So … What’s Next for … 2022?

So …………
What’s Next for …………..
2022!

This is basically a sequel post to my last one ‘What’s Next for September?‘ as I have not had time to post ANYTHING since 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!

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.

I also had a post talking about THIS latest refresh for CALL  too!

CALL Facility Large Screens
   CALL Facility Large Screens

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
                      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!

WICKET
                        WICKET

A huge, HUGE change was that WICKET was decomissioned. This was our own customizable database program that scanned every student who used CALL and recorded their attendance! My first EVER presentation for CHD was actually about the history of The CALL Facility and WICKET! It was one of the first training exercises for all our staff! But now, CALL is completely drop-in and Humanities have moved on from requiring any attendance requirements in CALL for students. 

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 Patrick for 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! 

For now, the best resource to find current information is at UVic’s COVID information site, UVic response to COVID-19 (coronavirus). The official BC site is COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus), with multiple links throughout including the most important one on ‘Orders and notices‘.

The map I go to frequently is the ‘British Columbia COVID-19 Dashboard‘.

As always, information changes, so you can keep up to date with the BC Covid App.

And a chance to see all the Emergency Planning links from an earlier Post (and Page) below too.

  1. Emergency Planning (Take a few minutes for this site please)
  2. Emergency Procedures (And what to do … if ….)
  3. Earthquake and Tsunami (How many in the last 30 days … SEE THEM!!)
  4. An earthquake happened in Oak Bay, WHILE I WAS UPDATING THIS POST! 🔥 HOT OFF THE PRESS WINNER 🔥
  5. Snow or Extreme Weather (Yes, it snows in Victoria .. LOTS!)
  6. Specific Hazards (Nitty gritty specifics of what could happen)
  7. Campus Evacuation Procedures (Where to go ….)
  8. Emergency Planning – Events & Upcoming Training (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!)
  9. UVic Alerts (Register today, right now!)
  10. Safety Committees at UVic(Join a great committee! I did!)
  11. And .. UVic Covid Information too
  12. Province-wide restriction  🔥 HOT OFF THE PRESS WINNER 🔥
  13. BC Covid Dashboard (Added April 9, 2021)

BE SAFE EVERYONE!

Pandemic

CALL Towering Tech Arrivals

HUGE Towers of TECH …..
now in CALL !

MORE DELIVERIES OF TECHNOLOGY
FOR COMPUTING FACILITIES!!!

This was the amount of tech that came LAST time, and was stored temporarily at the Front of CALL! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at how much there is NOW!
AND MORE IS ON THE WAY!

 

And of course, there will  be MOUNTAINS OF CARDBOARD TO RECYCLE TOO!
Last time … check out those OAC Posts:

The ReCycling of CALL and … HSD!
Comparing Apples and Oranges . . . but Not Oranges
Comparing Apples and Oranges III . . . The ReCycling

And if anyone is interested in UVic’s Sustainability News, then click here or on the image below! And ALL the UVic Featured Topics are right below it!

                                                                   UVic Sustainability
                                                                     UVic Featured Topics

Whatever CAN be recycled 
WILL be recycled!

  1. Recycling – UVic
  2. Sort-It-Out-Stations – UVic
  3. Zero Waste Program – UVic
  4. Water – UVic
  5. Energy and Climate – UVic
  6. Dining and Food – UVic
  7. Computing – UVic
  8. UVic’s Built and Natural Environments – UVic
  9. Sustainability in Academics and Research – UVic
  10. UVic’s Waste Reduction Hub – UVic
  11. Campus Planning at UVic
  12. Campus Plan – UVic
  13. Sustainable Transportation – UVic
  14. Sustainability Champion Awards – UVic
  15. Featured Stories – UVic
  16. Campaigns – UVic
  17. Campus Sustainability Fund – UVic
  18. Resources – UVic
  19. Sustainability Videos – UVic
  20. Tips for Living a Sustainable Lifestyle – UVic
  21. Sustainability Reports – UVic
  22. Sustainability policy – UVic
  23. Campus Guides – UVic
  24. Vision and Values – UVic
  25. Green Buildings – UVic

Global Warming
                                                                               Global Warming

BE SAFE EVERYONE!

Pandemic

The ReCycling of CALL and … HSD!

The ReCycling of …..
CALL  &  HSD!

THE CALL FACILITY COMPUTERS …..
ARE NOW RECYCLED!

52 iMacs (circa 2012-2013), Dual-Boot (WIN and iOS) that served students, staff, Instructors and Faculty SO WELL … and don’t owe us anything, are now on the way to their Forever Recycle Home!

