Schools up the ante in tech offerings
By Jeffrey T. Lavery
When a multi-college initiative among several state schools in 2004 required students purchase a laptop, students and faculty alike crossed into a new technology frontier.
These days, however, laptops alone aren’t enough. Area schools use new devices to showcase their information technology department’s latest offerings, from audio/visual equipment to campus-wide wireless integration."The laptop is probably not the best measure of a college’s technology initiative," says Bob Fry, director of information technology at Assumption College.
Upgrades: Not just for students
Fitchburg State College wanted their accepted students to receive more than just a letter in the mail, so they linked those high school grads to a podcast with a congratulatory message from President Robert Antonucci. For those students who decided to attend the school, they also received a podcast from their professors, giving them the chance to decide prior to class if they were happy with their choices in courses.
"We’re very interested in the potential of the podcast," says George Bohrer, interim associate dean of graduate and continuing education. "The faculty is using it as well, and one professor even created a web blog about her experience with it as a teaching tool."
That instructor is Susan Williams, assistant professor of history. She’s used the podcast through her blog to post links to recorded lectures and clarifications on homework assignments. Although her students enjoy the extra access, they don’t want it to replace face-to-face contact. It would be as "dull as dishwater" if the classes were conducted only on the web, says Williams.
Meanwhile, Framingham State College has invested heavily in technology classrooms, a concept that is becoming more of a norm on college campuses. But as Andrea Pickles points out, the classrooms allow the school to embark on distance education, providing off-campus students with full access to courses via videoconferencing. The rooms are hooked up with LCD projection, smart boards, document cameras and more.
"It’s expensive to build new rooms with this technology," says Pickles, director of academic technology. "But our goal is to retrofit all classrooms to have these services."
Building infrastructure for the future
Worcester State College also uses podcasts for classroom purposes, but has focused much of its attention on building a campus-wide wireless network. The school embarked on a partnership with Charter Communications, offering each student one megabit of service, compared to when the school shared six megabits of service across the entire campus population.
"It’s a model of service not common in higher education," says Donald Vescio, associate vice president for information technologies. "We’re able to quickly ramp up wireless infrastructure."
Over at Assumption, the school is in the process of upgrading its networks to Internet2, a consortium-based effort of 200 schools to develop the next-wave of the Internet. WPI holds the connection locally, and Assumption received a grant in conjunction with Holy Cross to develop the infrastructure needed for the new research tool. Thanks to increased bandwidth, users enjoy a much faster connection speed, allowing for research-heavy activities like real time programming and full motion video.
"We already have a number of faculty members doing research through I2," says Fry, Assumption’s IT director. "It’s hard to find research labs at smaller schools like Assumption, but I2 gives researchers those same capabilities."
Jeffrey T. Lavery can be reached at jlavery@wbjournal.com
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