So I made my first mage character the other day and I just got to the point in the college where you go underneat it to talk to that one spirit guy and I found two summoning type things, one that looked like a summoning circle and another that had a gaunlet in the middle with the oblivion sign on the palm and five rings missing by the sound of it, but neither of them worked. There was a note by both of them so I can guess what I have to do to get them to work, but I have no idea where to go. Can anybody tell me what they are and how to get them to work or if its even worth it to get them to work?

The gauntlet you need to find 5 rings to put on it, I haven't done it myself so I don't know where the rings are exactly, it just summons a daedra.

The other is the atronoch forge, at the base of the summoning ring is a box, put certain combinations of items in the box and hit the button in front of it will have different effects ranging from summoning a hostile atronoch to making a randomly enchanted item.

What Joose said

You can find the full info on the things http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:The_Midden.

In the room with the Daedric Gauntlet, there should be a table with a report on it. That starts the quest for the gauntlet.
The forge cannot be used until you have a sigil stone, which you can get by doing the conjurer's ritual quest at level 100 conjuration.

You can actually make the lesser items without the sigil stone, but the good stuff do require it

This is incorrect. The Atronach forge can be used without a sigil stone. Only certain recipes require the sigil stone. I don't recall where, but I found a note with a recipe on it somewhere. I took the three common and easy to find ingredients and used the Forge, it gave me a Spell Book for a Storm Atronach if I recall correctly.