And The CALL  Facility is back to … mostly normal, as you can see the ‘Before‘ all the iMacs (& other miscellaneous recyclables!) were picked up and the … ‘After‘! And yes, those are NEW DESKS, TABLES AND FURNITURE! More presents are coming for September!

And the huge mountain of tech has now been moved to their Forever (for now!) homes across campus! Thanks to ALLISON for organizing everything so we all knew … what would go where! YAY ALLISON!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each workstation in CALL now has either a NEW DELL  or a NEW MAC MINI! They will all be ready for September – so much ‘Behind the Scenes‘ is going on, so that we are ready for September!

And HSD was added to the mix for recycling cardboard, plastic and paper too!

Thanks to Sage and Keanu for helping  out make mountains out of cardboard molehills! YAY SAGE AND KEANU!

We are not done yet and there are more presents to unwrap and recycle the wrapping over the summer, in preparation for September! Stay tuned!

I did a previous post about Recycling in CALL, and have also included the same Gallery of photos here, to show HOW MUCH CARDBOARD is used when purchasing technology! One computer is lots … DOZENS ADDS UP TO ?QUITE A BIT OF CARDBOARD!

More posts about The CALL Facilitly computer refresh and recycling are at ‘CALL Computer Refresh Deja Vu ….. All Over Again‘ with another Photo Gallery.

I have included the same list of UVic Recycling Links at the bottom from that same post.

Previous ‘Cardboard‘ Gallery

And if anyone is interested in UVic’s Sustainability News, then click here or on the image below! And ALL the UVic Featured Topics are right below it!

                                                                   UVic Sustainability
                                                                     UVic Featured Topics

Whatever CAN be recycled 
WILL be recycled!

  1. Recycling – UVic
  2. Sort-It-Out-Stations – UVic
  3. Zero Waste Program – UVic
  4. Water – UVic
  5. Energy and Climate – UVic
  6. Dining and Food – UVic
  7. Computing – UVic
  8. UVic’s Built and Natural Environments – UVic
  9. Sustainability in Academics and Research – UVic
  10. UVic’s Waste Reduction Hub – UVic
  11. Campus Planning at UVic
  12. Campus Plan – UVic
  13. Sustainable Transportation – UVic
  14. Sustainability Champion Awards – UVic
  15. Featured Stories – UVic
  16. Campaigns – UVic
  17. Campus Sustainability Fund – UVic
  18. Resources – UVic
  19. Sustainability Videos – UVic
  20. Tips for Living a Sustainable Lifestyle – UVic
  21. Sustainability Reports – UVic
  22. Sustainability policy – UVic
  23. Campus Guides – UVic
  24. Vision and Values – UVic
  25. Green Buildings – UVic

Global Warming
                                                                               Global Warming

BE SAFE EVERYONE!

Pandemic

So … What’s Next for … September?

So …………
What’s Next for …………..
September!

Later today, Monday June 14th, BC will announce the next phase of easing Covid requirements for the province!

And the ultimate question is … What’s Next for September? And there really is no firm answer yet. We have had Safe Work Plans in place for staff and students to use the Clearihue Computing Facilities classrooms on the 1st Floor, since September. As well as SWP for our offices too. That information is posted on the (locked) entry doors to the computing facilities, CLE A112.

For now, the best resource to find current information is at UVic’s COVID information site, UVic response to COVID-19 (coronavirus). The official BC site is COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus), with multiple links throughout including the most important one on ‘Orders and notices‘.

The map I go to frequently is the ‘British Columbia COVID-19 Dashboard‘.

                                                   British Columbia COVID-19 Dashboard

As always, information changes, so you can keep up to date with the BC Covid App.

BC COVID-19 App
                                                                                                        BC COVID-19 App

And a chance to see all the Emergency Planning links from an earlier Post (and Page) below too.

  1. Emergency Planning (Take a few minutes for this site please)
  2. Emergency Procedures (And what to do … if ….)
  3. Earthquake and Tsunami (How many in the last 30 days … SEE THEM!!)
  4. An earthquake happened in Oak Bay, WHILE I WAS UPDATING THIS POST! 🔥 HOT OFF THE PRESS WINNER 🔥
  5. Snow or Extreme Weather (Yes, it snows in Victoria .. LOTS!)
  6. Specific Hazards (Nitty gritty specifics of what could happen)
  7. Campus Evacuation Procedures (Where to go ….)
  8. Emergency Planning – Events & Upcoming Training (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!)
  9. UVic Alerts (Register today, right now!)
  10. Safety Committees at UVic(Join a great committee! I did!)
  11. And .. UVic Covid Information too
  12. Province-wide restriction  🔥 HOT OFF THE PRESS WINNER 🔥
  13. BC Covid Dashboard (Added April 9, 2021)

What have YOU missed since early 2020? And are you ready for … PowerPoint classes IN PERSON again? Spoiler – I prefer KeyNote! LOL!

