Out of the blue today I decided that I was tired of dealing with conference sign in sheets and trying to beg, bribe, and torture my fellows to sign in at all for their early lectures. I'm now shopping for a barcode scanner. Our badges have barcodes. If I had a badge scanner, I could set it up in the conference room and all they'd have to do is scan their badge when they walk in the door.
I got the idea from my mother-in-law who mentioned a while back that a department she used to work for had tried it with marginal success. I think she said they were still having to manually manipulate the data after the fact. I'm hoping to work out the programming details to get the ID numbers integrated into my attendance database so that it inputs itself. No more running across campus three times a week to drop off the sign in forms, no more going back an hour later to pick them up before they disappear, no more manually entering attendance into my database. I'll still have to create multiple forms to send in for CE credits, but it'll solve several record keeping challenges for accreditation purposes. It will eliminate a little paper in my office. It'll even be quite a bit more accurate, as it is a lot easier to initial somebody in on the paper sheets if they aren't really there than to scan in their badge.
My next technology project? Video cameras. Either to record conferences or, better yet, allow fellows on external rotations to video-link in live. That'll require a bit more effort (i.e. money), so for now, I need a barcode scanner.
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4 comments:
Sweet! Susan's going hi-tech!
Hope it will make things easier on you.
It's efficient. It's easier. You work for a state agency. It'll never happen.
Difficult technology to make your life easier. Hmm ...
The technology isn't that difficult, the more I've learned about it the less difficult it seems. Besides, it's a whole lot easier when you know geeks. I have several at my disposal.
But I fear Doghouse may be right. It'll be rejected on the very basis that it's too efficient! Luckily Boss #3, who's over this part of my job, is one of my geeks, so he's all for it.
The big fear now is that I'll find it fun and start putting bar codes on everything. I'll have binders lined up in my office with no identifying information on the outside, just one barcode on the spine. Greg said I'd end up barcoding my staples. I wonder if I could...
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