To check the schedule for CALL, it is posted at the front entrance TO The CALL Facility. It is not online. A sample schedule for THIS week is to the right. I always post the following week too. There are ASL Final Exams scheduled in The CALL Facility once the term is over. Otherwise, regular hours for students throughout the entire Final Exam period.
No food or beverages have been a policy in our computing facilities in CLE, BEC and HSD for literally years, so that will not be going away. And until someone can show me how they can eat or drink WITH THEIR MASK ON, it is a great policy. I have seen too many computers, desks, keyboards, mice, monitors and carpets ruined from spills. Not to mention textbooks, mousepads, peripherals and .. guess who gets to clean the mess up!
It makes even MORE sense during Covid too. Let’s be safe and sound. I even go outside, OUTDOORS, to have even a jelly bean, granola bar or a sip of tea. Hey, it’s Victoria, not Northern Alberta – you are not going to suffer frostbite anytime soon!
And UVic is offering free Covid-19 Rapid Test kits. You can GET YOUR COVID TEST KIT! through thrive.uvic.ca, and I did, but you can just as easily just head over to the concessions booth area at the stadium, present your OneCard and get a free kit – SUPER FAST AND SUPER EASY! And I think this Friday, March 4th is the last day, so get going!!
No doubt, there will be more updates, changes and continuation of Covid-19 updates. I will post them as they change for using our computing facilities and how life will slowly return to a ‘new normal’ at UVic. Stay safe. Stay healthy. EVERYONE!
All the new furniture has arrived in CALL! Okay, that is not necessarily ‘new‘ news! But I have repositioned the furniture to allow for better distancing, better sight lines and better viewing of the entire CALL Facility, at least from my perspective. The old layout is after the new layout photos below.
CALL Layout I
CALL Layout II
CALL Layout III
The best feature of this new layout (thanks to rolling desks!) is distancing to make sure everyone has enough room, should they want it. There are lots of open workstations for students and of course, all new computers from last August too.
You might notice that the LARGE rolling whiteboards are not at the back of the room. I have moved them into strategically ‘hidden‘ locations in CALL!
They are still IN CALL, and can be moved anywhere quickly. I just found that some students (not all!) were using them at the back to hide that they were removing their masks and eating in CALL. Masks must be worn at all times and no food or beverages in any classrooms at UVic. There are also 2 smaller rolling whiteboards too!
Thanks to EVERYONE for all your help and support over the past 2+ years. Without my colleagues support and friendship, I have no idea how I would have fared! THANK YOU ALL!
And how about a new feature every so often – a Throwback Link to topics … somewhat close to this one! LOL!
Masks will be required to be worn by students at all times in classrooms and study spaces except where exempt for a medical reason. Consuming food and beverages will not be permitted in classrooms, labs, study spaces or libraries.
Masks must be worn in common areas of buildings, including in on-campus housing and office buildings (e.g., lobbies, hallways, bathrooms).
So ………… Back to Campus January 2022 … but on-line for a couple of weeks!
UVic is back to remote learning but only until Monday January 24th, when it is expected that in person classes will resume. Make sure you keep up to date with every UVic notification about returning to campus safely.
This is basically a sequel post to my last one ‘What’s Next for September?‘ as I have not had time to post ANYTHINGsince returning to work on campus, full time, face to face, as everyone else did too!
BUT the exception is TODAY, my first scheduled RWA (Working Remotely) to .. work remotely once a week. Working with my amazing colleagues at CHD, we each submitted our RWA to our Asscciate Director, making sure we cover each other on our respective RWA days. We have been doing that anyways for years, this merely formalizes it for specific days for each of us. AND if I am needed on campus that day for an orientation, demo or something … I just come to campus that day! Thanks to all of M, T, H and G for working together on this! Teamwork and communication!
And so NOW, the ultimate question is … What IS Next for 2022?
I have absolutely no idea! I can only reflect on this past semester – the challenges and successes I encountered returning to The Computer Help Desk and The CALL Facility … in a nutshell!
The biggest change was of course, full face to face with students, staff, faculty and … SO MANY PEOPLE ON CAMPUS! Mask wearing was mandated and basically, we were all back into the swing of things … instantly!
I fielded so many requests for CALL bookings, resources, hours of operation and … bewildered 1st AND 2nd Year students being on campus for the FIRST TIME! And new Instructors, new pedagogy based on technology (Brightspace, Zoom, Teams, OAC, Echo 360, … you name it!). AND many, many regulars of CALL returned if they had not graduated already! Thank you all for your patience and for returning to The CALL Facility!
