Tue 10 Nov 2009
MTAG
Posted by Joseph Ugoretz under Happenings, Mac Basics
[9] Comments
What is MTAG? MTAG is the Macaulay Technology Advisory Group–a group of students interested in helping chart the paths Macaulay will take in using technology, for current students and future students. We had our first meeting this past Sunday, and we’re already looking at some great new ideas (see below!). But we need more members. Are you interested? The time commitment is small–just one in-person meeting each semester, with all the rest of our discussion taking place online. And the rewards are great. You get the chance to make your voice heard. You get the great feeling of knowing that you’re making things better for all Macaulay students. You get a great credential to put on your resumé. And you get to be the first in the Macaulay community to test new software and hardware as we start to think about making improvements. You can truly be on the cutting edge. So if you’re at all interested in joining MTAG, drop me an email! (Or just leave a comment on this post). Or jump right in and join our group on the Macaulay Social Network.
Now what happened at our first MTAG meeting? Well, here are some highlights of the Group’s first set of ideas/recommendations:
- FlipCams–maybe try for the Mino next year instead of the Ultra. It’s smaller and lighter. Or maybe a different model–students prefer to have something that will shoot still images in addition to video. Budget allowing, we will look into this. (Of course, everyone would love to have iPod Nanos instead. But I don’t think we can sell that one to the Comptroller’s Office!)
- Some people are noticing odd problems with the palm rests on the MacBooks–it seems that if you press down too hard with your palm or wrist, the MacBook interprets that as a mouse click. This seems to happen mainly with the new (freshman) MacBooks.
- About the Tech Fair–students feel that some sessions were too advanced for some students, and some were too simple (especially for our highly-advanced MTAG folks). We will try to “track” the future Tech Fairs and put students into groups that more accurately match their skill levels.
- How about those laptop sleeves? The MTAG folks like them, but would love to recommend better, more protective ones, more padding and a zipper, for the future–and in black, if possible, but with the Macaulay logo. Again, we’ll see what we can do with the budget.
- We need a tips and tricks page–especially keyboard shortcuts! For example, the MTAG folks were happy to know that you can cycle from one application to another (in exposé), using the keyboard shortcut command+tilde (⌘ + ~). Are there more tips? We can post them! We can (and will) do this as a nice laminated handout, to go with the computers.
- The highly-advanced MTAG folks, especially the engineering students, would like to have a highly-advanced workshop on installing Windows in Boot Camp. This is not something everyone wants to do or should do, but we should offer more advanced skills workshops for more technically advanced students.
That’s a good selection of ideas, right? But I’m sure you have more of your own. Or maybe you want to expand on these, or modify them? If so, go right ahead and leave a comment here–or better yet, join MTAG!
I like the idea of advance workshops for the tech fair. It’s great that we learn the basics for our projects. But, offering advance workshops, maybe on another day, would be great for those who are interested.
I would also like to comment on the flip Cams. Flip Cams may be useful for some. But, I don’t think it’s necessary. Most people have phones that have cameras. If not phones, many people have regular digital cameras. For those who don’t have cameras, like myself, Macaulay lends cameras and other equipment. I borrowed one to use for my projects. I think a better investment would be on a wireless mouse and/or extra USB ports. It is annoying to use the pad when working on long term projects. It would be better to have a mouse. Sometimes, when we’re doing multiple things that require USB ports, it’s troublesome to remove one device and attach another. We really need more ports.
More to come…
How about introducing some (select?) groups to the world of open source? On many campuses OSS has a strong following, partially as more mainstream tech starts to creep towards OSS, but more importantly because it can help show those with an intermediate level of knowledge that there’s a way to use your computer so that “I make what I want of it, and it works like I want it to, not how someone else says it should.”
(Having at least 1 Linux box on each campus would be nice… I’d bring one from home if I had a place to put it)
If that perhaps is too bold a step, another good (but unrelated) step to take would be to have someone perhaps send out a weekly email or make a weekly post about a specific intermediate-advanced topic, maybe in a few parts: one with just the superficial, what is it, why would I want to use it, how do I enable / use it. A second part could be for those curious as to the details, how it works, who uses it etc. Essentially one part to teach why its useful and how to implement / take advantage of it, and one on background and insights (perhaps in the spirit of Python MOTW if anyone’s familiar with it). Possible topics might be IMAP vs. POP, multiple keyboard layouts, etc. on the easy side perhaps, ranging to things like Terminal(and Terminal.app), Applescript and Automator etc. Essentially all this information is out there, and anyone should be able to find it and learn this on their own, but it seems no one does / has an interest in it. If there was a dedicated Macaulay email about it perhaps more people would take notice and the gap between beginners and intermediate / advanced users would narrow.
edit: I’ve rambled a lot, but hopefully I’ve been clear enough.
Some great ideas, Julian, thanks. I think the weekly (or maybe monthly?) email is something we could do as a group project–or alternating authors? from MTAG.
Also, on the subject of open source…this very blog, and our entire eportfolio system, is based on open source software–wordpress and buddypress (the same is true for our webservers–LAMP–and our events registration system–Drupal).
We are actually in the leadership of open source at CUNY, and proud of it.
I would like to take some of this discussion to our buddypress group. That way we can get more people involved. More information on that will be forthcoming after the holiday!
Flip Cams – I’d personally not sacrifice picture quality for portability, if possible
Palm rests on Macbooks – possibly due to the new integrated glass trackpads they’re using now?
Tech Fair – perhaps extend the sessions and include actual hands on experience?
Sleeves – probably a non-issue due to the introduction of aluminum Macbooks (unless unibody polycarbonate is what next year is getting?)
Tips and Tricks – http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343 has quite a few shortcuts. However, I feel that most of them are either obvious (copy, paste, etc) or very specific (command tilde in that case).
Boot Camp – http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/ personally it’s not hard at all but maybe the difficulty lies in obtaining windows – it can be quite costly, especially on a student budget.
Thanks, Calvin–good tips. But you should know that Windows software is not at all expensive if you purchase through the CUNY portal. You can get a steep academic discount.
And (no promises) if it’s something that a student absolutely needs for a documented academic reason, it’s worth trying for Opportunities Fund support for this kind of purpose. The application will be considered–not if it’s just for experimenting, but if you can document an academic need, that’s what the money is there for.
But since you have so much good feedback, how about joining MTAG? 🙂
Eh, why not. Consider me in then.
A more useful shortcut is command+tab. It allows yo to switch even outside of expose and is easier to use.
Good point, Amram. The committee liked that one, but they were also interested in switching from within expose–where you can actually see the windows, not just the icons for the programs.
⌘-` performs an entirely different function than ⌘-tab. Try opening up two windows for one application. ⌘-` cycles between the windows, ⌘-tab cycles between applications.