Information
Technology
Distributed comput-
ing considerations:
Harnessing the power
of thousands of
computers for large
projects ............... 1
In general individual
employees are not
empowered to commit
University resources to
others outside the
University unless some-
one in a position of
authority has approved
the commitment.
Thinking with our
ears: enhancing
learning with
digital audio ......... 3
DMC spotlight: Does the
potential of audio and
audio technologies in
education exceed the
delivery of recorded
lectures?
More about sharing
bandwidth ............ 6
Recognizing that the
annual increase in
internet needs outpaces
the University’s ability to
fund limitless growth,
OIT began to investigate
prudent, generally
accepted methods to
manage consumption
of internet bandwidth.
Acceptable use .... 7
Excerpts from Accept-
able Use of Information
Technology Resources.
What’s Inside OIT January 2006 News le t t e r
UMN
Distributed Computing
Considerations
Harnessing the power of
thousands of computers
for large projects
Sound good?
R ecently a question came up aboutwhether there are any University-wide policies, guidelines, or consid-
erations in regards to running distributed
computing projects on University PCs. For those
unfamiliar with the term, distributed computing
projects seek solutions to large problems by harnessing
the computing power of thousands of desktop computers on the
Internet. To do this they typically ask computer users to install software,
such as a screen-saver, that allows use of their computer to participate in the project.
SETI anyone?
One of the best-known examples is the SETI@home project to search for extraterres-
trial intelligence. (I would have suggested they start with terrestrial intelligence first,
but they didn’t ask me….).
Ownership
Individuals may think of their machines as “theirs” to do with as they want, and on a
day-to-day basis this may be mostly true. But really these resources, the computer and
2 OIT Newsletter
the network and the electricity, are to only be used for
mission-related purposes — except, of course, for a
little incidental use, such as occasional phone calls
from home, a small amount of e-mail, etc. which are
considered allowable.
In general individual employees are not empowered to
commit University resources to others outside the
University unless someone in a position of authority
(delegated from the Board of Regents to the President,
to the Chancellor, to the Dean, etc.) has approved the
commitment.
To help think about this distributed computing
question, think of an example without the computing
angle. Perhaps an employee who thinks it is a good
idea to give away University food or electricity to
homeless people and proceeds to do so. Many of us
would agree with the goal but would realize that the
employee shouldn’t do this without approval or should
do it a different way, such as personal contributions.
Examples such as this guide us to the answer for
distributed computing too: use our existing approval
processes.
Seek approval
Approval should be sought for computer and network
use for projects such as the distributed computing
projects. This approval should be by the usual suspects
in your unit (Dean, Director, Department Head) and
preferably in writing to prevent future misunderstand-
ings. It is the approver’s responsibility to review
requests in the big picture of the unit and university
mission, the requirements of various laws and policies,
and to provide a broader perspective.
One reason we should use our normal approval process
is that, inevitably, projects will come up in the future
that are not as commonly accepted as recent examples
and may even be extremely contentious. If each
employee were empowered to decide, what would we
do? Someone needs to watch out for institutional and
other longer-term considerations. The best answer is
to use our usual method for making wise decisions for
allocation of resources and other such decisions for the
University.
Security of University data
Although appropriate approval for the use of Univer-
sity resources is one important consideration with
distributed computing, the security of University data
is another. Increasingly, one needs to question the
source and motives behind software downloaded from
the Internet. What looks to be a download page for
your favorite distributed computing project could, in
fact, be a decoy page to download malicious software
that steals your data or takes over your computer. As
we’ve learned from the financial “phishing” scams,
these “trojaned” web pages are enough of a problem
that one must be very careful.
University resources
Another issue related to distributed computing that
many may not think of is the use of University re-
sources such as the data network, electricity, and air-
conditioning. The person clicking “Yes, install the
software now” rarely thinks about how its use may
affect others on the University network, but this is a
consideration. One client may not be noticeable but
taken together several such clients may affect some
other user’s network experience. Electricity and air-
conditioning costs can also be impacted. A computer
in use for computation will eat electricity all night and
all weekend and use yet more power to cool off the
room in the summer. The University budget has to pay
for that extra electricity and air conditioning.
Storing private data?
A final consideration is potential security problems
because of software bugs. For example, being software
(and subject to the usual number of software “bugs”)
the SETI@home screensaver had a vulnerability that
was found in April 2003. According to the April 7,
2003 US-CERT announcement:  “A buffer overflow
vulnerability in the SETI@home client could allow a
remote attacker to execute arbitrary code or cause the
SETI@home client to fail. An exploit for this vulner-
ability is known to exist and may be circulating.”
SETI@home was patched a few days later; but for
reasons such as this, distributed computing projects are
a bad idea on University computers that store or access
private data.
