Phone Challenged
Right now we have requests for 10 additional phones and no equipment---we are phone challenged. With a significant increase in the number of new hires and the need for individual phones for part-time staff we have literally run out of telephones and space on the main servers on which to house them.
You may not know this but we are our own telephone system. We have two different systems for telephones and maintain well over 1,200 telephones and that number is growing daily. One system is the standard phone system with analog cards, necessary for fax machines. The other system is voice over IP (VoIP) and is digital. Each phone is then literally punched down with wires (in the person's area and in Carnegie) and then programmed into the telephone switch, so it does take time.
Not only do we have to purchase telephones at $200 per phone but we also need to purchase a card for our telephone switch. Each card that will handle 12 phones costs $8,000. If the phone is added to the VOIP system the cost is $80 per phone plus $3,500 for each ethernet powered switch---that means replacing all the Cisco switches between Carnegie and the person's phone location; typically two switches. We plan to remedy the situation by moving ITS off the traditional phone system and onto the VoIP system as this is the most cost effective solution. So those requesting phones or waiting for phones, realize it will take some time to get this set up, and we are doing the best that we can as quickly as we can.
Students and Information Technology
Look around our campus and I am sure you will note that our students are not unlike the students in a 2007 study by ECAR of Students and Information Technology. Today almost all students own some type of cell phone and computer. 12% own smart phones with Web access. Laptops are still gaining ground as the platform of choice with three-fourths of the people in the study owning them; and 36% own both a laptop and a desktop.
82% of respondents prefer using a college-mail account over a commercial account for communicating with their college.
E-mail and writing documents for courses have become ubiquitous. Technology basics for course work----spreadsheets and presentation software---are used by 90% of the students. Wikis have now taken off, with 42% of the students accessing them weekly. 82% of the respondents use a course management system (CMS) such as Blackboard; and they view that experience positively. All ratings of the use of a CMS were at least a 3.2 on a 1 to 5 scale. Their favorite part of a CMS is keeping track of grades on assignments and tests online (4.4) followed by online access to sample exams and quizzes for learning purposes (4.2) and then the online syllabus (4.0).
And there is no longer a gender gap between owning technology, which is major shift in just two years. However, gender does continue to be a factor for some computing activities. Males dominate gaming and report more use of wikis and software to create audio/video or Web pages. And even thought the data show that males and females own audio/video devices equally, males report that they download music and video more frequently.
Happy 25th Birthday
It is hard to believe that 25 years ago today that the digital smiley face : -) was born. It was the invention of Dr. Scott E. Fahlman a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. Progress on this front is that the Net is overrun with winking emoticons, crying emoticons, and even an Abraham Lincoln emoticon "==):-)="
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