BE SAFE EVERYONE!

Pandemic

CALL Computer Refresh Deja Vu ….. All Over Again

CALL Computer Refresh
DEJA VU …..
All over again!

CALL, & other computing classrooms, are getting new computers! Over the past few weeks, all the older iMacs have been removed, accumulated and are currently waiting to be recycled! Most of the new hardware had been put in place, but is not quite ready yet! The biggest change will be that there will no longer be dual-boot computers, running on Apple computers. Dual-Boot? What is that?  It just means that with the right kind of Hogwart’s Magic, you  can run both WINDOWS and iOS on an iMac! Just partition and install. Oh, if it could be THAT simple, but … let’s just say that those old iMacs served us very well!

It was always satisfying to hear from some students, that Windows running on one of our CALL iMacs was often FASTER than their OWN Windows laptop! But time catches up to all of us, and technology advancements are even faster!

CALL Facility Large Screens
            CALL Facility Large Screens

New dedicated Windows and Mac are strategically located at workstations for individual and/or group work starting in September! AND THEY ARE REALLY FAST COMPUTERS!!! And the new BIG SCREEN MONITORS ARE AMAZING! They were barely installed when … we were all sent home! I did a sneak peak a few posts ago, “SSShhhh . . . Clearihue’s Hidden Secrets . . . & GEMS” and at the bottom are the new monitors! SO MUCH MORE COMING!

And there is SO MUCH ROOM for individual studying, quiet workspaces, quiet group workspaces and comfy furniture too! A BRAND NEW CALL!

More details on the NEW computers will be in a future post, but looking back at how over the past ~9 years, the ‘old’ iMacs certainly don’t owe us anything. Every single iMac that was used since the last refresh in ~2012 was still working! That was a total of 52 computers! And I always like to say CALL had 104 COMPUTERS making it the largest computing classroom at UVic!

The CALL Facility CLE A025
                                                          The CALL Facility CLE A025 – Post Flood!

Some were moved to other locations AFTER ‘The Great CALL Flood of 2015‘ and continued to work for students as drop-in with newer operating systems! We did lose some keyboards and mice and kept a wary eye on the iMacs that were doused, but amazingly, the design, the curvature of the back of the iMac, helped displace the water and they survived!

And below is the last look at all the ‘old’ iMacs from CALL! Thanks for the memories … well … maybe the memory, all 8GB of onboard RAM! Colin and crew removed ALL THE HARD DRIVES IN ONE DAY! THANKS COLIN!

Oh, and the very last photo – I even included my own work iMac, so I have reconfigured my desktop, literally, for when I am on campus! The first time in MANY YEARS, at UVic that there has not been a Mac computer on my own desktop! Lots of Macs around though! And every blog has been created on my DELL laptop at home! So, WIN wins in the end … for now! 

But,  one last bit of trivia is that … we have kept a couple of the slightly newer Post-Flood CALL iMacs for testing purposes. They can run iOS up to Catalina, but since all the new Macs in CALL will be running Big Sur, they really are test iMacs in case we need to test out support for similar hardware. They too will eventually go at some point in time.

And if anyone is interested in UVic’s Sustainability News, then click here or on the image below! And ALL the UVic Featured Topics are right below it!

                                                                   UVic Sustainability
                                                                     UVic Featured Topics

Whatever CAN be recycled 
WILL be recycled!

  1. Recycling – UVic
  2. Sort-It-Out-Stations – UVic
  3. Zero Waste Program – UVic
  4. Water – UVic
  5. Energy and Climate – UVic
  6. Dining and Food – UVic
  7. Computing – UVic
  8. Green Computing – UVic
  9. UVic’s Built and Natural Environments – UVic
  10. Sustainability in Academics and Research – UVic
  11. UVic’s Waste Reduction Hub – UVic
  12. Campus Planning at UVic
  13. Campus Plan – UVic
  14. Sustainable Transportation – UVic
  15. Sustainability Champion Awards – UVic
  16. Featured Stories – UVic
  17. Campaigns – UVic
  18. Campus Sustainability Fund – UVic
  19. Resources – UVic
  20. Sustainability Videos – UVic
  21. Tips for Living a Sustainable Lifestyle – UVic
  22. Sustainability Reports – UVic
  23. Sustainability policy – UVic
  24. Campus Guides – UVic
  25. Vision and Values – UVic
  26. Green Buildings – UVic

BE SAFE EVERYONE!