■ Ken Hanna, OIT Security and Assurance
One reason we should use our normal
approval process is that, inevitably,
projects will come up in the future that
are not as commonly accepted as recent
examples and may even be extremely
contentious.
January 2006 3
O ur culture is dominated by the visual.Visual images and spectacles saturatepopular culture, and our thoughts oneducation are unconsciously shapedby visual metaphors such as “illumi-
nation” and “enlightenment.” Visual images are of
primary importance in technologies such as
PowerPoint and the World Wide Web. Indeed, as
educational activities have increasingly been mediated
by the web, our sense of hearing has generally ranked
second in importance — often as an intrusion to be
blocked out so the learner can better focus on the
course material before her or him. But does hearing
deserve its secondary place in online pedagogy? Does
the potential of audio and audio technologies in
education exceed the delivery of recorded lectures?
These questions are the touchstone for our February
panel discussion.
February TEL seminar
Please join us:
Wednesday, February 1, 2006
402 Walter Library, East Bank,
Minneapolis, Twin Cities campus
12:00 P.M. to 1:30 P.M.
The seminar also will be available live online
via Macromedia® Breeze™; sign up at
http://dmc.umn.edu/series/tel-seminar-
breeze.shtml.
Cristina Lopez, a senior educational technology
consultant at the DMC, will moderate a discussion
among the following panelists:
Jenise Rowekamp, Language Center, College
of Liberal Arts, Twin Cities campus;
Thom Swiss, Institute for New Media Studies,
School of Journalism and Mass Communica-
tion, Twin Cities campus;
Michael Hancher, Department of English
Language and Literature, College of Liberal
Arts, Twin Cities campus; and
Richard Reardon, Digital Media Center, Office
of Information Technology, Twin Cities
campus.
The panelists currently are working on projects to
enhance students’ learning through the use of digital
audio and will discuss uses of digital audio such as:
providing foreign language students with
access to examples of diverse and authentic
speaking styles and accents;
enabling learners and researchers to access
primary source recordings that enliven con-
tent;
developing audio libraries that can help stu-
dents access and review their own and others’
audio performances;
enabling students with visual and reading
disabilities to access learning materials in
alternative formats;
expanding use of audio in student assignments,
such as through the development of digital
storytelling projects, class presentations, and
multimedia reports enhanced with audio
annotations; and
DMC Spotlight Issue
“Thinking with Our Ears”
Enhancing Learning with Digital Audio
Each month, Digital Media Center (DMC) consultants publish a “Spotlight Issues” ar ticle on our web site
about a current technology-enhanced learning (TEL) issue highlighted at sessions of the TEL Seminar
Series, in our classes, or at our program or project meetings. This month’s ar ticle is excerpted below.
4 OIT Newsletter
enabling students to practice their foreign
language skills in Web-based synchronous or
asynchronous settings.
Bibliography
The following readings may help you prepare
for the TEL seminar.
Bull, Michael, and Les Back. The Auditory
Cultures Reader. New York: Berg, 2003.
Bull and Back present an edited collection
intended to challenge the privileged status of
vision in the hierarchy of the senses, to bolster
the notion that “thinking with our ears offers
an opportunity to augment our critical imagi-
nations, to comprehend our world and our
encounters with it according to multiple
registers of feeling” (p. 2). To this end, the
editors have collected works that cut across an
array of disciplines, from the physical, cogni-
tive, and imaginary domains, to the study of
ambient sounds (“soundscapes”) and the ways
in which they may reflect aspects of culture
and society, to the acoustic cultures of profes-
sionals as diverse as doctors and jazz musicians.
A useful reference for expanding one’s think-
ing on the role of the senses in learning across
the curriculum.
Gardner, Campbell. “There’s Something in the
Air: Podcasting in Education.” EDUCAUSE
Review 40, no. 6 (November/December 2005):
32–47. http://www.educause.edu/er/erm05
/erm0561.asp.
Campbell describes a number of evocative
scenarios in which podcasting could serve to
motivate, engage, and inspire college students,
including a biologist broadcasting a weekly
“scholar’s diary” summarizing journal articles
she read that week; students discussing the
book of the week while practicing their lan-
guage skills in an Arabic-language reading
seminar; and Campbell’s own experiment in
reading and commenting on the poems of
John Donne.
Having established the potential of podcasting
to enhance learning, Campbell provides a
concise overview of the process of recording,
encoding, and syndicating files and points to a
range of useful technical and teaching re-
sources.
Hogan, Bryan J., and Peter Dooley. “Design and
Deployment of a Computerized Audio Library
with Internet Streaming for Students with Print
Disabilities.” Journal of Special Education Tech-
nology 18, no. 4 (Fall 2003): 73–5.
