open source around THE AROUND the COUNCIL council
How Does Mobile Learning Affect Higher Education? by Jocelyn Green
Between iPhones, iPads, MacBooks and other wireless computing devices, many of today’s college students have all the information they could ever want at their fingertips. What does this mean for the brick and mortar college campus? Does the wireless age fight against the traditional classroom setting? Or can they work together? We posed this question to the CCCU Technology Commission. Here’s how they weigh in on what difference mobile learning is making on their own campuses: George Fox University (OR) offers the iPad as an altenative to the MacBook for incoming new students. This fall, we will give out iPads to about 10 percent of our new freshman and transfer students. So some of the changes that mobile computing is forcing at GFU relates to iPads, especially since we have committed to supporting them. But the reality is that most students have multiple Wi-Fi ready devices typically a smartphone or iPod Touch. So obvious pressure comes from the need for greater Wi-Fi coverage, which is an ongoing project. But the iPad is causing us some additional concern since its Wi-Fi reception strength is not as good as many other Wi-Fi ready devices. So we are in the process of increasing the density of our Wi-Fi access points in some academic areas. Of course we are concerned about Web access for mobile devices, so our University Web site is making sure that we have a mobile-ready version. We are much more interested in whether or not our applications of interest have a mobile app. For example we video stream some of our athletic events using Stretch Internet, so we are very interested in their iPhone app. Another one is our CollegeNet R25 Scheduling application, which is about to come out with an iPhone app. And of course many universities, GFU included, have mobile portals providing typical Student Information. Additionally, the Learning Management Systems, LMS, typically need a mobile app, and we are anxious to deploy one for Moodle. Trends that we see so far with the tablets, or for us more specifically the iPad, lean toward the arts. The iPads have proven to be a better way to share and discuss digital art. We have also seen potential with Advancement, in that the iPad can be a more intimate digital sharing device for presenting a concept or vision for a donation campaign. We also plan to experiment in athletics with gametime use of the iPad for presenting a specific tactic supported with video clips. Otherwise the iPads are really just great E-Readers without a lot of great E-Textbooks. They are great note-takers and of course they truly provide information at your fingertips. Greg Smith Chief Information Officer George Fox University One change at Samford University (AL) has been to promote the use of tablet computers to faculty. At the CIO Roundtable at Educause last November, I learned the University of New England has standardized on tablet computers for faculty, in part because it replaces the functionality provided by Smart boards and variants thereof. Some of our faculty seem to be picking up on this capability, like our Dean of Arts and Sciences. Dennis L Self Interim Chief Information Officer Samford University
16 CCCUAdvance fall2010