We are made wise

not by the recollection of our past,

but by the responsibility for our future.

- George Bernard Shaw

 

From the EA President

Our Membership Clerk, Danielle Jenkins, will be working with the Nominations and Elections Committees to conduct our biennial MCCEA elections during the next several weeks. During these elections, we will select Officers and At-Large Delegates in secret ballot voting. Our Bylaws require that this process be completed prior to the 2nd Monday in December. The offices up for election are:

I would like to personally encourage all EA members to participate in these elections. Our Nominations Committee consists of the following EA members:

Barb Schulz, Chair, Business

Anne Gupton , Counseling

Catherine Smith, Fine Arts

Beverly Bliesath , Business

Janet Westhoff , Health Science

A nomination form is attached to this edition of the Forward. Additional forms may be obtained from Danielle in the MCCEA Office in Curtice-Mott 2310; you may also call her at extension 20343. These forms may be sent directly to the MCCEA office. Per our Bylaws, written nominations signed by one MCCEA member may also be sent to our MCCEA Secretary, Dennis

McKenzie:

No one shall be a candidate for office except by nomination by the Nominating Committee, by nomination signed by one member and presented to the Secretary before the November meeting, by nomination from the floor at the November membership meeting, or being added to the ballot as a write in vote.

In addition to the nomination forms, nominations for MCCEA elected positions may be made from the floor at our annual general membership meeting. In accordance with our Bylaws, nominations for office will be closed at the end of this meeting. Please make every effort to attend:

MCCEA General Membership Meeting

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Gorman Auditorium, G1202 @ 4:00 p.m.

(Directly following the Faculty Meeting)

 

Secret ballot voting will begin in Division offices on Tuesday, November 29th and will conclude on Thursday, December 6th. The ballots will be counted by the Elections Committee on Friday, December 7th.

Conducting a large secret-ballot election across several campuses with hundreds of registered voters is a complicated and difficult task. I want to offer special thanks to Danielle Jenkins and the Nominations and Elections Committees for their hard work in the coming months.

- Steve Robinson

 

Forward Focus : Jason Slade

Every year, by way of introducing our new MCCEA faculty members, the Forward asks our new members to respond to a few questions about themselves. This month we welcome Jason Slade, technology.

1. Name and position at MCC...

Jason Slade , Instructor – Electronics and Electrical Technology, Technology Division

2. Educational/occupational background...

Education: BSEE / MSEE (Electrical Engineer) from Michigan State University

Work Experience:

Electrical Engineer at General Dynamics Land Systems – I worked in the displays group for the battle tank. Basically, we were upgrading all of the electronics on the tanks to make them easier to use on the battle field. It was pretty interesting because I was able to climb in many different military vehicles. I felt like a little kid! It was very exciting straight out of college.

Design Engineer at Continental Automotive Systems – I worked in the sensors group for “Electronic Stability Control” Braking Systems. This is a more intelligent version of anti-lock brakes and keeps a car from spinning out of control by activating the brakes. Working in safety electronics is very rewarding, but at the same time, very stressful because you are dealing with high volume components (millions of sensors a year) and human lives. I was able to travel quite a bit, both foreign and domestic, including trips to Germany, the Philippines, and Alaska.

3. I came to MCC because........

I wanted to teach. While working as an engineer was a good career and provided me with excellent experience, I yearned to work with students and teach. MCC provided a great opportunity to pursue this and I was fortunate to be offered a position as an instructor.

4. I teach what I do because........

I am kind of a nerd. As my college roommates would always remind me, you cannot spell “GEEK” without a double “E” (EE for electrical engineering). Seriously, I find science and technology interesting and rewarding. My first science project was an electro-magnetic. After that I was hooked! Every time I review the material, I find something new.      

5.  What I like most about being at MCC is .............

The community spirit and pride. Everyone I have met is very helpful and proud of working at Mott. There is a real sense of family here, especially in the RTC.

6. The thing that bothers me most about MCC is .....................

I actually have not been here long enough to answer this question. So far everything has been great!

7.  The most important or significant book I have ever read is:

The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey. It really opened up my eyes to the damage urban sprawl causes. While I do not agree with the tactics used in the book, it makes you step back and think about how the human race interacts with the environment and our limited resources. I read it when I was about 16 or 17 and it really influenced my views on the environment. Edward Abbey gives you a true appreciation for not only the western US, but untamed places in general.

8. One person I admire is ...................

My late Grandfather. He was an excellent role model for every aspect of my life. He set the bar when it came to dedication, family life, and work ethic. He was very caring and unselfish. If I could be half the man he was, I would consider my life a success.

9. To get away from the classroom I enjoy.................

golfing and hiking. I am an avid golfer and once spring hits, I am ready for the course. Is there a golf league at Mott? I also enjoy hiking – whether it is around here (Holly Recreation Area, northern Lower Peninsula) or out west (Tetons, Rockies). I love it! It is great exercise and very fun.

10. My proudest accomplishment is . . .

I think my proudest accomplishment is my successful marriage to a very caring and loving woman. Prior to my marriage, all my accomplishments were work or school related. However, my perspective has changed. While marriage is not always easy, I really enjoy it! I am very fortunate to have married such a great person!

 

All Systems Go? No.

Last summer, we all received a somewhat cryptic message from IS about the rapid disappearance of bandwidth at MCC and the need to ration what little remained of it. Elsewhere, we’d heard that bandwidth was bleeding profusely to sites that should’ve surprised no one—MySpace, YouTube, and Facebook, all synonymous with “student.” We were supposed to create lists of sites we actually needed for educational purposes, and many of us composed those lists. Some of us included opinions rhetorical, philosophical, pedagogical, and even legal in nature.

