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Technical Support in the Teaching Theaters
Because of the uniqueness of the Teaching Theaters, we do not
require the faculty to be experienced in the use of all the equipment.
There is a Teaching Technician present at all scheduled activities.
The Teaching Technician is responsible for opening the room,
turning on all the equipment and any other activities required to
physically prepare the room for use. They remain in the A/V room
during the session and are available to aid in the use of the
presentation equipment and troubleshoot any problems that may
occur.
It is strongly recommended that faculty have TAs for their
courses and, therefore, it is not expected that the student
assistant will provide course content support (i.e. knowing the
particulars of a specific software package).
New Teaching Technicians are hired and trained as needed. This is
usually done one month in advance of when they are to start work.
Training is minimal for the experienced Teaching Technicians.
Computer
The Teaching Technician provides basic computer support. This
usually involves troubleshooting the equipment (i.e., a student
says their mouse isn't working or the keyboard isn't responding,
etc.). If a guest speaker comes in or a student in the class is
going to give a presentation, the Teaching Technician will aid in
determining if the configuration of the computers is adequate for
their needs.
This support also involves helping students get in and out of
software, but not how to use the particular features of the
software.
Network
Each student who takes a class in the teaching theaters receives
their own id for the course. At the beginning of the semester,
the Teaching Technician aids in handing out network ids and student
manuals. A brief introduction to logging in, getting around the
network, and logging off is given to the students.
Each student network id is assigned a certain amount of disk
space. Students are given all rights to their own personal files
directory and read-only rights to a shared file directory. The
instructor and TA have all rights to this directory.
Access to these personal files and shared files is available
outside of the teaching theaters. There are about 60 Novell file
servers attached to the campus backbone that can access the file
server. Many of these are located in open computer labs on
campus.
On the administrative end, the Teaching Technician is responsible
for maintaining the class accounts. This includes resetting
passwords, unlocking accounts that have been locked due to a
number of incorrect attempts to log in, setting up correct
network rights if needed, and other routine maintenance.
At the end of the semester, the ids are deleted. There are some
"preset" network directory structures setup for each class.
Individual requests for specialized directories are also handled
by the Teaching Technologies staff.
Presentation Equipment
The Teaching Technician is available to help the professor with
using the presentation equipment available in the teaching
theaters. If needed, the Teaching Technician will help during the
class with running the equipment.
Conclusion
Support will always be an integral part of the teaching theaters
and should be an integral part of any high-tech teaching
environment. Faculty should be able to come to a high-tech
teaching environment and only worry about teaching the material
for the day, not how to fix a "locked" computer - that's the job
of the support staff.
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