Local software and hardware technicians and vendors

If you would like help installing hardware or software on your personal computer, you might consider hiring one of the Help Desk’s referral partners, or you could take your computer to a local PC or Mac vendor. Our referral partners are students, individuals, or companies affiliated with Colorado College.

Help Desk Referral Partners
Local (Colorado Springs) Computer Vendors

The Colorado College Bookstore carries many software titles for both Macs and PCs, and what isn’t stocked can be special-ordered. Most software is available to students in academic versions at significant discounts. The only difference between most academic and commercial versions is the licensing.

The campus has a license agreement with Symantec AntiVirus. This site license allows us to distribute virus protection software to students at no charge. All students connected to the Colorado College Residential Network (ResNet) are required to have current, up-to-date virus protection installed on their computers. For more information about obtaining AntiVirus, please contact the Help Desk (719-389-6449) or visit our help page here.

Software piracy is a crime. Be sure that you’re properly licensed for any software that you run on your personal computer. You are not allowed to give others copies of your licensed software.

ResNet and TigerNet (Wireless)
Colorado College offers students access to our Residential Network (ResNet) from all of the on-campus residence halls at no additional fee. We will provide help sessions during New Student Orientation in each dorm (sign up at the front desk), the Help Desk (Barnes Science Center room 212, x6449), and the Keck Humanities Lab (Armstrong Hall room 303).

Colorado College has just greatly expanded it wireless capabilities with TigerNet. Please note that Colorado College owns the airspace on campus, and students are not allowed to broadcast their own wireless connections using the CC network. You cannot run your own wireless hub or access point on campus. We have specific requirements for wireless cards (in order to maintain security) – a LEAP-compatible wireless card for PC users and a Mac AirPort or AirPort Extreme card for Mac users. Please visit here for the most up-to-date information on wireless computing.

Some students prefer to use their own Internet Service Provider (ISP). A popular example is America Online (AOL). You can certainly continue to subscribe to such a service while enrolled at Colorado College. You are responsible for configuring your system appropriately for the ISP of your choice, and most ISPs will provide documentation and assist you.

Email accounts, campus mailing lists, and web pages
All CC students, staff, and employees have access to email. Accounts are hosted on a Microsoft Exchange server. These accounts can be accessed using any web browser (such as Internet Explorer) from any machine connected to the Internet by clicking the “Check E-Mail” link on the CC home page. You can also check email by configuring Microsoft Outlook or by setting up any POP client (e.g., Outlook Express, Mac Mail, etc.) on your personal computer.

You will receive your username and password in your Worner Box (to protect your privacy) during New Student Orientation. Be sure to log into your account as soon as possible when you arrive on campus. Instructions for changing your default password are provided on that information sheet. (The easiest way to change your password is to log onto a lab computer, press Ctrl+Alt+Delete, and then click the “Change Password” button). If you lose your account information, the Help Desk staff can reset your password (just drop by the office in 212 Barnes Science Center with your student ID card). You are granted 20 MB of email server space.

Your email address will be: Firstname.Lastname@ColoradoCollege.edu. Your username, by CC’s convention for student accounts, will be “first-initial_last-name.” For example, Sam Student’s email address would be sam.student@ColoradoCollege.edu and his password would be s_student. Usernames must be unique so occasionally middle initials are used.

We strongly encourage you to regularly use your CC email account, even if it is in addition to another one (e.g., Hotmail, Juno, or AOL). Many important campus messages are shared on the CC system, and Microsoft Outlook offers many other important organizing and messaging tools. We also offer free “spam” or junk mail protection/blocking through Postini. (Log in at https://login.Postini.com.)

Colorado College has approximately 200 mailing lists, or listservs. Students are automatically subscribed to STUDENT-L, which is a digest of important announcements meant for all Colorado College students (similar lists exist for faculty, staff, and administrators as well). Announcements come from Colorado College staff and official student groups and cover topics such as registration deadlines, campus activities, and workshops and seminars. Some courses use mailing lists to foster class discussion outside of class, and some student groups and campus organizations have formed their own listservs. Important and time-sensitive messages are posted to the entire campus using FLASH-L. Some announcements are made only on the Student Digest, and we encourage you to read it!

Each student is given 60 MB of storage space on the student server for personal files and web pages (this quota is separate from your email quota). The 60 MB allotment is split between your “W:” drive for web page development (25 MB) and your “H:” drive for file storage (35 MB). All CC students can create their own web sites. Most do so in the context of a certain course (with requirements for an online portfolio or an integrative project to be published), but you are welcome to create your own web page just for fun. We support Macromedia Dreamweaver, and Microsoft FrontPage as campus web authoring tools. Once you arrive on campus and activate your email account, you can visit the following URL to get started: http://www.ColoradoCollege.edu/Students/WebAuthoring/GettingStarted.html.

