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Special Series: Technology and the CEO >> [Part 3] Technology Conveniences
6/28/2005
In this third part of our series, a look at the basic needs for a campus community in the 21st century.
By Rosemary E. Jeffries, RSM
We all expect instant communication, ease and speed in computation, constant access to information, and lighter and smaller devices to travel with us everywhere. The conveniences of technology in the 21st century are expected like the hot and cold running water, electricity, heat, air conditioning, air travel, and 24-hour communication that made their way into our expectations through the 20th century. Each convenience of our modern society promised greater ease for living or greater ease for connecting people.
Today’s technology promises the same ease for living and, certainly, for access to information. It equally promises greater capability for connecting with people near and far, in consistent ways. Clearly, to attract, serve, and retain students and faculty in the technology-rich culture of this first decade of the 21st century will require staying current in a rapidly changing environment.
In fact, the expectations for technology and the actual development of technological capacity are accelerating at an even faster rate than our 20th century conveniences. For example, commercial broadcast television developed and marketed in the 1920s took a long time to catch on. Now in the 21st century, about 98 percent of households have a television, and 70 percent or more households report having two or more televisions. Yet, it took 60 years or more for TV to become an expected household convenience (Source: 2004 World Almanac).
By contrast, Apple and IBM marketed the first personal computers in 1975, and by 2001, one billion PCs had been manufactured and sold. The next billion is expected to be shipped and sold within the next five to six years. By 2001, only 26 years after the first personal computers were introduced, 56 percent of households had a computer and 50 percent had an Internet connection (Source: 2004 World Almanac).
In about half the time it took television to become a major part of life, computers and the Internet are now expected elements of life. As we approach the midpoint of the first decade of the 21st century, the integration and influence of technology in everyday life—and definitely in the college campus world—is pervasive.
The accelerated inclusion of technology into household, work, and education environments increases the expectations of students and faculty coming to institutions of higher education. In these centers of learning and research, they expect not only the convenience of 21st century technology, but the access to technology that supports and keeps pace with their intellectual careers and their personal lives.
The traditional-aged students coming to college today grew up with technology,
using computers in kindergarten, getting their own cell phones by 8th grade,
and watching the first and second Iraqi conflicts, live, in their homes. This
generation of students d'es not see technology as an added value in their lives;
rather, they see technology as an expected convenience. As Howe and Strauss
sum up in
In May in San Francisco, experts from leading universities, libraries, and research institutions around the world met as part of an ongoing effort to address a pressing issue: archiving the world's history, right up to today. The Quilt, a coalition of 28 regional network organizations, has added XO Communications Services to its authorized vendor list. The Quilt represents 200 universities and thousands of other educational institutions across the United States. With this new relationship, Quilt members can purchase XO's high-speed IP transit and network transport services at competitive rates. At the NECC 2008 conference in Texas this week, Wimba launched a new version of Wimba Classroom, the virtual classroom component of the company's Collaboration Suite. The new 5.2 release expands options for classroom capture and adds a variety of other functional and ease of use features. The lure of automating workflow online so human intervention is minimized is continually reinforced in the minds of higher education administrators by examples of automated campus systems such as financials, student information systems, and other enterprise systems. But what's good for management is not always good for learning. Cognos, which IBM acquired in January, has released an update to its business intelligence software that will run on the Linux operating system on IBM System z mainframes. IBM Cognos 8 BI was being developed by the two companies prior to the acquisition, but assimilation of Cognos into IBM accelerated development. Facebook is a way to greet a colleague as if she or he is on your own campus: a wave at a distance, a hello at the corner burrito place, a honk as you both leave the campus parking lot. Informal collegiality has been extended over the miles.
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