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Special Series: Technology and the CEO >> Part 4 Wireless on Campus
7/22/2005
Most important, wireless is a facilitator on several levels: With proper authentication/ encryption, accessing student data from residence halls and public areas is safe. Students can thus collaborate on the Web, check course syllabi, instant message friends, send assignments to their professors, and check on the status of their laundry from their residence hall. Parents can access student accounts from home, deposit money in individual school debit accounts, and provide for their children many, many miles from home.
Pervasive computing and attendant issues follow both student and professor into the classroom. Because a laptop, tablet, or PDA in class is such a departure from the traditional notebook, paper, and pencil, some professors may be wary of the inherent distraction of Web accessibility during instruction. Browsing the Web or instant messaging a friend during a lecture can be a common occurrence; taking notes can become secondary to instant entertainment. At that point, allowing laptops in class for note-taking may not be the best answer to meeting students’ needs for technology.
It is important to recognize that technology in general (and computing in particular) has a socio-personal element that students easily integrate into their lives. Collaboration is as important to today’s users as the “blog,” a highly individualized response to thoughts, opinions, and trends on the Web. Contrast this to the first generation of computing, which saw a much longer period of adjustment to what essentially were business tools and the occasional electronic bulletin board.
Wireless computing, whether incorporated into new construction or added to existing structures, can revitalize classroom instruction. If laptops are viewed as portals rather than notetaking word processing tools, opportunities arise for the entire class to concentrate on the same statistical data, database, or political Web site while being challenged by the professor to solve the daily dilemma. Facts can be checked instantly, curriculums viewed (MIT’s Open CourseWare, a revolutionary concept wherein hundreds of actual classes are offered free on the Web, is a good example; ocw.mit.edu/index.html), and opinions shaped and changed as the discussion develops.
All of this can be facilitated by a wireless laptop cart wheeled into a standard classroom equipped with an access point. Most exciting, perhaps, is the idea that the Socratic method and technology can merge seamlessly without wires. Learning can take place using tools that students have assimilated since grade school. Wireless takes the process one step further, allowing them the freedom to take those tools to the next classroom, dorm, or back home, to continue reaching for and responding to knowledge. Our challenge: to creatively channel this integral relationship between student and technology, while recognizing its potential to continually expand educational horizons.
David Black is President of Eastern University. SunGard SCT (www.sungardsct.com) is publisher of President to President: Views of Technology in Higher Education (2005), from which this article is excerpted, and is corporate sponsor of the New Presidents program. Marylouise Fennell, co-editor of President to President, is coordinator of the New Presidents program, and senior counsel to the Council of Independent Colleges (www.cic.edu). Scott D. Miller, also co-editor, is president of Wesley College (DE), and chair of the program
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