Smart phones could be lifelines for college students

Add another function to smart phones on college campuses: a potential life-saving device for at-risk students.

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Almost all college student has a smart phone, according to surveys.

The University of California Davis campus Dec. 9 unveiled a mobile site known as “Just in Case” that allows students to seek mental health services without the stigma often attached to traditional assistance during times of personal crises.

Offering students a menu of phrases including “I’m struggling to cope,” “I’m worried about a friend,” and “I might hurt myself,” the university’s mental health site helps guide students to the proper services on campus.

University officials said the “Just in Case” site would be a welcomed and potentially life-saving offering for students who might be embarrassed to seek help with traditional avenues.…Read More

eCN special report: Powering the mobile campus

Jordan Maynor, a freshman at Southern Illinois University (SIU), was one of 2,700 incoming students to get a tablet computer from the university when he set foot on campus this fall.

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Educators are striving to get ahead of mobile technology trends.

The 18-year-old from Mount Vernon Township, Ill., says he uses the device every single day. He uses it to take notes in class, and to get instant information about campus events.

“I can even see when my laundry is done on it,” he said. “It’s been extremely helpful to me so far.”

Like Jordan, who owned a smart phone before enrolling at SIU, the students entering college today are too young to remember a time when they could not connect, communicate, and explore instantly—from wherever they might be, at all hours of the day—using a smart phone, tablet, or other mobile device.…Read More

Anticipating students’ changing technology preferences

Preparing students for careers in journalism and mass communication is increasingly challenging. As the media industry evolves and the ways in which information is gathered, presented, disseminated and consumed transforms, so must our curricula.

phones84However, this challenge is not just one of “keeping up.” It is also about finding the right balance between teaching the foundations of our craft and exposing students to emerging media technologies, cutting-edge storytelling techniques, and the increasingly important ability to collaborate across disciplines.

Oh, and don’t forget to get the students in and out in four years.

In the Journalism Graphics major at Ball State University, these challenges often leave us feeling overwhelmed. We are faced with the daunting task of maintaining a cutting-edge curriculum that teaches students equal parts of journalistic values while trying to stay up-to-date on software and other tech skills necessary to compete in the digital media arena.…Read More

Mobile study guides crowd-source cram sessions

It’s not uncommon, as final exams approach, for college classmates to pool their notes into study guides. With a new online service, that pool could be made up of more than 4 million students.

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The best study guides ‘bubble to the top.’

These “Study Guides” are a new product from StudyBlue, a mobile learning platform that launched in 2010.

StudyBlue provides students with a “Digital Backpack” to store, share, and compare course materials such as notes, flashcards, and syllabi.

The StudyBlue Study Guides takes all of this material from an individual course and aggregates it into one easy-to-navigate package.…Read More

College degree via mobile device?

The definition of class participation has changed for college students at the University of Southern California’s (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering.

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Nearly nine in 10 students have used mobile devices to study for exams.

The USC engineering program’s Distance Education Network, a model for distance learning in higher education, has enabled students to stream live lectures on their smart phones and tablets, and participate in lecture hall discussions through their various mobile devices.

It’s an entirely new level of anywhere, anytime education, as students can join live class discussions via chat, phone, or voice over IP.

The engineering school, recognized as the nation’s top online engineering program, has 4,000 students this year, about one in four of whom complete their degrees online.…Read More

The outsourcing of campus ResNet services is here

College and university IT officials have for years warned that students’ ever-growing pile of mobile devices would eventually be too much for local residential networks (ResNet).

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Some students bring up to seven mobile devices to campus.

It was a valid prediction, it seems.

Farming out ResNet services to private contractors is gaining traction in higher education, as five universities announced Nov. 13 that they would hand over network services to Apogee, a leader in ResNet management.

The schools varied in size, from Midwestern State University to Navarro College to the University of Nebraska Omaha. They all had one thing in common: they struggled to keep up with students’ demand for bandwidth, which is increasing at an alarming rate…Read More

Events on campus yield big data with new mobile app

College events have for decades been advertised through bulletin boards in residence halls and at intersections of sidewalks that wind through campus.

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Campuses have found myriad ways to leverage Big Data.

A new mobile app is being piloted at several campuses with a goal of replacing those bulletin boards, and providing administrators with something cork and paper never could: data.

Appropriately named after another common campus advertising spot, Campus Quad lets students, faculty, and administrators create and share flyers, post classifieds, and communicate with one another.

“The whole idea is that it is one space for all the things that a student cares about,” said Frances Cairns, founder and CEO of Campus Quad. “It’s one place to see everything and explore everything that’ happening on campus.”…Read More

Blackboard transforms mobile devices into student IDs

One ubiquitous college student staple is set to replace another this year as Blackboard Inc. attempts to turn mobile devices into campus ID cards.

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The Blackboard app works even when a phone is turned off.

Students at many campuses can already use their mobile devices to check bus schedules, submit their homework, and receive emergency notifications.

Blackboard’s new pilot program would enable students to use their devices for a laundry list of other tasks – including laundry.

The learning management system company’s program, called Blackboard Transact, is being piloted at Quinnipiac University and Tulane University.…Read More

Online app reveals true cost of college

A new online app called College Abacus is making it easier for students and their families to get estimates in advance of how much financial aid colleges and universities will give so that they can compare schools for costs, The East Carolinian reports.

It comes at an opportune time, since the shutdown of many government programs because of the political standoff over the federal budget has disabled College Navigator, a tool also designed to help families figure out college costs and operated by the Department of Education.

Until about two years ago, financial aid was a mystery until a student got a college acceptance letter and a financial aid package. Change began in 2011, when the federal government required schools to offer online net price calculators, which compute a school’s full cost of attendance, minus estimated scholarships, based on family income and other information that individuals enter.…Read More

College students: we’re ‘digitally distracted’

Eight in 10 college students point to smartphones, tablets, and laptops as a near-constant distraction in the classroom and lecture hall.

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Nine in 10 students are opposed to policies barring mobile device use in the classroom.

Awareness of the various digital distractions pervasive throughout higher education hasn’t stopped college students from turning to their myriad devices, as the average student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UN-L) campus and five other schools admitted to using a tablet, laptop, or phone 11 times every day during class, according to a study released Oct. 23.

Barney McCoy, an associate professor of broadcasting at UN-L, conducted the study that likely confirmed what educators have long known: web-connected digital gadgets are pulling students’ attention away from lectures, and not just a few time a day.

McCoy said in a university statement that he didn’t realize how many students had their attention split between the lecture and digital distractions until he sat in the back of a classroom and saw students perusing social media sites while taking class notes.…Read More

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