War constantly rages on with faculty, students and the Office of Information Technology (OIT) over issues like unreliable Internet and file storage issues.
To shed some light and offer solutions, Microsoft set up a large informational booth from March 27 to March 30 in Presidential Court.
The Technology Services Committee of the Student Government Association invited Microsoft to come to campus to educate students on the finer points of the Windows 7 operating system and the joys of mass storage through Skydrive.
Skydrive can be accessed through non-Microsoft products, too. Apple users can still use Outlook capabilities and programs.
Skydrive is online cloud storage available to all UT students that can hold up to 25 gigabytes of data. Students and faculty alike have complete access and may share files with fellow students, making it a great, free program available for group projects or other file sharing needs.
Skydrive can solve problems and help avoid students losing work in progress, and it saves previous versions of documents.
“I was really impressed by Microsoft’s Skydrive,” Josh Campbell, junior in mathematics, said. “The ability to share and save your documents online can be really handy as a college student since you won’t have to lug around numerous thumb-drives and worry about losing them.”
Jonathan Swerkema, an employee of Microsoft present at last week’s event, explained how Skydrive works.
“All of your Skydrive is accessed through Outlook and VolMail,” Swerkema, said. “You do not need to be on a library computer to get access to any files.”
Skydrive can help students get out of sticky situations, too.
“It is also a great backup in the case that something happens to your hard drive,” Campbell said. “If you use Skydrive and save most of your work there and something happens to your computer, you won’t be out of luck like you would have been if you saved everything on your computer.”
Greg Billings, junior in computer science and director of the Technology Services Committee with SGA, helped coordinate the educational event with Microsoft.
“The Microsoft event is just one of many ways the Student Government Association is trying to get students involved on campus,” Billings said. “Microsoft is showing students how to use many things, one of which includes the Skydrive that every student has through VolMail.”
The OIT is constantly working to incorporate some really interesting ideas in improving available technology on campus.
“The Technology Services Committee’s job is to get student input on technology on campus,” Billings said. “Through the Microsoft event as well as other events, we have done just that. Because of student input, OIT is dedicated to renovating the WiFi over the summer as well as producing mobile applications to make student life that much easier and tech savvy.”
OIT is available online to help users learn more about Skydrive and other Microsoft programs. To learn about more events sponsored by the Technology Services Committee, visit their UTKTechServices Facebook page.
