Leo Cardenas

Professor Zamir

Final Project
INF 120 Foundations of Information Technology

1.

What are the common IT services that universities offer for the users including students,
faculty, and staffs? As the IT manager of a university tech center describe various tasks
you will include in different service areas.

IT services at universities are a necessity in this era and the ones to come. As schools start to
become full of technology, there has to be a department that can help if things go south for
people. With this in mind, IT services help and provide services for students, faculty, and staff
with a variety of problems, such as login help, technology help in the classroom or personal
devices, and much more. If I was the IT manager of a university’s tech center, I would make
sure my people who work for me would be prepared for many possibilities. I would make sure
they knew about the computers we have on campus, even if there is HP desktops or Macs, I
would want them to know all about them inside and out in order to fix or troubleshoot them.
Also, another thing I would make sure we had knowledge on was on our school’s website along
with knowing how to fix passwords and students accounts. Privacy and security are something I
take very seriously so I would make sure my workers could help keep the school from getting
hacked. Internet at a school is greatly needed and having a fast internet speed for everyone is a
blessing so I would make sure we did everything in our power to keep the internet speed fast
and secure. Apart from everything else, I would make sure the students know that we are here
to help them with all their needs so I would try to do events, posters, and anything else to make
the IT room known and loved.
 2. Tech-enhanced classrooms

 These days classrooms are filled up with various technological tools for better course
delivery and learning experiences. Mention some of the common IT tools that are
becoming essential in the classrooms these days.
 In this regard, which types of technological challenges do the tech supports offices
typically have to solve?

Classrooms are becoming very technologically advanced. Gone are the days where we had the
old overhead projectors and individual whiteboards, today we are in the era of smart boards
and iPads. New smart boards in classes are becoming extremely useful, having the availability
to connect to the internet and project the screen is amazing when it comes to teaching a group
of students. Teachers have the option now of showing videos and putting up worksheets that
he/she can write on virtually. Pencil and paper are now becoming aged, now more school are
giving or have a stack of iPads that these kids are using to read books, do papers, and do
homework on. This usage of iPads has made grading very easy for teachers especially now that
most assignments now give an instant grade after the student submits. Going more
technological also helps the planet in the long run because of the less usage of paper. The use
of phones has started to come up recently. If the teachers usually trust their students, they can
use different websites and apps to have an engaging learning experience. One very popular
website is Kahoot, which is a website that lets students connect to a questionnaire that shows a
question then with your smart-device you punch in your answer. Usually, this is a very smart
activity and it helps encourage your students to actually learn the material to become number
one and win the Kahoot. The use of smart devices is growing rapidly, and I feel like this is a
positive aspect in the classroom to help learning. With the introduction of all these
technological advancements, we have seen many positives that help classrooms evolve and
teach their students in a more unique way. Yet, everything isn’t peaches and crème, there are
many problems that come with all this technology, and with this in mind, schools now have a
whole tech support to help with these problems. These IT support people are there to help with
all the new technology available, and other problems people might have with their iPads or
computers. One frequent problem they come across revolves around people getting viruses or
malware on their devices. Some people, (doesn’t matter about age), don’t know better when
clicking links or downloading things on the internet. When they get this virus on their
computers, they go straight to the IT support to help them solve and clean their computers.
Another big challenge for IT is connectivity. Throughout countless years of school that I’ve gone
through, connection to the screen or internet has been a problem sooner or later with these
smart boards or devices. Usually, the problems can be that some sort of cable got disconnected
and it’s a quick fix, but other times it can be the whole internet as a whole. Finally, another
problem these IT people get all the time revolves around basic computer/ technological
understanding. Sometimes people just don’t know how to use these new technologies that they
get, which is a problem. I feel like if schools first teach not only their students, but also their
teachers how to use these new devices, a lot of people could fix their own problems.
 3. Networking
 How campus internet services work?
 Why do we see different types of Wi-Fi network under the campus wireless account?
 What is VPN? How university users use VPN?

Having an internet connection is pretty much a necessity for every place now. People want and
need to stay connected to their online needs now more than ever. One place where internet
connection is a huge necessity is at schools and campuses! Campuses usually use either LA,
Local area network, or MAN, Metropolitan area network. LAN helps to connect multiple
computers by Ethernet cables, usually running on high-speed internet connection. The
connection has a speed of around 10-100 Mbps of data transmission speed. Mostly all
campuses have WIFI available for their students which is called WLAN, wireless local area
network. Most campuses use LAN because it’s the cheaper option compared to WAN, (wide
area network), or MAN. Most campuses have two available network connections, guest access
and a secured connection that students and faculty can use by login in with their username and
password. They use this to let other people that don’t attend the school access to the internet
but directly from the school’s router. VPN stands for Virtual private network, it’s remotely the
ability to set up your own private network across a public network. People usually set up their
own VPN in order to ensure their own security. There are many hackers and data stealers than
go on public internet accesses to steal people data. So, if you feel like your very own data is at
risk, even at your own campus, you can get a VPN app on your phone or download a VPN
application on your computer to secure your data.
 4. Information Security
 Define information security.
 Briefly explain some of the common information security related problems university
tech centers resolve generally?
 How passwords can be useful for securing personal and sensitive information online?
What are some of the good password practices?

Data breaches and Hackers are at an all-time high. People and businesses are getting breached
and hacked left and right due to their low security that they are implementing. Information
security is the status of being protected against people trying to take your information and use
it to their benefit. There are three universal security goals that include confidentiality by
protecting it, integrity by preserving it, and availability to promote the authorized data. With
these goals and an understanding of risky internet behavior we can all be safe and secure or
data. Some information security problems that tech centers at colleges and universities have
relate a lot towards internet access. These IT centers have to make sure that their network is
secure and lock tight to prevent unwanted access from hackers trying to take peoples data. This
can be a difficult thing to maintain due to how big campuses are. These hackers don’t even
have to be present or around the school to hack it. All it takes is a breach in the firewall that
they can use as a starting point to get in and have access to people’s files. Making up a good
strong password is a good key start on keeping your accounts safe. Its recommended now that
people use a variation of letters and numbers to make their passwords unique. There are online
websites that people can go to check how long a hacker would take to figure out their
passwords. Information security is a top priority as more and more hackers have become to
arise.

5. Social Media
 Define social media.
 How can social media be helpful for the IT offices at various universities? Explain those
with examples.
 Describe social media privacy challenges with examples.

With the countless number of smart devices that allow users to hop on the web, social
media is pretty much inevitable. There is a countless amount of social media platforms now,
from Facebook to Twitter, Snap Chat, Instagram, the list goes on and on. Social media allows
people to share information in a variety of ways, from sending messages, posting pictures,
videos, pretty much anything you can think of. Social media has been revolutionary and
extremely useful in almost everyone’s life today. Being that it is as big as it is, social media
has been very useful to many groups of people. IT offices at different universities have not
fallen short in using social media to their advantage. IT offices have started to use different
social media platform as a way to reach students and give them information. I know from
my experience when I’ve followed my IT departments from high school on Twitter, they
would tweet out reminders to reset passwords, share videos on risky internet behaviors,
and answer questions we would have related to IT services. Social media can be a risky
place when it comes to privacy. I believe that once you put something on social media, it’s
there forever. Hacking social media accounts is another favorite thing that hackers love to
do. From revealing online private conversations to leaking photos and videos, hackers want
to uncover it all. This is another reason why you got to be safe and cautious when putting
any of your information on social media. If you don’t want others to know, don’t post it!