Wireless Technology

For the past decade, campuses in the United States have been offering comprehensive communications services in campus dorms that include high-speed Internet, cable television, and telephone services (local line, long distance, and voice mail in some cases). With students migrating to other forms of personal communications such as cell phones and text messaging, campuses are reevaluating the need for telephone lines in the dorms.

In this free July 1 EDUCAUSE Live! web seminar, Meeting Communications Needs in Campus Dorms, presenters Dewitt Latimer, deputy CIO & chief technology officer, University of Notre Dame, and Walt Magnussen, director of telecommunications, Texas A&M University, will discuss the implementations at both of their institutions. Included in the discussion will be student opinion polls, wireless alternatives, and E911 and other safety considerations.

The 2008 Southwest Regional Conference, "Empowering Community Through Technology," will be held February 20–22 in Houston, Texas. View the program and register by January 23 to save money with low, early-bird rates.

Jean E. Engle, chief knowledge officer, NASA/Johnson Space Center, will present a general session (topic TBA) on Friday, February 22.

The conference will focus on these topic areas:

In this 39-minute recording from the 2006 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, we'll hear from Charles Greene and Greg Miller in a session entitled Identifying Wireless Interference on an 802.11 Network. They share case studies from their experiences tracking wireless interference after rolling out a campus-wide 802.11 network at the University of Richmond.

In this 42-minute recording from the 2006 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, we'll hear from Kathleen Ragan and Edward Chapel in a session entitled Montclair State University Unplugged: Replacing Landlines with a Cellular Information Device. Learn how the university replaced landline telephone services with a wireless alternative that is both a telephone and a portable Internet kiosk customized to run dozens of applications designed to enhance student engagement while facilitating access to learning resources, activities, communities of interest, health, safety, transportation, and administrative services.

Just read about MIT's ambitious project with detailed reporting of the spaces where the campus-wide wireless network gets the most use. The lab that is working on this project is interested in the implications for architects and spce planners. I'm ondering about ways to connect that data with some kind of self-reporting on what people are actually doing: collaborating, surfing, communicating, etc. MIT i spots page Describes the ispots project at MIT MIT Technology Review article Thanks to Jim Browning and Howard Rheingold for posting this on the SmartMobs page.

This morning's Wahsington Post discusses D.C.'s local government insisting that the company that provides the best plan for aiding the poorest citizens with internet access will win the bid to provide the whole city with wireless access. I hope that the verizon's, eartlink's etc. think carefully through the training programs they might include as a part of this. It will also be interesting to see what role K-12 schools play in the proposals that are developed.

Washington Post Article: District to Seek Wireless Internet That Aids Poor

This 48 minute recording provides coverage of the 2005 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference Session entitled Drywall, Wireless, and Course Management: Rethinking the Campus Learning Environment.

This 44 minute recording provides coverage of the 2005 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference Session entitled 802.1x: Adapting Wireless Authentication to the Wired World.

This 46 minute recording provides coverage of the 2005 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference Session entitled Using Long-Distance High-Bandwidth Wireless Technology to Examine a New Approach for Using Rich Media Content in Schools and Communities.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1888422,00.asp HONG KONG (Reuters)—The mobile industry is ramping up for a new generation of cellphones and services combining the long-distance strengths of traditional cellular service with the short-distance, low-cost advantages of Wi-Fi.Industry players at the 3G World Congress in Hong Kong this week were buzzing with expectation for future services that would marry traditional cellular with Wi-Fi, a short-range technology often associated with wireless Web surfing in homes, offices and coffee shops.