Presentations
So I’ve probably given 10+ presentations during the last few months. They have ranged from training a few users on a specific topic to new Nursing Students to holding a campus-wide Forum that we video-taped (more on this later). After doing so many I’ve begun to “document” my presentations so that I have 3 or 4 stock presentations that I can modify based on audience or time. I used to be embarrassed by public speaking (as most people are) but I’ve found a confidence in doing this type of thing. On at least one occasion I think I felt a little over-confident and did a “shoot-from-the-hip” presentation — but wasn’t particularly pleased with the overall presentation. So the prepared, modifiable presentations should serve me well.
Pawprint
The afore-mentioned Forum included students, staff (of all types) and faculty. We discussed the new web template (which can be seen here). We also worked with campus members to rename the security model we use to now be called “Pawprint”. You can see Pawprint’s new logo on the previous link. The other primary value of Pawpring is that as we continue to bring systems into this security model and simplify access to WOU systems through that one login — we can implement Single Sign-On (SSO). SSO allows campus members to login to the Portal (and if chosen) then the Portal will login to Mail/Calendar, Blog and WolfWeb. We are currently in-process of expanding this to include the Forums and Moodle (online.wou.edu). Overall Pawpring simplifies access to WOU systems to all campus members.
Meetings and Conferences
I feel as though I’ve driven more for work lately than I ever have. Recently I’ve attended conferences from Portland to Eugene on a relatively frequent basis. The travel will continue for some time: I have another 1-2 conferences in the next month still to attend. In the meantime I’m learning lots.
Move-In
This was the first year since 2001 that I was not responsible for the technical (computer) aspects of the Fall Move-In (when students return to campus).
It was kinda weird, but I think we all lived through it. Kudos to John who managed this process well this year.
Portal
As mentioned before, the new web layout is available and was applied to the WOUPortal. This new layout was design in conjunction with Stewart but designed by the Developer Team (functionally, not aesthetically). We hope to roll this layout to many other pages that UCS has developed.
Also, Single Sign-On is the name of the game. The goal is to integrate all Pawprint-enabled systems to the campus Portal Single Sign-On. This is going to take some work, but we are making a little progress each week. An RSS tool is coming soon, along with additional improvements to the Portal.
Dining Menu
Campus Dining now has a dynamic web-menu and a nutrition calculation tool available. Very neat stuff. Needs some polish, but very neat.
Unix
I’m also learning Unix. Slowly. I really just need 50 hours/day and a 60-hour work week, but since that’s not gonna happen I’m learning what I can as I have time. I hope to take some classes in the near future regarding Solaris and will continue to do self-study via Ubuntu.