By Jerry Salley
Lucy Woodhouse, director of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Furman, had never heard of hearing loops before two different OLLI members asked her if she knew anything about them.
But once she and Tim Hightower, Furman’s media systems manager, started researching them, they realized that hearing loops had great potential to help hard-of-hearing OLLI visitors.
Updating your operating system is vital to the overall health and security of your computer. Software manufactures are continually fixing software bugs & vulnerabilities, updating drivers, and making improvements to the software you use every day. While this may not seem like a big deal, updating your operating system can improve the overall reliability, security and speed of your computer. Turning on automatic updates can take some of the work out of remembering to preform updates on your devices.
To confirm that your computer has been configured for automatic updates, follow the instructions listed below:
Windows Based Machines
Windows 7 
Windows XP
Apple Based Machines
Mac OS X
To avoid remediation, be sure that your operating system and anti-virus definition updates are installed. Furman University uses the Bradford Network Access Control appliance to ensure the security of the network. If your computer doesn’t meet the security requirements of the Furman network, your devices will not have access. This can be frustrating, so please be sure to keep all of your devices up to date.
If you have any questions about updating your operating system, please call the IT Service Center at (864) 294-3277, or send an email to help.desk at furman.edu.
Back in October we reported that the reliability of Furman’s Internet connection had improved to 99.4% uptime. (This was an improvement from 99.1% uptime in the previous year.) On Friday, March 30th, AT&T had a temporary service outage disrupted campus service. Even with this unplanned outage, for the past year our campus Internet uptime has improved to over 99.6%! Our thanks to the members of our Systems and Networks team for continuing to improve the reliability of Furman’s campus network services.
On March 23, 2012, Dean Beckford announced an iPad Initiative for Furman University faculty. Funded by Information Technology Services (ITS), this initiative is the result of a collaboration of the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), ITS, and the Duke Library.
The goals of the initiative are to:
Faculty members who wish to receive an iPad through the initiative may submit a proposal by April 15, 2012. Proposals will be reviewed by a committee comprised of representatives from ITS, CTL, the Library, and the Academic Computing Committee. Approved requests will be announced by May 1, 2012. The initiative expects to fund up to 20 proposals.
Those who receive iPads through this initiative will be expected to:
Explorations and app reviews will run from August, 2012 through March, 2013, with final evaluations due next April. For more information about the Furman Faculty iPad Initiative, please contact Jane Love in the Center for Teaching and Learning.
The IT Service Center, located on the lower level of the Duke Library, now has extended hours!
The new hours are:
Please note that there may be abbreviated hours during the summer, holidays, exams and breaks. If you have questions, please contact the IT Service Center.
Phone: (864) 294-3277
Email: help.desk at furman.edu
Web E-Request: http://help.furman.edu
On March 14th, new email for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors will be delivered to accounts on Office 365, instead of FirstClass. The Tech Talk forum will also be moving from FirstClass to OrgSync on March 14. All students, faculty, and staff can view and contribute to the new Tech Talk on OrgSync now. However, Tech Talk on FirstClass will not accept new posts after March 14th.
Thanks for your patience as we work to improve technology services at Furman.
Many of you have heard that Furman University is replacing our FirstClass system with Microsoft’s new Office 365 for email and calendars. We are pleased to announce that we have begun moving the first members of our campus community to Microsoft’s Office 365, and we are on-track for moving most students to Office 365 after spring break.
ITS staff are also working to help the university transition away from FirstClass conferences. This work includes OrgSync for student organization, Moodle improvements, and shared mailboxes within Office 365. Our intent is to eventually have all of these resources assessable from the MyFurman portal. Today we have single sign-on to both to OrgSync and Moodle from within MyFurman. We plan many more enhancements to MyFurman as part of our Office 365 project.
Moving to Office 365 is a large, complicated project, and it is the major focus for ITS service improvements in 2012. Microsoft Office 365 and MyFurman will help provide Furman with a virtual environment that reflects and advances the high quality of our academic program and physical campus. Our thanks to all who are helping with the transition. Thanks also for your patience and support as we work to improve Furman’s information technology services.
Furman University has an easy way for you to reset your password: it is the Password Station password reset system. This system lets you reset your network password, and works with your web browser. Your NetID and password are used for most campus electronic services including Moodle, Engage, and MyFurman (i.e., ARMS and WebAdvisor.)
To use the Password Station you must first enroll in the system. When you enroll you will be asked to select three challenge questions (and answers.) If you forget your password, you will be able to reset your password by correctly answering your challenge questions.
In addition to letting you reset your password over the web, the Password Station will also send you email notices when your password is about to expire.
If you have questions about the Password Station, please contact the IT Service Center for assistance.
phone: (864) 294-3277
email: help.desk at furman.edu
web e-request: http://help.furman.edu
Over the past year, Information Technology Services staff have worked to replace and expand the campus wireless network. The University now has a new wireless network using the latest wireless technology. Furman has over 800 wireless access points providing wireless service to:
• all academic buildings;
• all administrative offices; and
• all residence halls.
If you have questions, please contact the IT Service Center:
• phone: (864) 294-3277
• email: help.desk at furman.edu
• web e-request: http://help.furman.edu