Juliana’s Lessons Learned

1. Sometimes errors aren’t as dire as they seem. I ran into an error of the “operating system not found” persuasion after I’d installed Windows and a network card, and it turned out this was caused by my inadvertantly knocking another connection (presumably to the hard drive) loose while installing the NIC. We also ran into an error while booting computer J that looked as if the computer wouldn’t boot (we were at the point of trying a previously rejected computer as a last-minute replacement), but upon closer inspection, it was possible to continue the boot process by pressing F1, and the computer functioned just fine.
2. Initially, Geraldine seemed a bit slow to respond to calls and e-mails, and we assumed she was probably very busy. However, we were somewhat concerned they still had reservations about the quality of the computers and software we were able to provide. When we were able to communicate, it was clear that they were continuing with the project and interested in working out the details to make it happen, and Geraldine seemed reassured by the photos of the computers we sent. Once she knew us better and was speaking with us as we were installing the lab, it turned out that one of the reasons she didn’t respond quickly at first (and presumably the main reason it took a long time to get printers and tables purchased) was that her husband had been in the hospital. So we were correct to assume she was busy, but it wasn’t just other church business keeping her preoccupied, and presumably reluctance about the project wasn’t a factor at this point. This is another reason taking time to establish close relationships with sites is important– trust is required for more personal information like this to be shared. And of course communication and trust were critical in assuring DFCC that we could provide a lab that met their needs.
3. Willingness to be flexible and “go with the flow” was particularly important for our group, given the surprise room change (to a room we’d never seen), not having the printers in advance of the lab installation, and a last-minute request for a couple of modems, among other things. I think the lesson I’d pass on to other groups is that as long as you’re able to think on your feet and adjust priorities as necessary, things will work out in the end.
4. At one point during the weekend, Beth asked me what I wish I’d brought with on the trip to set up the lab. We had just about everything we needed, but in an ideal world we’d also have had a checklist or cheat sheet of some sort for setting up printer sharing in Windows. It would include these steps (which I’m happy to describe in greater detail if I can confirm this in Windows 2000):

Tips for Printer sharing in Windows 2000:

• File and Printer sharing must be checked for computers directly connected to printers (under my network places->LAN properties), but not for other lab machines.
• On the computer sharing the printer, go to Printers in the Control panel, right click on the printer to be shared, click Properties, go to the Sharing tab, and set it to share the printer.
• To add printers, you must search for the computer to connect to first, rather than searching directly to add a printer.
• Printers must be added under each login (e.g. pnetadmin, siteadmin, standard)

Richard’s Lessons Learned

1. Team projects can work out well.  I had previously experienced in my academic career team projects that just never seemed to work out reasonably.  The usual experience I had faced was teams with members that were unwilling to contribute to the success of the project and just myself and maybe another member of the team would contribute.  This project was a total team effort and the contributions and effort of all made it work fairly smoothly.  All members of the team tried to contribute, offer suggestions, look at possible problems and offer possible solutions.  The effort paid off in the finial installation.
2. An uneasy beginning with DFCC through reassurance and a lot of communications seemed to lead to a functional and amicable relationship that had them filling their obligations and our team filling its obligations.  At first Geraldine seemed a little concerned that what we offered was not a quality product and would not stand up to their sense of high standards.  From a philosophical point of view the church has a strong perfectionist ethic.  From the first meeting in which Martin also set in we tried to establish that level of trust and supplemented it with a high level of communication with the DFCC partners.  We e-mailed pictures to Geraldine of the PC’s we had selected for DFCC, we e-mailed her concerning follow up to questions she asked at our first meeting, and we also conducted several phone conversations with her as well.  All along the path we keep her apprised of our progress.  It was during this time we were thrown a slight curve as DFCC decided to put the lab in new room, one we had not seen, however in our partner relationship we had DFCC relay via mail the new site information we needed to place a lab in the new room.  All along we were building a relationship of trust between ourselves and DFCC.  The communications effort produced a winning partnership.  Gaining the trust of your partner organization is a key to success.
3. Observe, Think, Plan, Test; and repeat as necessary, these sound cliché but it really works to trouble shoot issues when they arise.  In our case issues arose with sound cards, modems, Computer J, and installing printers all of which were overcome by applying the basics.
4. Being flexible.  In our case the partner changed rooms, dropped internet access, wanted modem based connections added, and wanted elements of the layout changed.  Also we had to remain flexible and in trouble shooting mode when printers failed to be recognized by the network.  Later we discovered that only one “log on name” had access to the printers.  The need to remain flexible, adjust plans, and make decisions on the sport are important, but remaining calm and organized while it happens is even more so.
5. Installing 2 printers to a 15 computer lab involves a lot of time and some level of troubleshooting to get the printers to be recognized by the network.  This issue of recognition involved installing the printers by pulling them up by name in the network settings and then installing each printer on each machine at each log on.  What a pain that was.
6. Community outreach projects are much more satisfying then plain classroom work, even with the heavy commitment to extra hours needed.

Overall these projects serve the needs of both the students in getting practical application of what they learned in lab and the needs of the community organization which gets the equipment, the installation, and assistance of motivated students along with their faculty advisors.  When the community organization and the student group form a partnership and both sides buy into the project it can be very successful and serve the community organization for many years to come.

Mitch’s Lessons Learned

1. Living in a dorm room by myself, sometimes I feel like I’m becoming too independent. I have had a few group assignments in other classes, but they were much less involved than this network installation project at Disciple Fellowship Christian Church. I did not know Richard or Juliana very well before beginning work on the project, though I had seen them in class and labs, and we had barely communicated. I guess I was a little nervous at first, knowing that the next two months would be a time of cooperation and coordination with two people I did not know: decisions would have to be consensual, whether it was when we were going to do something, what was of the highest priority at a given time, or how long a cable should be. I was also nervous about the fact that I had little technical knowledge beyond what we had learned in the lectures and labs; I was not sure if I was going to be able to contribute significantly to the progress of the project.
   I was relieved to find that working as a group wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. Making consensual decisions was really easy; we all had the same goal: to give an organization looking to aid a community a functional, networked computer lab. Despite my lack of IT skills (Richard and Juliana taught me quite a bit!), I realized that there were other ways in which I could contribute to the progress of the project, whether that be mapping out a room, making network cables, or testing our computers.
2. At first I was frustrated by DFCC’s lack of commitment towards setting up an Internet connection. How could they have a networked computer lab without the Internet? We encouraged them to have an Internet connection installed, but in the end they did not have one ready. But, why was I frustrated? This lab was theirs, after all; it was not being set up for me! I was content as we left after installing the lab; Geraldine was very satisfied with their  new computer lab, and her expectations had been fulfilled.
3. If one is patient, relaxes, and takes time to think when confronted with a problem, one can solve the problem. This process repeated itself throughout our time together (not that I was the one being patient, or doing the thinking…) One of the many examples: Why isn’t this computer communicating with that computer on the other side of the room? Hmm… Oh! It’s because we unplugged the cable linking the two switches when we put the cable in the conduit along the wall.
4. If the settings are one way for the Prairienet administrator account, that doesn’t mean they are the same way for the standard account.
5. If you need a ride, the East St. Louis community will provide.  I took a restroom break during lunch on the second day of our first trip. When I came out, the bus was gone, along with the rest of LIS 451.  Luckily, the woman who led the bus tour was in the parking lot, and she offered me a ride. We had a nice conversation on the way to the Landsdowne Center, which was on the way to where she was going.
6. When playing NERTS in pairs, there are people who are more suited to being card flippers, and there are people who should look for plays out in the middle.