eSchool News reports on a new Intel/Center for Digital Education survey that indicates continued strong growth in wireless infrastructure deployment on US campuses. We’re just putting the finishing touches on our own initial wireless rollout at the University of Mary Washington. Given the data I’m seeing, it’s none too soon.
There’s also a list of the top 50 “unwired” campuses, and I’m pleased to see that my alma mater (Wake Forest University) makes a strong showing, just ahead of DePauw University, where Dennis Trinkle exercises his visionary, agile IT leadership. It’s also great to see two Virginia schools on the list: Hampton University (whose CIO just spoke at the EDUCAUSE closing session) and The College of William and Mary, where Gene “Techfoot” Roche, the inspiration for Gardner Writes (though he bears no responsibility for its contents otherwise), continues to be one of the most thoughtful and generous academic computing specialists I have met. Kudos as well to Courtney Carpenter, the W&M CIO whom I was privileged to meet over the summer. Their accomplishments keep the bar raised for all of us, and for that I am very grateful.
Gardner,
Thanks for the kind words. Our wireless project continues to be an adventure, with often more than 2000 connections at a given time. Putting wireless in the residence halls where we already had such a large investment in wired connections was a gamble, but one that certainly seems to be paying off. Students can gather in each others rooms, hallways and lounges to do their work. Still lots of challenges in load balancing, security etc. but well worth solving.
How interesting that wireless connectivity leads to a fuller synthesis of face-to-face and computer-mediated communication. Gathering to do our work, with a significant percentage of the world’s knowledge at our fingertips, and with the ability to author persistently and collaboratively: sounds like what a university ought to be.