Student Resources

Resources for Current IT students

IT professionals focus on meeting the needs of technology users within an organizational and societal context through the selection, creation, application, integration and administration of computing technologies. They must, therefore, have a good understanding of the various information technologies and the type of activity in which the organization is involved. The BSIT prepares students for careers as IT professionals.

The Georgia Southern BSIT program may be completed at the Statesboro Campus or at the Armstrong Campus in Savannah. Students complete a set of core IT courses, a required internship experience, and an IT specialization area with options in Information Management, Networking and Datacenter Management, Web and Mobile Foundations, or Cyber Security.

Students may choose the BSIT with a Data Science concentration available at the Statesboro Campus. In addition to common IT core courses, the data science degree also requires courses that focus on the skills needed to manage big data. See what’s different about the Data Science concentration and read more about big data and the emerging data science scene at Georgia Southern.

Networking Labs

There are two labs that mirror images of each other, separated by a folding wall. Each lab has 36 seats or 72 when joined. It is rare that we join the rooms for instruction. Joining the rooms is utilized for special events when the standard classroom model is not needed.

The student seating is arranged for easy access for the faculty member to move behind the students to offer support. The desks are lab tables that stand taller than an average computer table and require taller chairs. The tables are significant enough to allow students to build, dismantle, and diagnose other equipment, adding to the adaptability of the lab. The height of the tables allow students to work at the tables without having to be seated. Seats are simple rolling stools with backs.

The room is carpeted with simple 2×2 carpet squares. This allows portions of the carpet to be replaced when stained or worn but more importantly, allows students to be able to remove sections of the carpet to expose the raised flooring below. The raised flooring is only 4 inches high but allows for the room to change over time and allows the network floor boxes to be easily maintained. It also allows students to work with structured cabling and not just patch cables.

There are two networks in each classroom: one private to the classroom and one that connects to the campus network. Each of the classrooms is on an individual vlan so that if and when students make mistakes, problems are confined to the classroom. The private network allows students to build and test many different scenarios without worry of damage to exterior systems. Both networks terminate in floor boxes and are then connected into the desks where students can quickly change from one network to the other.

The other termination point for the campus network is a network closet that is not accessible to the students and is a patch panel in the front of the room for the private network. The patch panels for the private network are mounted into a half height rack that also contains varied networking equipment. This equipment is then accessible to the students at their seats.

One of the classrooms is equipped with computers with two network interfaces. This lab is used to teach some of the upper level networking courses, specifically some of the virtualization courses. The other lab’s computers have only one interface and this lab is used to teach some of the lower level courses where more hands-on configuration is necessary.

The teacher’s station for each classroom is equipped with a computer with dual monitors, one of which can be mirrored to the overhead projector. Also in the station is a document scanner, BlueRay player, and connections for a laptop. Some classroom management software is on each of the instructor machines but otherwise, the instructor computers are the same as the student computers.

To augment the networking equipment located at the front of the classrooms, 10 carts on wheels, each with routers, switches, a server, firewall, and a console, are available to be used in either classroom or elsewhere in the building. We have found that making sure that students have full view of the network (the raised flooring hides one run) from end to end aids in their understanding.

Virtual Networking & development: Real-world simulations in virtual machines.

Learn new skills while simulating real network configurations, practicing incremental changes, developing a website, and deploying your own server and active directory. Use Virtual Machines to facilitate easy backup and restore, allowing you to work without fear of irreversible consequences. In this project we’ll install and configure three operating systems: Windows 10, Windows Server, and Ubuntu. Next, we’ll configure the operating systems and our network to work together, simulating real setups. For more information, please click here which is developed and maintained by our student Michael Woodcock.

Information Technology Professionals (ITP)

The Georgia Southern Chapter of the Information Technology Professionals (ITP) provides a community network for IT students and professionals to reach their true potential by providing education programs for advancing technology and business skills, leadership development opportunities, networking, peer mentoring and knowledge sharing, and online resources.

To learn more, contact:
Dr. Christopher Kadlec, Primary Faculty Advisor.

Social Activities

The Department of Information Technology sponsors and hosts numerous social events throughout the year.

TekLAN

What is TekLAN? Twice each semester we sponsor TekLAN, a marathon gaming event open to all students. We contract with STEAM to provide free gaming for our LAN party. Games include League of Legends, Minecraft, many popular games from STEAM, and console games. Check out the video below, courtesy of The George-Anne, Georgia Southern’s student newspaper.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Tce5eYa7asU%3Frel%3D0%26enablejsapi%3D1%26origin%3Dhttps%3A%252F%252Fwww.georgiasouthern.edu

Eagle TechXpo Computer Shootout

The TechXpo Computer Shootout is a showcase for students, faculty and staff to who enjoy building custom computers and pushing their creations to the limit. Anyone who wants to show off the beast of a machine they’ve built at home is welcome to participate. Prizes are awarded to winners in four different categories: CPU Faceoff, GPU Showdown, Best Overall Performance, and Best in Show as voted on by the crowd. The Computer Shootout is one of the many attractions during the annual TechXpo each fall. The Computer Shootout is sponsored by Information Technology Services and hosted by the Department of Information Technology.

Social Networking Sites

See more about the activities around the Department of Information Technology at our social Networking sites!

Georgia Southern University – IT Alumni, Faculty & Friends on LinkedIn. The purpose of this group is to provide alumni, current IT students, faculty and friends of the Department of Information Technology a way to network and support the growth and evolution of an outstanding IT program! We encourage our IT alumni to stay in touch and let us know about their careers as well as employment opportunities for our current students in the form of internships or jobs upon graduation.
Georgia Southern University I.T. Alumni, Students and Friends on Facebook. Like us on Facebook!

Career Services @ Georgia Southern

Visit the Career Services website for information about jobs and Career Fairs. Be sure to take advantage of the Student Resources and guides to interviews, writing cover letters and resumes and more.

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