Then, nothing happened.

Except that when the Fall 2007 semester started, the college’s computer systems began to go offline, with or without advance notice, for scheduled maintenance or for unforeseen emergencies, a lot more than they used to.

And the email systems began to cough and sputter and do bizarre, bad things. Messages got chewed up and sent to the cold side of Neptune. Obsolete addresses weren’t auto-forwarded as promised. Clicking “reply” to a received message yielded an “Undeliverable” message a few minutes or days later: The address does not exist.

And the basic speed of PCs in “smart rooms” slowed to a trickle, then to a drip, and sometimes to only a hollow clank and puff of air when the pipes were turned on. Launching any of the applications in the notorious Office 2007 suite was a cue for students to unfold their cots and settle in for a nap while the minutes ticked by with no Word or Explorer windows in sight.

And Blackboard was upgraded from the limited version to the full version, adding features like an endless loop that trapped students and faculty in a clever link-leading-back-to-itself puzzle, a Javascript window freezing the screen to announce that it had forgotten the preferences set in it the last time it froze the screen, and an uncanny ability to bring the nefarious Internet Explorer 2007 to its knees, forcing students to become fluent in the language of “flushing caches” and “purging cookies” before downloading an alternative web browser that actually worked. Then, just as the new and functional browser showed a glimpse of the Blackboard login screen, the Blackboard system disappeared. And stayed gone for long stretches of time.

Students emailed faculty in panic: Where is Blackboard? Faculty replied: Beats me. A few minutes or days later, “Undeliverable” messages arrived: The student does not exist.

And it would be a mistake to take comfort in the use of past tense above, because these problems have not gone away. They persist.

Like it or not, the foundation holding up the college’s buildings is no longer made of stone. It’s made of computer cables. And without smoothly running computer systems, we may as well pack up right now and hang a For Sale sign in the window. At MCC, we have the benefit of not one, but two distinct Departments of Computing. One of those departments keeps faculty office computers humming along—and we are grateful for it (at least those of us who actually have computers—some of the newest hires are still waiting). But the other department makes the smart rooms smart, keeps the lab networks networked, makes our e-library accessible to night crawlers in bathrobes, puts the online courses online, hosts our web site on the web, lets the A/V systems have A and V, ensures that the RTC has T, and tethers the college’s satellite campuses to the mother ship.

Which brings me to the Word of the Day: EdTech.

Given all of its colossal responsibilities and its enormous role in creating and maintaining the educational functions of college technology, one might expect Educational Systems to have a staff the size of a small army, a budget rivaling an island nation’s GDP, and a server facility equal to Google’s or Amazon’s in their early days.

But what’s the reality? Go check the online Mott Directory, under “Employees by Department,” under E for Educational Systems. Count the names. And note the position titles attached to them.

Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Did you see a tiny department with roughly half its staff dedicated to office support, while the other half drags toolboxes into the ducts and conduits of campus smart stations and classrooms and lecture halls and buildings and the Internet itself?

Now, just for kicks, go have a look at Humanities. And count.

You needed a lot more time for that one, didn’t you? That’s because the final score is Humanities 100, EdTech 15.

Yes, that includes people in Humanities who are part-time. And yes, we in Humanities teach thousands of students each semester. But they in Educational Systems play a vital role in teaching all of the students each semester. See the “es” in the esmail account every student receives upon enrollment? That’s just the start.

Now, not to go all doomsday or anything, but consider this: In Humanities, we’re spread out around the building, and in fact across several campuses. But all of those folks in Ed Systems work together in pretty tight quarters. One highly skilled flu bug could feasibly take Randy, Marc, Chris, Annette, Lionel, Keith, Brian, and even Cheryl out of the office for weeks—en masse.

And if that happens, then in the words of Kanye West, it all falls down. The smart rooms turn stupid, the lab networks melt down, the e-library closes to all, the online courses go offline, our web site goes 404, A/V systems have neither A nor V, the RTC becomes merely an RC, and the college’s satellite campuses are cut loose, free to drift toward the cold side of Neptune where they’ll eventually land in a pile of mangled and misdirected email messages.

Thing is, even if they were all ambushed by a ninja flu bug, the Ed Systems people—all fifteen of them, not just the ones named above—are the most dedicated group that any college faculty could have the privilege of working with, and they would most likely manage to keep things patched together, courageously and miraculously, from their sickbeds.

That, of course, is laudable, and so are they. But this semester especially, it seems that “patched together” is quickly becoming the new standard for our college technology in general, and Kanye’s words are ringing true even with the EdTech staff healthy and energetic.

A couple of years ago there was a commercial on TV. Soccer game; scorer running toward the net. No goalie! Then, very slowly, he begins to appear—one line of pixels at a time. Shoes. Then socks. Then legs…. Finally, a slogan: Got Slow Internet?

It was supposed to be a joke. But here at Mott, it’s often the sad reality. Just try loading the college library web site at 1:30 in the afternoon. You’ll see.

All of this is simply unacceptable. Email should be delivered. Servers should have backup systems so they never go offline. Blackboard should have all of its bugs exterminated. The odious Office 2007 suite should blaze, not crawl, on classroom and lab PCs. Libraries—and goalies—should appear all at once. And bandwidth should be increased. A lot.

Our students pay a technology fee. Our community has approved an extended millage. Our foundation is made of computer cables, not stone—but Educational Systems is still the rock upon which the whole college stands. The community, the students, the faculty, and especially the people in Educational Systems deserve systems that are nothing less than fully operational and always available.

A college’s educational technology should be a point of pride, not a source of embarrassment. I hope this institution will recognize that soon.

 

- Larry Juchartz