Some students find reading difficult or impos-
sible due to conditions such as blindness, visual
impairment, cerebral palsy, or dyslexia; the use
of audio recordings have proved to be one
effective way to assist those with what the
authors term “print disabilities” (p. 73).
Digital delivery of recordings, with concomi-
tant improvements in availability, portability,
and capacity to support nonlinear navigation,
offers further advantages. Hogan and Dooley
discuss a system for digitizing, storing, orga-
nizing, and delivering such recordings.
Holmes, Glen, and Emet LaBoone. “The Impor-
tance of Culture When Creating Audio-Enhanced,
Web-Based Instruction.” TechTrends 46, no. 2
(March/April 2002): 56–61.
Long before the advent of the web, radio
played a role in distance education. As early as
1911, radio was used as an instructional
medium at the University of Wisconsin
(p. 56). Holmes and LaBoone’s application of
web radio (“webio”), in their case the use of
audio to create realistic decision scenarios to
support classroom learning, succeeded
Patrick O’Leary © 2005 Regents of the
University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
January 2006 5
through “the combination of familiar lan-
guage, sounds, and music [to] help the learner
identify with his or her surroundings” (p. 56).
Of particular interest in this study is the
authors’ discussion of ways that formative
evaluation can be conducted to improve the
quality of learners’ experiences (p. 58).
Nwaerondu, N. G., and Gordon Thompson.
“The Use of Educational Radio in Developing
Countries: Lessons from the Past.” Journal of
Distance Education 2, no. 2 (1987).
http://cade.athabascau.ca/vol2.2
/7_Nwaerondu_and_Thompson.html.
In their overview of research on educational
radio that was conducted through the 1960s,
70s, and 80s, Nwaerondu and Thompson
provide many instructive examples of radio as
an educational medium that can promote
active learning. Designing programming that
addresses the interests and needs of the target
audience is an important step, but research has
revealed that radio programs do not have
significant educational impact unless program-
mers also provide opportunities for discussion
and guidance through the learning process.
Extension workers who designed and imple-
mented the “Radio Farm Forum Project” in
Thailand during the mid-70s reinforced the
relevance of programming for their audience
by creating opportunities for discussion and
problem solving, and promoting a two-way
flow of information between farmers and
extension workers. Village forums in a similar
project in Ghana provided listeners with the
opportunity to discuss issues before the radio
program and debrief after. Researchers found
that villagers who participated in forums
learned more than villagers who only listened
to the radio programs. In short, educational
radio worked best when programming was
connected with sound pedagogy and a sensitiv-
ity to the cultural norms and practices of the
target audience — a valuable lesson that is
equally applicable today for faculty members
contemplating the use of podcasting or other
digital audio presentation of course content.
Campus resources
The following campus services and sources may help
you further explore how digital audio can be used to
enhance learning:
✔ Meet with one of our consultants. See
http://dmc.umn.edu/consultations/.
✔ We provide fee-based video production
services to on- and off-campus customers.
These services include digitizing and compress-
ing audio and video for Web and CD-ROM
delivery. See http://dmc.umn.edu/video/.
✔ Many other instructors who have used our
services or participated in our programs have
worked on TEL projects designed to enhance
learning with digital audio. To learn more
about TEL Grant Program projects, see the
project proposals linked from the Award
Winners pages at http://dmc.umn.edu
/grants/. To learn more about other campus
TEL projects, see the Exemplary Projects
section of our site at http://dmc.umn.edu
/projects/.
✔ See our A Brief Guide to Podcasting
in Education at http://dmc.umn.edu
/etf/podcasting.pdf.
✔ Java and Web Services (JAWS) web
hosts streamed media files. See
http://www.jaws.umn.edu/.
✔ Podcasting is possible with the University
Libraries UThink blogging tool. See
 http://blog.lib.umn.edu/.
✔ The College of Liberal Arts Language
Center web site “Instructors” sub-page links
to a number of sites with information and
resources relevant to the use of digital audio in
second language instruction. See
http://languagecenter.cla.umn.edu/.
✔ Radio K offers professional studio audio
recording services for a fee. For details call 612-
625-3500 or visit http://radiok.cce.umn.edu/.
■ Cristina Lopez, Chris Scruton, and
Christina Goodland, Digital Media Center
6 OIT Newsletter
More About Sharing Bandwidth
▼ Bandwidth Management Implemented to Improve Internet Access
What problem are we trying to solve?
I nternet bandwidth utilization at theUniversity of Minnesota has seengrowth similar to other institutions ofour size. In recent years this hasmeant increases on an order of
magnitude over the course of a single year.
The University shares this bandwidth with the
State of Minnesota. The Internet and all the
resources that it brings to the University and
the State of Minnesota is vital for core mission
activities. For the University specifically,
research and education. Clearly a strategy to
manage this valuable and costly resource in
necessary.