Public computing labs and printing
If you did not bring your own computer to campus, or if you find that you need access to specialized software for a course, you will want to learn more about our public computing facilities. We support small dorm labs in Slocum, Loomis, and Mathias, as well as two labs in the Worner Center and two in the Western Ridge. We also support and update many larger, teaching-oriented computer labs across campus, including Barnes PC Lab, Tutt Library Lab, Tutt Science Center (Math) Lab, Palmer 20 (Social Sciences) Lab, the CAT Lab (south wing Tutt Library) and the Keck Humanities Lab (3rd floor Armstrong). Student lab assistants staff the labs in the afternoons and evenings (hours vary for each lab, but two labs are open until midnight). Check http://www.ColoradoCollege.edu/its/labs/ for more information on hours, locations, etc.

Most of our public computer labs have black-and-white networked laser printers available. Printing is free, provided that you make only one copy of any given file for your academic work. Since the printers are networked, you may print to them from your personal computer in your dorm room, provided that your computer is connected to ResNet. Thanks to campus efforts to create a sustainable environment, we are planning to implement printing quotas in an attempt to reduce waste; please be responsible with your printing at Colorado College. A few labs have color printers or other specialized printers available. The departments that operate these printers may charge you for their use.

An important compatibility note about printing in public labs: If you create a document in an unsupported software package, such as Microsoft Works, and then bring it to a lab on a floppy disk, you may not be able to access that file, because the labs do not support Works. You will need to print documents like these from your personal computer, either to a networked printer or one you own.

Responsible shared use of campus bandwidth
Colorado College’s information technology resources are impressive but limited, and you must not use programs that interfere with the proper functioning of the network or that unnecessarily burden network capacity (especially distributed file-sharing programs). While Colorado College has a high-speed connection to the Internet, we have found that fewer than 10 irresponsible network users can consume the majority of our Internet connection capacity. We urge all of our community members to be responsible users of CC’s network resources.

Standard software packages supported at CC

For institutionally owned PCs, we support the following software packages: Windows XP or 2000 operating systems; Microsoft Office 2003 and 2000 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access); Corel WordPerfect 9 or 12 Suite (WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, Presentations); other specialized packages (e.g., for mathematics, statistics, or foreign languages). NOTE: Microsoft Works is not supported on campus.

For campus Macs, we support the following software packages: Mac OS 10.x operating systems; Microsoft Office 2004 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook); other specialized packages.

Help Desk support (x6449 or HelpDesk@ColoradoCollege.edu)
Call or email the Help Desk throughout the school year when you have computer-related problems (e.g., can’t print; suspect a virus; floppy drive won’t read a disk; basic software questions; password/account difficulties; network difficulties; etc.). A team of ITS computer technicians and trained student workers staffs the Help Desk. All calls placed with the Help Desk are logged, and they are tracked until the question is answered or the problem solved. You can drop by the Help Desk office in 212 Barnes Science Center between 7:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. for “in person” help, documentation, and advice. Sometimes problems can be solved over the phone, but when necessary, we deploy technicians to consult with you. Please note that we don’t install new hardware or software or replace faulty parts on personally owned machines.

Instructional technology in the classroom

More and more, faculty members at Colorado College are integrating technology into the curriculum. Some examples include: Exchange journaling, in which students and professors interact using email to share reactions to readings, conduct peer reviews of essays, and reflect on the learning process in a particular course; web-based portfolios, in which students present their final course paper or project online, including writing samples, résumés, field work, and annotated bibliographies; specialized software packages, in which students learn how to use statistical packages and data samples, programming and scripting languages, or simulation and modeling tools. ITS staff members work closely with faculty and librarians to evaluate the usefulness of future technologies, such as wireless networks, digital video editing workstations, and additional specialized software licenses. Many of the efforts described above are coordinated between faculty members and Academic Technology Specialists (one in each division – Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences). Some of this work is supported by the Crown Teaching and Learning Center (TLC), located in Tutt Library.

Employment opportunities in ITS
We are always looking for qualified, motivated students to work in Information Technology Services. We can especially use students to help monitor the public computer labs. We also employ students as assistant web masters, workshop teachers, and Help Desk technicians. Besides the convenience of working on campus, ITS provides excellent opportunities for training and development. If you are interested in employment opportunities (and especially if you are on the work-study program), please visit the ITS table at the Job Fair (usually in the Worner Center during the first week of Block One).

IN SUMMARY
Solid communication between teachers and students lies at the heart of effective teaching and learning. Computers and networks have become extraordinarily powerful enablers of communication. They allow the CC faculty and you more access to more information, in more forms, and in less time than ever before. They also allow both the faculty and you to be connected to other people and learning communities around the world. We believe that as a CC student, you must be given ample opportunity to explore these new “engines and highways” of knowledge creation.

Last revised on 07/26/05

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