operational trends of the College. This year is no different, and there are a number of familiar and recurrent friends in this Report; BANNER, classroom technology, VoIP and library instruction.

As we reflected on the action plans of the ETS division and departments in 2006-07, we noticed an exciting trend that suggests how technology will influence services in the future. To define this trend we have embraced the concept of convergence; the process of coming together at a central point. The center point for ETS and for MCC is, of course, the mission. Using this mission as a planning principle and focusing annual activities on this mission are exciting processes.

The theme of convergence can be illustrated in three examples:

• This is the second year that ETS has used the Strategic Planning Directions as operational goals for developing annual action plans. Furthermore, we have brought the goals and principles and the time schedule of the Technology Plan into alignment with the Strategic Plan. The convergence of annual divisional plans, mid-term technology plans and long-term institutional plans offer new opportunities for resource management and performance assessment.
• ETS has implemented college-wide systems that provide a unifying base of support for other activities, other operations and other plans. BANNER is a comprehensive, institutional, enterprise resource that makes visible to all users how interrelated our data are, how important our data systems are, how critical our data reports are, and how dependent our decision-making process is on timely data. ANGEL, the new learning management system, will support all of MCC’s fully asynchronous distance learning courses as well as provide online tools for all on-campus courses. ANGEL has the potential to serve as an institutional collaborative worksite for taskforces, virtual teams and committees.
• Voice, video and data communications are now converged on the MCC network. This convergence provides the College with a singular opportunity to support multiple communication systems with the delivery of consistent and timely messages; for example, one message delivered one time to desktop telephones, web pages, the digital signage network, community broadcast Channel 4, MCC’s on-campus radio station, pod-casting, etc. The converged network will also support the distribution of critical information in emergency situations to multiple points of individual contact.
  

As MCC’s technology infrastructure, learning support services and management information systems converge, literally in terms of daily operations, and figuratively in terms of the Strategic Plan, there is one ETS responsibility that underlies them all–security. In 2006-07, and we expect in the years to come, considerable human, capital and fiscal resources have been spent to secure and monitor the converged network and MCC’s data. Much of the research and testing ETS did in 2006-07 will evolve into new procedures, practice and policy in 2007-08 and beyond. Fiber cable connections, firewall programs, intelligent hardware switches, computer use, data stewardship and password policies are all converging to protect and secure the information resources and mission of the college. 

Dr. Jeffrey P. Bartkovich
Vice President
Educational Technology Services