The purpose of innovations in technology has always been to meet a particular need. This is no different when it comes to the integration of new technologies in college and university classrooms.
But some of these higher learning organizations are hesitant to adopt the new wave of technological advancement in their classrooms.
Their reasons for not transitioning immediately into the new paradigm of education are often understandable. The changes brought about by these new technologies are happening before our eyes at a pace so rapid it can leave you dizzy!
But the reality of the global economy and the state of higher education necessitates these changes.
Poor Access
One of the unfortunately more common reasons for colleges not embracing technological innovation is because they simply can’t access it. This can be because they’re in more rural areas, or don’t have the actual infrastructure to include it in their classrooms.
Providing high speed, wireless Internet for an entire college campus can be seriously difficult for institutions in areas of the world where small homes nearby can hardly manage a solid connection. The effort required of IT workers and local ISPs to maintain such a network can be downright Herculean.
Fortunately, the technologies that allow the Internet to flourish in even the most remote locations are developing and spreading at a breakneck pace. The adoption of a more digital environment soon won?t have to rely on grass roots efforts ? it’ll be everywhere.
Authenticity and Efficiency
There’s a pretty sizeable group of academics who are concerned that by adopting new technologies in education, the relationship between instructor and student becomes less authentic.
What technology represents for higher education systems a lot of the time is increased efficiency so more students can be educated at a faster pace than in the more traditional style of learning. Some educators are worried that increased efficiency will mean education has been corporatized and commodified, instead of being valued like it should be.
But this does not have to be the case. Learning technologies lower costs for students, increasing their access to educators like never before. The technologies themselves can be used by the educators as a companion tool to their curriculum, allowing for the learning platforms they work with to become more adaptive and successful.
Above all, technology can increase the faculty certainty that their students have mastered the curriculum to the correct degree through intuitive grading and progress measurement applications.
What the Technological Revolution Really Means for Colleges
Times are changing, that’s for sure. If we want a more educated population, the best way for colleges to produce more graduates is to embrace technological innovation.
Technology is to be used as a tool to address whatever needs educators have in ensuring the best possible education for all of their students. As it develops further into the future, there?s no doubt that technology will be integrated into the classroom setting in new and incredible ways.
There’s no reason for educators to be Luddites! They’re often at the cutting-edge already when it comes to new and improved teaching methods. And while we may not know exactly what the future holds for education, it’s undeniable that transitioning smoothly into it is the best way to stay up-to-date and ahead of the times.
If you would like to learn how technology can help your university reach higher levels of success, contact N2N services today.
College and university CIOs face all sorts of complex issues when it comes to successfully meeting application, technology, and user base demands.
As developments in the tech world continue ever onwards, CIOs will face numerous challenges if they want to successfully integrate and operate the digital environments of their campuses.
New Trends
Business Analytics: More than ever, CIOs need to develop and provide useful data for both students and administrators. In order to retain students and improve their education outcomes, CIOs are using learning and predictive analytics as well as data-driven decision making.
Mobile Apps: Colleges and universities are now coming under pressure to provide mobile applications for their students that offer new and intuitive connectivity on a student-to-student and student-to-educator basis. A recent national survey has shown that 83 percent of higher education campuses are activating mobile apps or planning to for 2015 and beyond.
Cloud Services: Providing user support for cloud services is another huge new endeavor for CIOs to tackle. In keeping up with the trend of tech development, cloud integration is now a necessary structure for CIOs to master themselves and make available to their administrative staff and students.
Campus Wi-Fi: As the proliferation of smart wireless devices increases year after year, institutions are struggling to provide the adequate bandwidth to accommodate all the devices students carry. The same national survey mentioned above showed that 74 percent of CIOs ranked providing appropriate wireless networking a top priority.
New Tech: New tools and toys are the name of the game year-to-year when it comes to technological innovation. For instance, wearable devices open up a new frontier in educational opportunities. Quizzes, campus navigation, and interactive lessons will make use of these devices, and CIOs must ensure their digital infrastructures are well-equipped to accommodate them. But security will also prove a major issue in this area ? especially as the ?Internet of Things? develops into the future.
Biggest Challenges
Operational Strategies: Staffing IT departments on college and university campuses is of utmost importance for CIOs if they want to keep their systems running at full capacity. A 2014 survey on these campuses across the US showed that two-thirds of CIOs had succession planning strategies, and 71 percent reported having formal IT governance strategies.
Budget Concerns: Allocating funds to central, academic, and administrative IT proves a major challenge to CIOs, especially when only 33 percent (according to the survey) of respondents expected their IT budgets to increase by next year.
Data Collection and Reporting: Most CIOs report using internal service providers for data management. In other words, CIOs will more than likely be responsible for overseeing the strategies of how to support and maintain the updates and maintenance of their likely multiple data center environments.
