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Tusculum TechnologyCollege embarks on ambitioustechnology improvement programIn July 2011, Tusculum Collegeembarked on an ambitious technologyprogram that will support the goals of theCollege for years to come. There are manyissues that will be addressed administrativelyand technologically.In order for Tusculum College to prepare itsgraduates for entry into a global society, informationtechnology must be explored and utilized. To thisend, it becomes vital that the College have a stronginfrastructure. At the completion of this plan TusculumCollege’s Information Systems (TCIS) will be operatingin a proactive manner, allowing for new technologies toreplace old oneswithout interruptionto functionalityor operability.Specifically, overthe next three years,changes will bemade in the way thatTCIS functions bothadministratively andoperationally.Step one in thisongoing processis that the entireinfrastructurebackbone is beingcompletely upgradedand standardized.Through virtualizationtechnology, TCISis consolidating20 physical servermachines into twophysical boxes withbuilt-in redundancy and failover capabilities. Enterpriselevel firewalls have been installed to provide a high levelof security for Tusculum’s network and its data integrity.Another part of this network redesign will be the abilityto offer Internet 2 access. More information concerningInternet 2 access can be found athttp://www.internet2.edu/. Increased bandwidth and a fiberbackbone will afford Tusculum College the ability to push6services and technology to its off-campus sites withoutbottlenecks and slowdowns.The ultimate goal is to standardize technology in everyclassroom utilized by faculty, thereby providing themaccess to current educational technology trends to ensurethe best experience possible for faculty and students.This technology will consist of utilizing large screenLED HDTVs mounted on classroom walls and wirelesssync devices to allow faculty to project what is on theircomputer on the television. The difference between thisand a stationary solution is that the faculty member willbe able to move around the classroom with their portablewireless device. This technology is cross platform allowingfor the usage of a Windows PC, MAC or even other mobiletechnology such asan iPad or tablet.This will also allowstudents to sync theirwireless devices tothe television forproject presentations;all of this withoutcumbersome cables.This technology isin the initial testingphase and should beinstalled in the firstclassroom this year.Campus widewireless access willalso be coming toTusculum Collegewith the initialimplementationplanned for summer2012 in studentresidence halls. Acomplete managed wireless access solution will affordfaculty, staff, students and campus visitors a fast, reliableexperience in accessing network resources and data.Video streaming of Tusculum events has been introduced,and faculty and Town Hall meetings have been streamedlive via the Internet so that off-campus faculty and staffcould participate virtually. Streaming of Tusculum athleticsis also in the works as testing began in November 2011.Large screen LED HDTVs linked to a stationery computer are used byTusculum faculty now, such as this classroom in which Dr. RonMcCallister, associate professor of computer science and director of theSchool of Arts and Sciences, teaches a computer class. The technologyplan calls for the implementation of technology that will allow facultyto move around the classroom with a portable wireless device while itsscreen is projected to the large screen television.