All Foothill College students can now log in with a personalized username and password through Open Directory technology. This means all settings they choose, as well as any files they are working on, will be stored on a school server. Even if they use a different machine the next day, all of the student's files will be there waiting for them. (Students should always keep their own backups of important files. We delete all files stored on our server at the end of each quarter.) The new Open Directory server is located within the Middlefield campus meaning that the long load times previously associated with Active Directory accounts are now gone.
Any registered Foothill student can try out this new system. To get your account, just go to our username lookup page from any computer in the Middlefield lab. This is an internal server, so you cannot access it from outside the Middlefield computer lab. If you prefer to use the guest account, you can log in as middlefield, with password mc. Files cannot be permanently saved with this account. For more information, visit our login help page.
Math My Way software has been installed on all machines in the Middlefield computer lab. This means that teachers and students will have a large degree of flexibility in where classes can be and how many students can attend.
Middlefield will now host language classes taught with the Rosetta Stone software. If you are a registered student in one of the Rosetta Stone Classes, you may do your classwork on any of our specially designated Rosetta Stone machines. Spanish and English courses are currently available; Italian and French will be added soon. To get your username and password, either ask your instructor or look it up online from any computer in the Middlefield lab. You'll need your student ID to access your login information.
The Pacific Pharmacy Software Suite has been installed on all PCs in the open lab. It is installed within a virtual machine so that students have full access to the capabilities of the software, without endangering other students' work. This same system has been used in the installation of Oracle 11g software on our PC machines.
Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope has been added for use in astronomy classes.
The importance of computer security and updates can never be overstated. They keep our machines secure against new threats and vulnerabilities as well as adding and unlocking new features in the software and operating system. Most recently, all of our Windows machines have been updated to Service Pack 3, and our Macs have been updated to Leopard version 10.5.5.
We are now prepared to teach classes in which every student is given a laptop to work on. All 35 machines run both OS X and Windows XP (through Boot Camp), so students and teachers will have a choice of work environments. We also have new Dell laptops that will be used to teach our new Math My Way course here at Middlefield.
Our I2 computer lab has had some huge improvements over the summer. Not only have we set up dual booting with Boot Camp on all machines, but we are also testing VMware on these machines, and VMware Fusion 2.0 should be deployed by Winter quarter. This lab now contains 36 machines, which should be enough for even the largest classes.
Middlefield has added a new Dell mobile lab that is to be used in conjunction with the Math My Way software. These computers are generally to be used in lab I3, but can be made available for other classrooms as well.
5 new Dell desktops have been added to the I5 computer lab. This brings the total number of machines in that lab to 26.
The Middlefield Computer lab now has over 170 computers ready for use by students.
Our servers are now protected by a backup battery that will kick in the moment there is any problem with our power. This means that student data stored on the Middlefield Campus servers is more secure. The system can also perform an emergency shutdown of all campus servers in case of an extreme heat problem within the server room, thereby protecting school hardware from damage.
A new Apple xServe has been added and set up at Middlefield. It handles DNS, Open Directory, and Web Services for the campus.
We've added the Rosetta Stone Networked Version to a new Dell server. This server handles everything that has to do with Rosetta Stone, including adding students, selecting curriculums, and backing up student data.
We have added a new resource server and two system-imaging servers. The resource server stores and backs up temporary student files. The Apple imaging server allows us to deploy system updates to our Macintosh machines as quickly as possible; our second imaging server is running Ghost Suite 2.0, and can do the same for our PCs.
Projectors in every lab have been replaced with newer, brighter ones over the last few months. This means that students in the back of the classroom will be able to see the screen much better.