Higher education is on a path toward a worldwide technological revolution that will completely change the way we look at learning and the systems that provide it.
For both public and private institutions, these new trends and challenges will be front and center in your mind as a CIO for the rest of 2015 and as we transition into 2016. Stay up to date on these developments, and you should be prepared to overcome any IT obstacles you face.
And remember ? N2N?s integration cloud can help you streamline processes at your university and easily move data that way you need to. To learn more, contact us today by emailing info@n2nservices.com.
Keeping in touch with students isn?t just about a weekly email update anymore. Social media has provided students with a way to open a dialogue with administration, and give that dialogue an audience. People at the top of the educational system are realizing that students want these open lanes of communication, and they want to be able to voice their concerns and comments over social media where they will be seen and followed by other students or faculty.
As this trend continues, it would be wise to develop a plan for interacting with and helping students over social media if you’ve not already done so. So we?re here today to give you some ideas for using social media constructively, as well as dealing with feedback from students and maintaining a dialogue with them.
Students want to see action from their university on issues they care about. Even if immediate action isn?t possible on an issue, students want to see that they aren?t being ignored, and a good way to do that is by responding and communicating through social media. This doesn?t mean the chancellor needs to respond to every tweet thrown his way, but it does mean that he or she should maintain an active presence on social media, especially Twitter.
Twitter is a platform that allows students to directly message higher ups, and it gives their message a huge online audience, as it’s basically a public blog post, unlike tools that require community registration or “friending.” Failure to respond to a well-reasoned request or concern gives off an impression that administration is ignoring students, or simply doesn?t care. Conversely, a timely response, even if it disagrees with a student?s position, at the very least shows that there is someone on the other end considering their argument, and this goes a long way with a student body who may feel uninvolved in university processes.
Another way to improve communication using social media is by giving departments their own Facebook or Twitter page. This works to the students? benefit because it gives them easy online access to ask questions or get in contact with departmental resources. The CIO-led IT department is especially important because of the huge increase in online services and technology that students now use on a daily basis. One misstep or bad link can end up giving students, and faculty, a huge headache. Being made aware of a problem quickly makes it easier for departments to deal with it, and social media gives students an opportunity for quick notification and resolution.
Quick notification is also invaluable in case of a campus emergency. Colleges are finding that disseminating information on social media is a much quicker way to warn students than email and allows viral propagation, even to those not registered for a fast, targeted service like SMS messaging. This improves safety for students and faculty, and helps build a stronger relationship between students and the university.
If you would like more information on the intersection of education and technology, contact N2N Services today.
Think of?approaching your home or car and seeing your door automatically unlock once it senses your smartwatch or key fob ?- or checking your smartphone to see if the laundry machines in your apartment complex are currently being used. These are some examples of the potential of the Internet of Things.
What is the Internet of Things?
If you’ve not read the Wikipedia article 🙂 the Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of ?smart? devices that are embedded with connectivity and sensors that allow them to collect and transfer data to other connected devices. Common devices that we think about when we contemplate networked “computers” are PCs, notebooks, smartphones and tablets, but there are countless other connected ?smart? devices that are a part of the Internet of Things and more are being created every day. These include things we think of, and things we don’t, but the message is that with today’s technology, almost anything can be “node” in the IoT if enabled by the right technology. I’ve recently installed two “connected” smoke alarms in my house; they are a part of the IoT. ?My smartphone receives alarms and “all-ok” messages in real-time, and has access to historical observations.?The implications are vast.
The Internet of Things supports device-to-device communication between nodes?(think of a “personal area network” where a smart watch communicates with a phone for updates) and also supports device-to-aggregator communications (think of sensors collecting data from coastal buoys and updating a database used in weather prediction). It uses both private networks and public networks (the “Cloud”) to securely carry data between participating nodes. Then,?applications (typically Cloud-based), allow you to access and transfer that data, giving you the flexibility to transform that data into information?anytime and anywhere, including on your campus. So, smart devices can communicate with other smart devices or can collect data, either over restricted networks or as encrypted “calls” over the public Internet.
How can the Internet of Things affect your college?
It Can Improve Energy Efficiency
Many colleges and universities?are burdened by limited fiscal resources, so enormous energy consumption mixed with inefficient energy use can often be taxing, cutting into funds that could be spent teaching students more effectively. Large institutions are are often beginning to leverage “facilities networks” to interconnect and control HVAC systems, but often the deployments are limited and not strategic.
However, the Internet of Things includes a rapidly growing?variety of devices and methods that can help significantly reduce energy costs. Institutions?are looking for ways to implement energy conservation programs that include building ubiquitous automation and accurate energy monitoring devices, allowing schools to pay only for what they need instead of having to cool or heat entire buildings. Pervasive technology enabled by the IoT is moving this from specialized systems to more open and interoperable (and affordable!) environments.
