The PC workstations in the Terrace and Kitimat labs were all purchased in late 2007 as the School prepared to move into the new I.K. Barber Learning Centre.  In recent years many of the workstations have experienced hardware and software problems related to age and the system capabilities of the computers.

Thanks to the Faculty of Arts Academic Equipment Fund and to alumni and friends who donated to our Learning Enhancement fund, we are happy to announce that in early December we are going to renew and refresh the two labs:

• All the existing PC workstations will either be sent to non-profit organizations or recycled if the workstations have significant hardware/software problems.

• In the Terrace Lab 18 spaces previously occupied by the older workstations will be left empty so that we can institute a BYOD [bring your own device] strategy.  This will allow students use their own laptops and tablets using whichever operating system platform they prefer.

• To meet the needs of those students who prefer not to provide their own devices, 12 new PC workstations will be purchased for the Terrace Lab. These will be networked to the printer in the Kitimat Lab and will have the current suite of lab software installed.

• The Instructor’s workstation in the Terrace Lab will also be replaced with a new system with the same hardware and software configurations as the new student workstations.

• Instructors will endeavour to use free open source software whenever possible in their courses so that students using different operating systems will all have access.

• In the Kitimat Lab the existing 10 older workstations will be replace by up to 10 new machines, depending on the availability of funding. These new workstations will be networked to the printer in the Kitimat Lab and will have the current suite of lab software installed.

• Due to the requirements of the shared hardware/software image, all of the new workstations in both labs will be identical.

We also hope to upgrade the Mac workstations in the Kitimat Lab in the near future, but we will not be able to do this in December due to funding limitations.

We hope you will all be as excited about these plans as the faculty and staff are.

If you have any questions or concerns about the lab renewal, please contact the Technology Coordinator, Susie Stephenson, at susie.slais@ubc.ca