--- Forwarded Message from "Carol Reitan" <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2004 14:17:05 -0700
>From: "Carol Reitan" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: #7580 Online dictionaries for French

Hi Betty,

Is there a way to convince your computer dept. that you need to
customize some of your machines so that you can use your existing
software?

The idea that all machines on campus must be the same (some might call
it a fascist idea) was tried here at City College of San Francisco.  At
that time, I was working in the Language Center and fielding calls on a
daily basis from exasperated Chinese teachers who could not even get
Microsoft Chinese fonts installed on their office computers (and I
couldn't do it for them since I did not have the appropriate
administrator password). They were told by ITS that "we don't do
Chinese". ITS would, however, let me configure the machines for the
Language Center the way we wanted- but I had to do it all myself (they
created a limited account for me on those machines only that would allow
me to configure them- we created our own ghost image that is completely
different from that used in most other departments).

Now that I'm in a campus-wide position and actually work for ITS
(information technology services), we came up with a compromise- I made
a handout for the tech guys on how to install the Microsoft language
support in XP and they agreed to install and support it for the Chinese
teachers, but they would not install or support the teachers' preferred
Chinese word-processor.

I personally like internet-based resources because they keep working
through many changes in operating systems, but if you've purchased the
software and can't find an internet-based alternative, there must be a
way for you to keep the software that works for your program and not
succumb to the whims of the computer department. Their interests are not
those of the academic departments!

The computer department needs to remember the goal of the institution
and not just think about what is convenient for them.

Just my two cents.

Carol Reitan (Reed College alum)



Carol H. Reitan
Technology Learning Center
City College of San Francisco
50 Phelan Avenue, LB2
San Francisco, CA 94112
-------------------------------------------------
415.239.3554
[log in to unmask]
http://www.ccsf.edu/tlc
>>> [log in to unmask] 07/13/04 10:05 AM >>>
--- Forwarded Message from Betty Woerner <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 11:32:21 -0700 (PDT)
>From: Betty Woerner <[log in to unmask]>
>To: LLTI-Editor <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Online dictionaries for French

We get the DIctionnaire Hachette online through our subscription to
Oxford
Reference Online.  Are any other French dictionaries avalable through an
online subscription?  In the past, we loaded CD-ROMs of dictionaries
onto
specific machines in our language lab, but now our computer department
tells me that all machines must have the identical configuration.

Thanks for the help.

Betty Woerner
Reed College
Portland OR