It Can Improve Quality of Education
The Internet of Things can play a major role in the education process, especially in regards to the quality of education that is provided to a student. It can have a pedagogical role (improved data or access to sensors and devices) or support role by expanding range of devices for content delivery and interaction possibilities.
In a support role, we have seen that in the last decade, online courses have allowed students to study and earn degrees on the internet while allowing them to retain the flexibility to fulfill important daily obligations (like taking care of their family or working a full-time job). Ubiquitous access to computing resources and networks, including the “connected supercomputer” you carry in your pocket, enables qualitatively improved tools and access to information. With smart displays (there’s the IoT again!), collaborative workspaces leveraging projected or “cast” content allow richly productive group sessions wherever students gather.?Over time, an enormous amount of data,?will?be collected and analyzed with the help of smart devices and systems, allowing universities to target student performance and to offer and help students find classes that would better suit their interests and learning styles.
It Will Require Attention to Security
The Internet of Things can be a bit overwhelming with possibilities…both good and bad. Ubiquitous connectivity to all kinds of devices is good, but that means that devices and systems have to learn to live in a world that is potentially hostile at each turn. They can’t rely on a “firewall” to protect them from things in the outside world, as they are inthe outside world. If the firewall surrounds everything, then it surely will have bad actors inside any security perimeter. One part of this answer is de-perimeterization. This means that each device and system needs to be “hardened” to not trust, without verification, messages that it gets from another device or system. ?Too many devices and systems in the early Internet of Things are far too trusting about their neighbors. Security must mature quickly for the IoT to reach its potential.
The Internet of Things isn?t the only technology advancement that could help your institution.
The NIC, N2N Service?s cloud based integration platform, is another way your college or university?can use cutting-edge technology to reach greater heights of success and offer students a better educational experience. Leveraging the same advances in Cloud-based systems that support the myriad devices and deep pools of data from the IoT, the NIC is there to help you bring together the administrative and academic?data necessary to support an effective institution.
If you?re interested in learning about how the NIC can benefit your institution, contact N2N Services today.
Think back to the last time your home computer crashed. Wasn?t it frustrating to lose so much work, and so many memories, all in an instant? So many files and photos, gone ? at least until your computer was repaired. If you were working on something urgent or important, that was just too bad.? And then there was the hassle of waiting for its repair, the cost of fixing it?and maybe the heartbreak of finding out that some of those files really were gone for good.
In fact, your last computer crash may have led you to move all your files to the cloud, so that you wouldn?t ever have to go through that nightmare again.
Organizations across the country are doing the exact same thing.
Businesses are moving to the cloud in droves, and schools and universities are following suit. And it?s not just data security that?s driving this move. There are many other reasons why moving to the cloud is a good idea for any organization ? but especially for educational institutions. Here are just a few:
1. Cost Savings: The cloud stores files and data, yes ? but it can hold software and applications, as well. This means that educational technology that once had to be purchased outright, and then installed and implemented on-premise, can now be easily accessed via the cloud, and paid for on a subscription basis with only minimal infrastructure needing to be installed on-site. The cost savings are enormous, as is the added convenience.
2. Expanded Accessibility: Gone are the days when you had to use a school computer to access school software. With the cloud, faculty and administration can access work-related applications and data from their home computers, their tablets, or even their smart phones. This boosts productivity and allows employees to get work done wherever and whenever they need to.
3. Room for Growth: Any growth or changes in your institution are easy to accommodate in the cloud. Subscriptions for storage space or software usage can be ramped up or scaled back as needed, without having to buy anything new or waste school resources on something that?s not being used. This flexibility is a huge benefit in today?s agile business environment.
4. Automatic Updates: In order to ensure that your school?s systems are always at their best, frequent software updates are required. When an in-house IT team is responsible for every single one, resources can be strained ? and some updates might even be missed, leaving your technology open to problems. Storing your school?s applications in the cloud means that every single update necessary for each and every one of your programs will be automatically and instantly applied, no matter what.
A growing number of schools and universities are finding that moving to the cloud is saving them money, time, and hassles, while increasing their productivity and flexibility. That?s why everyone is moving to the cloud.
And that?s also why the N2N Integration Cloud is such a powerful tool for educational institutions. By providing schools with the ability to consolidate all their legacy systems into one cloud-based hub, the NIC allows them all the business benefits of the cloud, created especially with the needs of schools in mind. ?Contact us today to learn more about what the N2N Integration Cloud can do for your school.
Every passing day seems to bring word of another data breach. A million identities lost here, ten million there…it almost seems like institutional and corporate entities have opened the doors to their vaults and data is pouring out. This month brings the news that the Home Depot payment card breach involved 56 million accounts, second only to the 2007 TJ Maxx breach involving 90 million accounts.
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