What’s hogging bandwidth on college campuses?

Bandwidth demands have been at critical levels for years on college campuses of every size, and the ubiquity of tablets has only complicated matters for higher education IT officials.

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IT officials expect to struggle in keeping up with bandwidth demand.

Students returned to campus last month with more web-connected devices than ever — up to seven per student, by some estimates — leaving campus technologists searching for ways to keep up with insatiable demand for internet bandwidth to power every kind of media consumption.

The “State of ResNet Report” breaks down exactly which devices are using the most bandwidth on campuses. The prevalence of tablets — once a rarity — has wreaked havoc at many schools.

Eighty-four percent of respondents to the ResNet Report said tablets are the biggest drain on their campus’s bandwidth, with 75 percent saying laptops and desktops are the main culprit.…Read More

10 key steps to designing a great university app

10-step guide offers advice to institutions on how to develop the best app possible

app-design-stepsBy now, most people have caught on to the fact that not all apps are created equal, and that while it’s cool in theory to have an app for your college or university, if students and alumni don’t find it useful, you’ve just wasted precious time and money. But thanks to those that have been there and done that, there are now key steps every university should consider when creating a great university app.

And now more than ever is when institutions should seriously invest in either app creation or app redesign, according to recent data. For example, 87 percent of all U.S. higher education students want to access campus resources from a mobile device, and 75 percent of student reading sessions happen on tablets. 53 percent of colleges and universities had at least 1 mobile service in 2010, and 55 percent of public universities activated mobile apps as of fall 2011.

“This is much like how having a website went from a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘must have’ in the mid-1990s,” said Mark Gardner, director of Enterprise Mobility for SAP in a recent University Business webinar.…Read More

The best videos for faculty professional development

These 5 videos for professional development are given by an education professional or technology expert with their own unique vision to improve learning

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Professional development, typically referred to as continued training for teachers and educators, seeks to improve learning and teaching.

But just how exactly does it accomplish that?…Read More

5 critical tips for implementing mobile technology

Tips include those for educators, IT staff and admin

mobile-technology-students Long gone are the days when having a phone in class was cause for dismissal, with professors and students eager to implement mobile technology into the classroom. The problem is, not all implementation is effective.

From knowing why IT woes occur on your campus to learning why apps aren’t always the saviors they’re marketed to be, these 5 tips can help educators get the most out of mobile learning.

Have any tips you’d like to share? Do you think mobile learning in class is all it’s cracked up to be? Leave your comments in the section below, email me at mstansbury@ecampusnews.com, or find me @eSN_Meris on Twitter.…Read More

5 ways mobile devices have (and haven’t) changed studying

With smartphones, students will study nearly anywhere — including on the toilet

mobile-devices-studyingCollege students now own an average of seven mobile devices, and spend nearly four hours a day interacting with their laptops, tablets, and smart phones. The bandwidth needs can be a headache for IT officials, but many universities continue to encourage their use through Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiatives.

Is the ubiquitous nature of mobile devices changing the studying habits of students?

Earlier this year, StudyBlue, an online studying platform, surveyed 1,000 students to learn how today’s students study, and how mobile devices factor into their learning.…Read More

10 Apple and Android Apps for campus security

These 10 campus safety apps cover a broad range that could be tailored for most institutions

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Copyright: Twin Design/Shutterstock

Integrating campus security and technology, smartphone apps make campus safety more convenient. From GPS locators to social media monitoring, these cost-effective opportunities can improve existing systems for higher education faculty, staff and students.

[Listed in alphabetical order]

1. Campus Safe iPhone/iPad, Android, As low as $1 per user, per year…Read More

A keen-sighted CIO’s inter-view on Glass

Open-eyed and thoughtful views on Glass’ realistic usability in higher education

google-glass-interview“OK Glass,” take a picture. It’s most likely the first thing a Google Glass Explorer will try, as I did.

Now, entering my third month, in the beta Google Glass Explorer program, I saw a need to refocus my exploring, no pun intended, on requesting an open and frank “Glass” interview with the CIO-Chief Information Officer, Paige Francis, at Fairfield University.

By accepting the invitation, Paige has already broken through many proverbial “glass ceilings,” as the first woman, Jesuit University CIO, Google Glass interviewee, represented in a Google Plus Glass community. Paige is now visible on the Google Plus Community, actively engaging in technology dialogue, via Google Glass.…Read More

Campus emergency alerts, simplified

One emergency app tries to eliminate student confusion during a campus crisis

campus-emergency-appIt might take days for a college student to gather every piece of information on how to respond to a campus emergency–from assaults, to fires, to shootings and extreme weather.

Detailed on various college sites, brochures, and other campus literature, instructions for how to respond to an emergency are often scattered and disorganized, if not thorough.

That’s why colleges and universities have condensed their emergency notification and response protocol into a single, easy-to-use mobile app called In Case of Crisis, designed to serve as a sort of one-stop shop for students’ emergency needs (and instructions).…Read More

The business of ed-tech: From blue lights to mobile apps

Once ridiculed, mobile technology is bolstering campus safety through innovative apps

mobile-appsIt was in a 2009 safety committee meeting with University of Florida (UF) officials that Jordan Johnson first mentioned the potential impact of mobile technology in bolstering campus safety.

Johnson, then the UF student body president, was met with blank stares and quizzical looks. He acknowledged web-connected smartphones would need to be more ubiquitous on campus before they became a vital part of safety and security measures, but the reaction was less than welcoming.

“It was mainly making a forwarding-thinking comment,” said Johnson, who proposed the use of mobile technology to boost security after a rash of attacks on UF students. “I know they didn’t really take me seriously though. It was pretty clear the idea was seen as ridiculous.”…Read More

Top 5 Brain Awareness Week tweets

eCampus News shares what experts are saying on Twitter to help raise awareness for Brain Awareness Week

twitter-brain-awareness-weekEvery March, Brain Awareness Week is celebrated to help bring greater world attention to the advancements of brain research.

eCampus News has covered Brain Awareness Week extensively, and we would like to highlight other tips shared by educators on Twitter.

So once you have followed @eCampusNews, check out some of these essential ed-tech influencers to stay up-to-date with the latest about Brain Awareness Week:…Read More

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