I even changed the configuration of my desk so that there would be social distancing between CHD Consultants and myself in CALL! Okay, just switched sides, but that is an important change – and now I can see people when they come into CALL!
CALL had a marked increase in usage for American Sign Language, Korean (Chat Cafe!), French, Spanish and Italian! With the need for distancing and masking, I had to modify my approach AND content to everyone, even the Instructors! That was actually SO MUCH FUN and basically I was re-learning my duties and job .. ON THE FLY!
I literally was hosting a 3 minute ‘demo’ of what CALL is, how to use the NEW computers and even a super fast demo of Audacity at one point, using both WIN and MAC on the VDP!
Anytime you are dealing with new equipment, new computers and new students and expectations from new Instructors …. be afraid! But I was thrilled that ALL THE COMPUTERS AND TECHNOLOGY WORKED FLAWLESSLY!
The WiFi worked flawlessly even for upwards of 40+ students and their own laptops! The ‘Korean Chat Cafe’ with Zoom worked instantly, Brightspace was in high demand and students could CHOOSE WIN OR MAC! That was VERY welcome amongst students! And ASL mid-terms and Finals just … WORKED! CALL will be hosting the ASL Final exams which make use of webcams, Brightspace, Macs and Windows, recording and … CALL is the only facility that can offer that .. okay, CLE A103 has a room of iMacs, and they work flawlessly too! YAY TKAT!
Korean Chat Cafe
ASL American Sign Language
One of my favourite tasks was creating a new Keynote for each new semester, with all the new ‘stuff’ in CALL. But it was not worth the time to do that, considering I was able to do quick demos, as the class came in, with a minimum of fuss. But, the last ‘5-ish Magic Words” lives on as a downloadable file and at YouTube too!
Oh yes, NEW COMPUTERS and NEW FURNITURE! Just click on those links and you will see previous posts about all the new stuff, now all installed in CALL! MANY thanks to everyone at CHD who helped moving a literal ‘Mountain of Tech‘ that came in during the summer! And it would be remiss of me to again mention that CHD recycles as much as possible – plastics (hard and soft), cardboard and paper.
The ‘NEW STUFF‘, EACH computer (Mac Minis & DELL WIN) makes CALL quite unique! CALL is the ONLY computing facility on campus to offer: a blend of MAC and WIN computers, webcams on each computer, 24″ monitors, ethernet and solid WiFi, external optical media drives (Mac only), USB headphones with stereo microphones, private booths (with and without computers), table space, 55″ monitors at 2- ‘office/desk’ locations, 4 rolling whiteboards (2 big, 2 small) for use anywhere in CALL – AND DROP-
New CALL Furniture
IN USE, unless CALL is scheduled!! Yeah, that makes CALL very, very unique! Oh and lots of new furniture too … hint, hint!
I have even been returning as much media and resources TO each Humanities Department, for their own decisions about what to do with old CDs, DVDs, software, VHS tapes, etc. The CALL Facility, under the umbrella of Systems, has never ‘owned’ or ‘bought’ any language resources. That was always based on Departmental needs and their syllabus for each language course. So, returning it frees up much needed room.
And a ‘Not-So-Hidden-Agenda Item’ is to re-introduce myself, The Computer Help Desk and of course, The CALL Facility to all the new staff in each Department, usually beginning with their Office Manager! Yes, there IS a method to my madness!
I have kept a few very, VERY unique software packages, including McMaster French, the very FIRST software ever installed in CALL .. and needs MS:DOS to run! THANK YOU Patrickfor keeping it going for so many years, I did not have the heart to return it for shredding! So, it lives on in 3.5″ floppy disk format in the CALL closet! The last group to use it was LMF 23 summers ago, pre-Covid.
And instead of returning to in-person training, CHD is scheduling separate 1-hour afternoon sessions on specific topics for all new and returning staff, including Coops. So that does not give me an opportunity to do a full Jeopardy. BUT, at the end of our CHD Reviews (2-3 times a week) I am hosting a ‘Blast From Your Past‘ Jeopardy! I have about 9 previous Jeopardy training sessions, 180+ ‘Questions’ and going through them all to give a sense of history and .. whimsy .. to CHD, CALL and training! A nice way to end each session too – 2 or 3 questions and have some fun at the end of some training.
What else … I decided to buy my own new PURPLE IMAC too, although it is more of a … Lavendar! My computers at home were too old to really be secure, so .. NEW COMPUTER! 1TB SSD, 16GB RAM, extended keyboard and …. PURPLE(Lavendar!)
