According to Director of IT Peter Schilling, the department formulated a new plan that seeks to ensure the College's uninterrupted access to increasingly essential technological advances.
Under the new plan, IT will focus on revamping the organization and resources for teaching, learning and research. IT's new Academic Technology Services division plans to ensure that the College's instructional spaces and resources are updated and supported, work with students and faculty to help them learn about current hardware and software in education and research, and assist faculty in creating custom technologies for teaching.
To achieve these tasks, the College now has the Five College fiber ring, wireless access in all academic buildings and an Internet 2 connection-an advanced networking consortium of universities, corporations and laboratories in the United States. IT has also implemented a new Geographic Information Systems lab, as well as a digital video and computer animation labs.
IT has also begun to distribute faculty-assigned videos to their classes via the existing data network. In collaboration with the College library, IT is also working on the presence of small-group computer study spaces and anticipates the project completion date to be at the beginning of next term.
In addition, staff will explore Internet-based productivity software like Writerly for collaborative word processing, Basecamp for project management, and Google Earth for integrated mapping, satellite imagery and spatial data sharing.
Schilling also explained that he would launch the new approach to the College Web site for various groups between Jan. 2007 and Dec. 2007. Alumni will be the first group to move to the new system. "We are in the planning stages for the ways to ask students, faculty, and others for their input and thoughts on how we go forward with the web," he said.
All six IT divisions will collaborate with the College community to ensure all members may work and live, in a digital community that is safe and secure. "The staff of the IT department will do everything it can to minimize disruptions or problems," said Schilling. "That being said, some of the tools, systems and approaches we are putting in place will be very new takes on established practices ... For instance, the new Web site will utilize some of the social networking components we all know from Facebook, MySpace, del.icio.us ..."
Schilling also shared enthusiasm for future technology. "I am very excited to work with the Amherst community to explore the liberal arts residential learning environment in the context of 21st century technology," he said. "I would really appreciate hearing from students about what the College should try next."
Individual cell phone companies have also decided to improve technology at the College. Cingular and Verizon have both installed their antennas on campus, markedly improving their service on campus. The College has also initiated discussions with T-Mobile about installing an antenna.
Schilling discussed how the new implementations differ from past changes. "I've been at Amherst for a little over a year now. I would be surprised if my predecessors did not have analogous plans during their tenure," he said. "What is likely, though, is that they focused on different issues. I'm sure that IT can now focus on the areas described in the Plan because those who came before did so much work in these other areas."
Schilling emphasized that the IT department will do everything it can to minimize disruptions and problems and ask for help from students. "We also ask for help from the campus community who all share the resources we support," he said.