Recognizing that the annual increase in
internet needs outpaces the University’s ability
to fund limitless growth, the Office of Infor-
mation Technology (OIT) began to investigate
prudent, generally accepted methods to
manage consumption of internet bandwidth.
(We are not alone in this problem. Many
universities are challenged to manage costs by
managing bandwidth. In fact, a whole business
market has grown to produce tools to help
manage bandwidth.
See
OIT’s University Network Management
Guidelines: http://www.umn.edu/oit
/policies/networkmanagementguide.html
Information Technology Policies:
http://www.umn.edu/oit/policies/
The culmination of OIT’s investigation
recommended a policy based approach using
industry accepted tools to manage bandwidth
consumption. The guiding principle that core
mission traffic, used primarily for research and
education purposes, would have priority over
traffic and applications that could be consid-
ered mainly recreational.
What is OIT’s approach to this problem?
OIT has implemented a policy of prioritizing
and limiting traffic based on demographics of
applications. An analogy may help here. Think
of the internet as a multi-lane highway in a
busy metropolitan area. The ramps (our
internet border) often have signal lights to
limit the total amount of traffic allowed onto
the freeway in a given time. Without these
limiting factors, freeways would soon become
crowded and unusable (traffic jams). Further,
there may be only so many special permits
allowed on the freeway for certain applications
of traffic or data (example- higher weight
vehicles or high bandwidth recreational traffic)
to avoid congestion during certain hours of
the day.
The University of Minnesota is utilizing a
bandwidth manager to prioritize and limit
traffic in much the same manner as the freeway
example. It manages the traffic to and from
the internet based on time of day. The end
result is that all types of traffic receive a fair
and adequate level of service both to and from
the internet; and mission critical traffic (educa-
tion and research) receive priority.
In order to accomplish this goal, OIT will
make management decisions to limit the total
impact of certain applications. In the freeway
analogy, these would be classified as special
permit vehicles. For lack of a better term, we
classify these applications as “High Bandwidth
Recreational Applications.” These applications
often are Peer to Peer (P2P) applications such
as KaZaA and are primarily used for recre-
ational use. Often these applications will utilize
all the bandwidth available to them causing
congestion on the University’s internet links.
Summary
By managing all types of traffic bound to and
from the internet, we will ensure that all users
January 2006 7
Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources:
Academic/Administrative Policy 2.8.1
receive a very good quality of performance,
while still protecting the University’s primary
functions: Research and Education. During the
preliminary testing using the above configura-
tions, it was noted that all University users
experienced a level of service that was greatly
superior to that of any non University residen-
tial connection at a fraction of the cost.
■ http://www.umn.edu/nts/network/issues.html
Excerpt
User’s Rights and Responsibilities
Members of the University community are granted
access to information technology resources in order to
facilitate their University-related academic, research, and
job activities. The Regents Policy on Academic Freedom
extends to information resources that are available
electronically. However, by using these resources, users
agree to abide by all relevant University of Minnesota
policies and procedures, as well as all current federal,
state, and local laws. These include but are not limited
to University policies and procedures related to harass-
ment, plagiarism, commercial use, security, and unethi-
cal conduct, and laws prohibiting theft, copyright and
licensing infringement, unlawful intrusions, and data
privacy laws.
Users are responsible for:
• reviewing, understanding, and complying with all
policies, procedures and laws related to access,
acceptable use, and security of University informa-
tion technology resources;
• asking systems administrators or data custodians
for clarification on access and acceptable use
issues not specifically addressed in University
policies, rules, standards, guidelines, and proce-
dures; and reporting possible policy violations to the
appropriate entities listed in this document (in the
Contacts and Procedures sections).
Excerpt
The University’s Rights and Responsibilities
As owner of the computers and networks that comprise
the University’s technical infrastructure, the University
owns all official administrative data that resides on its
systems and networks, and is responsible for taking
necessary measures to ensure the security of its
systems, data, and user’s accounts. The University
does not seek out personal misuse. However, when it
becomes aware of violations, either through routine
system administration activities or from a complaint, it
is the University’s responsibility to investigate as
needed or directed, and to take necessary actions to
protect its resources and/or to provide information
relevant to an investigation.
Individual units within the University may define addi-
tional conditions of use for resources or facilities under
their control. Such additional conditions must be
consistent with this overall policy but may provide
additional detail, guidelines, and/or restrictions.
See the entire policy online at
http://www.fpd.finop.umn.edu/groups/ppd/documents/policy/Acceptable_Use.cfm
Patrick O’Leary © 2005 Regents of the
University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
✫©2005 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved. The University of Minnesota is committed to the policy that all persons
should have equal access to its programs, facilities and employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital
status, disability, public assistance status, veteran status or sexual orientation. This publication is available in alternative formats upon request.
Information Technology Newsletter
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Last updated October 2005
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