Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
Features
Special Series: Technology and the CEO >> [Part 3] Technology Conveniences
6/28/2005
Millenials Go to College (Neil Howe and William Strauss, American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, 2003), “Millenials take digital technology for granted…institutions that are paleotech—not wired with powerful intranets, PowerPoint tools and the latest information retrieval systems—will face a real handicap when recruiting students, and not just in technology fields.”Though faculty and older students did not grow up with technology in the same way, they too are users with clear expectations. Today’s faculty rely on technology to store and manipulate data easily, aid their research, facilitate their class management, and keep them in touch with students and colleagues. The older student, often returning to school while balancing work and family, expects the convenience of accessing class notes online, registering online, and, in general, staying connected through technology. Everyone has accepted the more accelerated pace of new technology as we watch technology prices come down, and PCs and other computing and communications devices become smaller and lighter and ever more convenient.
Beyond the campus, prospective students and faculty access their first glimpse of the campus through the Web presence available. Making Web presence and response compelling and engaging through personalization tools is as critical as providing stunning streaming video of the campus and campus activities. The use of portals facilitates the possibility of gaining immediate information about prospective students who are shopping the Web. Using e-mail response direct to the prospect launches an initial relationship between the institution and the student. In short, technology changes the recruitment business for students.
Technology also provides an initial view of the campus to a prospective faculty candidate, well in advance of the campus visit. The 24/7 access to information—and even communication for students and faculty through enhanced technology— accommodates each person’s schedule. The number of hits to our Web page between 9 and 10 pm is, on average, 6,450 per month. Nine o’clock in the evening is usually not the time most admissions folks answer inquiries; yet, for this generation of technology-savvy prospective students, nine in the evening is the best time to shop for a college. Faculty who find the 5:30 to 6:30 morning quiet time as the best time to post class assignments or bibliography are equally serviced by technology, which allows them to work when they feel most inspired. Technology enhances the exchange between faculty and students, while at the same time allowing for the differences in lifestyle.
How the 21st century campus uses technology to attract and serve students and faculty is clear and compelling. History tells us that the advancement of new devices for connecting and accessing information will improve at a rapid pace and will move beyond even what we can imagine. Keeping pace with the advances in this area is critical to keeping campuses current and cutting edge.
Recommended Reading
- Yuba Community College District Renews with AT&T for Wireless
Yuba Community College District (YCCD) has contracted with AT&T to provide wireless Internet access to the 11,000 students attending the district's two Northern California colleges, Yuba College in Marysville and Woodland Community College.
- Surveys Raise Doubts on Virtualization Security
Migration to virtualization won't be the quick transition that some technology evangelists have predicted, according to recent surveys by two IT security companies. Nor is virtualization as secure as many might want it to be.
- What Was Your First Pet's Name? Lessons Learned About E-Mail Security
The intrusion last month into Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's e-mail highlighted the frailty of some types of data security measures. What are the lessons for the rest of us?
- Report Casts Doubt on Anti-terrorism Tools
A new report from the National Academy of Sciences, part of which was co-authored by an Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington professor, casts doubt on the effectiveness, lawfulness, and appropriateness of using data-based tools such as data-mining and biometrics to fight terrorism.
- University in South Africa Set To Install Quantum Cryptography on Municipal Network
Physicists at South Africa's University of KwaZulu-Natal are set to install a quantum communication security solution over the eThekwini Municipality fibre-optic network infrastructure in Durban.
- Cedarville U Sets Up SonicWall Firewalls
Cedarville University in southwestern Ohio has implemented SonicWALL firewalls to provide high-speed gateway firewall protection for its 3,000 students.
