Well, I’m sure all of you have been dying to know what a Web Services TA does all day. I’ve been a TA (that’s Technical Assistant – not Teacher’s Assistant) since the beginning of my sophomore year. That gives me almost two years of experience working with Bethel’s website and learning about Silva and let me tell you, it has been a crazy ride.

When I first began as a TA most of Bethel’s web content was stored on Dreamweaver. My first job ever was to finish transferring content (all of it) to Silva. Because Silva is a very different content management system (CMS) than Dreamweaver not only did transferring content include copying and pasting text and reuploading pictures, it meant reformatting each individual page to look the way it did in the old CMS. That was quite the task.

Now that most everything is located within Silva, however, my job tends to look a little different. Often I’m assigned to put brand new content on the web. I create web pages for things such as Seminary events, Focus, Heart & Mind, and Tapestry issues, NYCAMS, and much more. During my down time I work on Checkbot. Checkbot is a program that monitors Bethel’s site looking for broken links. I go through and try to fix these links so they direct you to the correct place—which makes everyone happy.

One of my favorite tasks is Silva Training. I am privileged to work with Bethel faculty, staff, and their student workers to aid them in creating and updating their own Bethel websites. I generally teach Silva Basic Training with individuals who are taking the next step to maintain their web pages. This is my favorite because it gives me the chance to pass on my knowledge of Silva to others. After training I always encourage people to contact me if they have any questions because I know how frustrating it can be if you have a problem while working in Silva.

That just about covers everything I do as a Web Services Technical Assistant. Sometimes there is downtime and I have to search for jobs to do, but there is never a dull moment because I have a wonderful team up here in Townhouse H3.