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CONNECTING		The Computing Center
		Home base for Trinity integration of technology into the life of the College and the community

Over the past several months, members of the systems and networking group of Trinity’s Computing Center have been installing wireless access points around campus. These installations, explains Computing Center Director Angela Wolf, are like the cellular telephone towers that transmit and receive signals over a broad area. Students within range who have the proper hardware in their laptop computers will no longer need to plug in to participate in the campus network. They can sit on the grass in the middle of the science quadrangle—or even move around a variety of indoor locations on campus—and have full Internet capabilities to conduct online research or do other kinds of work.

This wireless system, called TrinAir, is a sort of metaphor for how technology is being integrated into the educational and administrative operations of the College. Though such technology is ubiquitous, it is also largely invisible. It isn’t there for sake of novelty but for its very real capacity to efficiently enable the College to do better what it already does—provide a first-rate liberal arts education.

Also largely invisible and acting behind the scenes is the Computing Center. Though it is currently based in MCEC, it is also everywhere that the technology is. The center’s 40 staff members oversee the use of several computer labs around campus, maintain and service the desktop computers in Trinity’s offices and labs, and work individually with faculty members to mesh the capabilities of software applications to their specific teaching needs. They are also just a phone call or e-mail away, should students, faculty, or staff need help with “technical difficulties.” In short, the Computing Center supports the technology that supports the activity of the College.

Academic computing

Increasingly, the Computing Center is playing a more important, though still supporting, role in the way academic learning occurs at Trinity. Faculty members have long relied upon A/V specialists from the Computing Center to assist with slides, films, and other supplemental material. Today, faculty members also rely on the Computing Center’s software experts. For example, Blackboard software is used in more than 200 courses at Trinity for the posting of syllabi, class notes, and related articles. Students use the technology to submit papers and hold online discussions that are not time-limited as classes are. Other applications supported by the Computing Center are specialized and exclusive to one or a few departments or purposes. For example, the Chemistry Department enhances learning with sophisticated molecular modeling software.

Randolph M. Lee, director of the Counseling Center and chair of the Information Technology in Education Committee (ITEC), notes that, “Technology is not an end in itself,” but rather the means of enhancing pedagogy. The committee’s original report from two years ago (it is preparing to release an update this year) notes that new technology and strategies should complement and build upon Trinity’s unique strengths, including Trinity’s high rate of student-faculty interaction. The report states that many faculty use online conversations to assess individual students’ understanding of course material and then follow up with targeted e-mails.

“Many faculty have found e-mail to be an important tool for faculty-student communication and for clarifying concepts for individual students.” According to the report, “Online learning permits the extension of the classroom, it allows for the integration of the study-abroad experience into learning at Trinity, it permits the inclusion of students in ways previously not possible, and it allows for the exploration of new teaching models.”

Nonacademic technology

The technology that is being harnessed and tailored to suit Trinity’s educational needs is serving the administrative needs of the College as well. The administrative computing subdivision of the Computing Center makes sure that technology efficiently supports all of the nonacademic business of the College, from payroll to maintenance of transcripts and information on faculty, staff, and students. The main administrative software is called PeopleSoft. In a recent coup for the Computing Center, PeopleSoft has revolutionized the business of registering for classes at Trinity. Students used to have to shuffle paper. Now they register through a Web interface.

The Computing Center also has a hand in making individual business transactions on campus more convenient. It is currently expanding the use of the Optim 9000 system, which will enable students to pay for goods (e.g., food in the dining hall) and services (e.g., use of laundry machines) using their ID cards. There are stations in Mather and at Public Safety where students can deposit money into the system. According to Angela Wolf, the Computing Center plans to make the system available everywhere from the bookstore to vending machines. Further, students can also transfer money to their ID accounts and money by credit card via the Internet.

Integrating technology and community service

Trinity being Trinity, community outreach is an integral part of Computing Center’s work. Through the Kellogg Foundation-funded Smart Neighborhoods Initiative, the Computing Center offers free computer training workshops and classes to people and nonprofit community organizations in the neighborhood, as well as Internet access and Web-hosting services. At 1300 Broad Street, the Computing Center maintains a 16-station computer lab, plus five machines in a cyber café environment called the Trinfo Café. The basement, meanwhile, houses a computer recycling center. When the Computing Center upgrades campus desktop computers, the underpowered old equipment is brought to Broad Street. Through the Technician Apprenticeship, eight local high school students are trained each year to break down computers and refurbish them for use by area residents.

An enormous resource

As the use of technology becomes ever more central to the work of the College, the Computing Center’s involvement will continue to grow in size and scope. When the new Library and Information Technology Center is completed in spring of 2003, the Computing Center will make its new home there. The new building will extend the types of services already given, says Wolf, but there will also be new facilities, such as digital video editing suites. Wolf notes that it makes sense to align the Computing Center with what has always been a resource for students and faculty members. “Our work is all about providing information,” she says. “It’s a natural fit.”

 - Leslie Virostek