Pandemic

Comparing Apples and Oranges III . . . The ReCycling

Comparing Apples and Oranges
More Recycling of …..
Cardboard!

This is the final gallery for all the cardboard recycling from The CALL Facility this spring. The DELL monitors had an astonishing amount of cardboard INSIDE the monitor box itself! So if a picture is worth 1000 words, then … I will recycle all my words! My last post about recycling was here. And I made a ‘Copy‘ of that post and updated it – exactly one of the ‘OAC WordPress Hints and Tips‘ I mentioned in my Post BEFORE this one! Shameless Product Placement!

I have included the same list of UVic Recycling Links at the bottom from that same post.

Previous ‘Cardboard‘ Gallery

Whatever CAN be recycled 
WILL be recycled!

  1. Recycling – UVic
  2. Sort-It-Out-Stations – UVic
  3. Zero Waste Program – UVic
  4. Water – UVic
  5. Energy and Climate – UVic
  6. Dining and Food – UVic
  7. Computing – UVic
  8. UVic’s Built and Natural Environments – UVic
  9. Sustainability in Academics and Research – UVic
  10. UVic’s Waste Reduction Hub – UVic
  11. Campus Planning at UVic
  12. Campus Plan – UVic
  13. Sustainable Transportation – UVic
  14. Sustainability Champion Awards – UVic
  15. Featured Stories – UVic
  16. Campaigns – UVic
  17. Campus Sustainability Fund – UVic
  18. Resources – UVic
  19. Sustainability Videos – UVic
  20. Tips for Living a Sustainable Lifestyle – UVic
  21. Sustainability Reports – UVic
  22. Sustainability policy – UVic
  23. Campus Guides – UVic
  24. Vision and Values – UVic
  25. Green Buildings – UVic

Global Warming
                                                                               Global Warming

BE SAFE EVERYONE!

Pandemic

Comparing Apples and Oranges . . . but Not Oranges

Comparing Apples and Oranges
but not actually …..
Oranges!

Ah, one of my favourite lines is ‘You can’t compare apples to oranges!‘ OF COURSE YOU CAN! I just did! LOL!

I am unpacking the new tech for The CALL Facility and the old adage of ‘clean as you go’ works well in tandem with ‘clean as you go AND RECYCLE‘ TOO! So I kept the DELL ‘thinking inside the box‘ pile beside the Apple ‘thinking inside the box‘ pile on separate tables, just as a curiosity. Well, it was very interesting!

First, the new tech is AMAZING! This is the first tech refresh in many years for CALL and I am certain that all the students are going to be impressed! AND the new furniture and a few more wonderful surprises are in store for when we do go back to UVic in September! ALL GOOD! MANY THANKS FOR ALL THE NEW TECH IN CALL!

So below is a little gallery of the pile of everything that was inside the DELL  tech (computers & monitors) and the Apple tech (computers). Can you tell which pile came from which tech?

And that is just the interior contents, wrappings around stands, monitors, cables, etc. but does NOT show the actual BOXES that all the tech CAME IN! Basically all the plastic wrap, paper, twist ties, etc. The boxes are still there and I will be recycling them too – cardboard and internal cardboard holders for the tech.

I am scheduled on campus, each Tuesday, so I am slowly working my way around opening everything up (DONE!), taking inventory (SN#s), and then finally plugging things in! Slow, but steady progress! Do it right!

I will also do updates here, new Recycle Posts and update my Favourite UVic Links Page too!

Whatever CAN be recycled 
WILL be recycled!

  1. Recycling – UVic
  2. Sort-It-Out-Stations – UVic
  3. Zero Waste Program – UVic
  4. Water – UVic
  5. Energy and Climate – UVic
  6. Dining and Food – UVic
  7. Computing – UVic
  8. UVic’s Built and Natural Environments – UVic
  9. Sustainability in Academics and Research – UVic
  10. UVic’s Waste Reduction Hub – UVic
  11. Campus Planning at UVic
  12. Campus Plan – UVic
  13. Sustainable Transportation – UVic
  14. Sustainability Champion Awards – UVic
  15. Featured Stories – UVic
  16. Campaigns – UVic
  17. Campus Sustainability Fund – UVic
  18. Resources – UVic
  19. Sustainability Videos – UVic
  20. Tips for Living a Sustainable Lifestyle – UVic
  21. Sustainability Reports – UVic
  22. Sustainability policy – UVic
  23. Campus Guides – UVic
  24. Vision and Values – UVic
  25. Green Buildings – UVic

BE SAFE EVERYONE!

Pandemic