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About CS
January 16, 2006 As the 2006 semester begins, I would like to pass on warm wishes to the entire Temple community for a successful and exciting new year. I would also like to welcome Temple's new students and extend my greetings to returning students. Computer Services has kept busy this winter preparing the launch of several major projects to benefit the Temple community. The TECH Center Opens The opening of the TECH (Teaching, Education, Collaboration, and Help) Center, the largest facility of its kind in the nation, marks the beginning of a new era of computing at Temple. The facility, located at 12th Street and Montgomery Avenue, is open 24 hours a day and features 75,000 square feet of state-of-the-art technology resources. Unlike any technology facility ever seen at Temple, the center caters to current learning styles and is designed with a variety of workspaces for collaborative and individual work. Throughout the center, you will find 500 PC workstations, 100 Mac workstations, 100 wireless PC loaner laptops, as well as over 150 software packages. Primarily located in the general lab, these workstations also offer free music feeds and cable television streams to each computer desktop. There are also five specialized labs, plus a quiet room, that provide space, specialized equipment, and software for individual needs such as video editing, music, graphics, language-learning resources and software development. The breakout rooms are another TECH Center attraction. These isolated, interactive rooms offer the privacy and resources needed to work together as a group. Each of the 13 breakout rooms include a flat panel wall display as well as a computer. Three of the rooms offer additional multimedia, including surround sound, a large screen, and a DVD/VCR console. Additional familiar Temple services are also a major part of the Center. The move of the Help Desk from the ground floor of Wachman Hall to the TECH Center is now complete. You will now find 24-hour access, Monday thru Friday, as well as weekend hours, for all your technology support. The Help Desk phone number (215-204-8000) remains the same. Other resources available at the TECH Center include the Temple University Welcome Center for prospective students, and a faculty wing that includes the Teaching and Learning Center and the Instructional Support Center. The TECH Center is also a place where you can meet your friends or just hang out. A Starbucks Café is coming to the first floor and you will find a customized Internet lounge to quickly check your e-mail or browse the Internet on the second floor. There is also wireless access throughout the building as well. The facility is a wonderful addition to the growing Temple community. I encourage you walk through and check it out for yourself. If you're going over for a visit, pick up a brochure that includes floor plans and general information when you enter the building. The brochure is also available on the TECH Center Web site, http://techcenter.temple.edu, along with a quick tour, preview pictures, and other information. New TUportal Goes Live As use has dramatically increased over the past several years, TUportal has undergone a number of changes. Perhaps no change has been more significant that the recent reengineering and redesign of the site, one that has produced greater flexibility, stability, and performance. Based on cutting-edge Oracle technology, the new portal was made possible through a grant from the CampusEAI Consortium, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting collaborative software projects in the field of higher education. You will still find the same reliable customized access to familiar applications, such as OWLnet, TUmail, Blackboard, MyBackpack, Diamond Dollars, TUlibrary, and the Cherry & White Pages. What's new is that you can personalize your TUportal screen through the use of small windows called portlets, which deliver specific content areas. For example, you can set up windows for Blackboard courses, a Google search engine, the Word of the Day, Today in History, a dictionary, or RSS news feeds. With a sleek new look and a stronger infrastructure now in place, the portal is ready for even further development in the near future. Stay tuned to Computer Services for news on updates and rollouts. Blackboard Features New Options The changes to TUportal have also brought change to Blackboard as well. The course management system is now its own entity. While you can still access Blackboard through TUportal, you can also now log in directly by going to http://blackboard.temple.edu. Students and faculty will find several new Blackboard features. Students can now edit the My Courses window. This feature allows students to customize the courses and communities they view in Blackboard. There are also three new tools available for faculty. MERLOT Search is an online database of over 12,000 peer-reviewed, instructional materials. Journal and Teams are collaborative tools for group or class projects. Journal allows instructors to create multiple blogs and Teams gives classroom or group participants the opportunity to create shared web pages. Computer Services continues to look for ways to improve technology at Temple. All the very best for productive semester.
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