And that is about it for now! A longer post, but catching up on the most important changes and improvements in The CALL Facility.
Challenges remain – we are still in the Covid Pandemic and everyone should keep wearing your masks, social distancing, wash your hands and stay as safe and healthy as possible. I am including Covid information below as well. I hope to do more Bog Blogs in the future, especially on RWA Wednesdays! And who knows what new Tech is around the corner for us at CHD, The CALL Facility and UVic in general!
Who ya gonna CALL? THE COMPUTER HELP DESK!Stay safe everyone!
What an exhausting and long year since last August – my last full vacation!
And exhausting … for ALL OF US! I am so fortunate to have been able to work with such amazing and incredible colleagues at The Computer Help Desk over the past … 500+ DAYS! Yes, it has been that long since we started working remotely, late in March of 2020!
Without ALL of their support, humour, leadership, imagination, guidance and every single possible ‘intangible‘ that each and every single one of them, ALL BRING to our Teams meetings, emails, texts, GIFs, Emojis, Jeopardy, Quote Contests, it would have been impossible to accomplish a fraction of what WE ALL DID AS A TEAM!
THANK YOU ALL!
A few key UVic and BC websites for returning to campus in September for everyone!
UPDATE: This Post will be updated regularly now as a Page “Favourite and Useful Links” with 🔥 NEW 🔥 links in the future!
Every student will have now had a chance to join at least one of their classes via ZOOM, join some Teams, discover Microsoft Office 365, and adjust their schedules and come to the same conclusion that this will be a very, VERY interesting semester!
Full Disclosure: I too am feeling overwhelmed at times! There is strength in numbers, so how about some of my favourite numbers … 99, Pi and Googol(no, not that … Google!) … and have you heard of a … Googolplex?
Not to worry . . .
I am not going to overwhelm you with this first OAC post. I will be updating many of the links below with additional new ones that I hope will be useful. Yes, you can find them at uvic.ca but, this also helps ME with MY favourites too!
So, just a few to begin with and I will randomly and intermittently add more favourites, so check back in here occasionally!
I have been around for a few days … since October of 1989! Whoa, that seems like yesterday to me! A future post will have some slightly grainy images of what CALL once looked like … well before numerous renovations (scheduled and unscheduled!) and before The Great Flood of 2015! That was some kind of day! There are a few images in a previous post, which includes a pdf of exactly what CALL is!
CALL Jeopardy: REBOOT VERSION
And the most recent version of my CALL Jeopardy file is here. ALL of the files are there too, including old photos of CALL, the Great Flood and the rebooted CALL!
I was VERY BRIEFLY back at CHD earlier this month, to upgrade my remote laptop, and went in to look at the new furniture … AND IT LOOKS FANTASTIC! I sure hope we can get back to using our facilities, classrooms and ALL OF UVic soon, but in a safe, VERY SAFE manner!
A fairly busy day today, so some quick quotes about learning languages. I also include quotes in each slide when I give my CALL Facility orientation, so you can click HERE to see those too! They are current to January 2020!
Mostly, these are new, but there are a few favourites in here too!
And some Albert Einstein quotes too! After all … on the Quantum Level … everyone speaks the same language … and other magical things like that! Yeah, too many Marvel movies clunking around my head! But that is a GOOD THING!
All the usual Daily Links and YouTube videos are after the language quotes below!
How about some computer cartoons and other media today! Maybe some old ones that make us chuckle from where we have come from! And a busy day today too! LOL!
To start, my favourite scene from Captain Marvel! Many of us from The Computer Help Desk went together to see this movie together (Thanks again Marcela!) and this scene was THE funniest for me!
Remember, it takes place in the 1980’s and Captain Marvel is from an incredibly technologically advanced planet! And even today … I often get to use the classic phrase … ‘It’s loading“! LOL!
And what would a Bog Blog Post be without some Homer Simpson memes!
And some Classic Bloom County from WAY BACK WHEN that many of you probably will never have heard of! My first car was a Black Subaru that I named … OPUS!
And Foxtrot always had a befuddled Dad playing around with their newest iFruit computer! The usual assortment of familh members, all with varying degrees of computer expertise from genius to … less than genius!
Wearing of masks is still recommended at UVic.
The CALL Facility (CLE A025) is currently OPEN, weekdays only from 830am to 600pm! YAY!
Stay safe everyone! 
with such amazing and incredible colleagues at The Computer Help Desk over the past … 500+ DAYS! Yes, it has been that long since we started working remotely, late in March of 2020!
And some Classic 
