Technology & Media Services
The Technology and Media Services Department is charged with the day-to-day maintenance of technology at Columbia. Technology at Columbia College will be structured and supported to provide the highest quality technology-based services, in the most cost-effective manner, to facilitate the College mission as it applies to student success, faculty instruction, faculty and staff support, administrative functions, and community service.
The Technology department supplies and maintains the computer labs, classroom and student use computers on campus. Every faculty, staff and administrator is supplied with a computer; email account, phone and any additional technology that is required for them to effectively do their job. Equipment not supplied by the technology department include: a second Desktop computer or laptop, Printers, Scanners and Fax Machines these items must be purchased by the departments.
- PC or MAC?
Currently the District workstation computing standard is a computer with an Intel processor running Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating System. The Technology department does not offer or supply Macintosh computers. The technology department has limited ability to diagnose or support apple operating system issues and cannot provide hardware support for apple products.
- Computer replacement process:
The Technology department uses a 3-tiered plan for replacement for campus computers and server hardware. Information describing all of the desktop computers, laptops and server hardware that were purchased by Columbia College is maintained in a database. Labs and users requiring a high performance work station and servers hosting software are categorized as tier 1 computers; a tier 1 computer shall be replaced every 2 years. Tier 2 computers shall be replaced every 3 years, and tier 3 computers every 4 years. Computers that have reached the end of their usability in their current tier can be rotated to the next lower tier. Computers that are rotated out of tier 3 are sent to District for asset disposal.
The Computer replacement process is unfortunately driven by funding, when funds are available for upgrading computer hardware the database is queried to determine the computers in need of replacement and prioritized by date of purchase and tier level. Realistically funds are not always readily available in a timely fashion to replace all computers; therefore some computers may receive upgrades to prolong their usable life until funding is available to replace the computer.
- Upgrades:
Technology department employees regularly meet with faculty, staff and administration to explain upgrade options and gather feedback for Lab and classroom updates. For example the Technology staff meets annually with the Dean of Vocational Education and the computer science instructors to discuss upgrade options and new software for computer science labs for the coming year.
- Deployment:
Deployment of new technology, upgrades and maintenance are completed efficiently and effectively to minimize the impact to the end user. Decisions regarding what and when to upgrade are made by the college Technology and Media Services department and the Technology Committee, and maintenance windows are reviewed and scheduled to have minimal impact to campus operations.
- Requesting quotes for equipment
The Technology and Media services recommend that any Departments interested in ordering technology equipment please contact us for a quote. We will in most cases be able to get better pricing for the equipment, and will ensure that the equipment purchased conforms to the current standards and will work within the current campus infrastructure. In most cases we will be able to provide a quote for equipment within a day or two. Purchase orders for technology items pass thru the approval queue of the Director of Technology and Media Services, when a purchase does not fit either the current technology standards or may not be appropriate for campus infrastructure the purchase order may be sent back to the department for revision or a lower cost alternative may be available.
