EDUCAUSE | Emergency Notification Systems

Emergency Preparedness: Leveraging IT for Safety and Security

ckeller — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 10:15:28 -0500

September is National Emergency Preparedness Month, an opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of emergency preparedness in homes, workplaces, colleges and universities, and communities. Institutions of higher education across the country are fine-tuning and test-driving their emergency preparedness plans, testing their emergency notification systems, and conducting awareness sessions for students, faculty, and staff. They are also exploring how they can better leverage information and communications technologies to help them address every phase of emergency management: prevention-mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. The University of Maryland is taking a comprehensive approach to protecting its human, physical, and cyber assets and is exploring the use of social networking to enhance communication with stakeholders.

Tune In September 4--Emergency Preparedness: Leveraging IT for Safety and Security

pkurkowski — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:50:33 -0500

In this free September 4 EDUCAUSE Live! web seminar, Emergency Preparedness: Leveraging IT for Safety and Security, presenter Major Jay Gruber, department of public safety, will explore how the University of Maryland is taking a comprehensive approach to protecting its human, physical, and cyber assets and is exploring the use of social networking to enhance communication with stakeholders.

Those unable to attend may wish to visit the archives after the event or browse related EDUCAUSE resources on Emergency Notification Systems, Emergency Preparedness, and Emergency Preparedness Plans.

The Campus is Under Seige and I go to Facebook???

agould — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:01:49 -0500

On Friday, the Chronicle featured an article (Emergency Alerts via Facebook and MySpace are New Ways to Reach Students, 8/22/08) on how some campuses are looking for ways to use Facebook (FB) and MySpace as tools for transmitting emergency information. On the surface, this seems like a good idea. It would seem that almost every student nowadays is plugged into FB or MySpace, and young twenty-somethings are increasingly finding news about people, friends, and family with the social networking sites (myself being no exception).

However, I question the idea that students will automatically log into their FB accounts if a dire emergency is underway. If buildings were collapsing around me, my last thought would be to log onto Facebook. I tend to think these types of sites are probably better for AFTER the emergency. That said, there is something to be said about using these sites for ongoing emergency communication. For example, for anyone stuck in lower Manhattan on 9/11 when the telephone lines were overburdened, a site like Facebook could have been useful as they waited for information for hours. Then again, CNN.com might have accomplished the same thing as well.

If anything, FB is a tool designed more for collecting reactions and sharing anecdotes, than promoting pro-active, timely (emphasis on timely) emergency advice. I've got a cell phone for that.

Emergency Alerts via Facebook and MySpace Are New Ways to Reach Students

ckeller — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:54:48 -0500

"Colleges are experimenting with Facebook and other social networks to notify students about emergencies like crimes and floods—and get vital information in return. Most emergency-alert systems send out warnings. But social networks give students a chance to add on-the-scene reports or trade information if trouble hits. In addition to cell-phone and e-mail alerts, the social networks also give colleges yet another way to reach students in a crisis."

Hazards_Summit2008: Innovations

Carie417 — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:02:49 -0500

After focusing on challenges for much of the early afternoon, the focus has shifted at the EDUCAUSE Summit from identifying issues to sharing solutions. Participants have offered innovations from their own campuses, most focusing on emergency notification and communication systems (sirens, text messaging, digital signage) or campus monitoring. There are examples of data protection and coalition building (particularly in breaking down communication walls between campuses and emergency responders), and a few that focus on disaster education. Very few, however, address one of the primary issues that the group identified in earlier sessions: that students, faculty and staff aren’t creating a culture built around safety and preparedness, with an emphasis on training and prevention.

From the initial list of innovations – more than 40 total – the group selected six innovations for a “lightning round” of presentations. (A complete list will be compiled from the Summit and available at a later date.) These “solutions in focus” are a snapshot of the ideas presented:

The University of Maryland puts safety in the spotlight each fall with an Emergency Preparedness Week. The word gets spread through social networking sites, newspaper articles, calendar postings, public service announcements at games, and advertisements at campus eateries. Throughout the week, students and faculty learn how to sign up for emergency alert text messages at Internet kiosks and where to go for information through informational videos. (Which are available on kiosks or sites like YouTube.) They can also visit a Facebook page for the topic and take home “pocket guides” to emergency procedures. Campus officials make an effort to visit as many campus meetings as possible or to circulate letters that help define important emergency terms or explain procedures.
After a FEMA simulated plane crash three years ago, Texas A&M University received criticism that the four jurisdictions at play weren’t working together. Each group – including the university, the town of Bryan, the town of College Station, and Brazos County – decided to forego their individual emergency operations centers in favor of a single, join EOC. Each group committed two people to work full-time in private offices at the facility. During emergencies, the EOC is activated.
The University of Iowa is experimenting with Facebook and MySpace, two social networking sites popular with students. Hoping to bring the message “where the students are” and to preempt any unofficial information on the sites in the event of an emergency, they created HawkAlert pages within the sites. When launched, students will be able to receive emergency notifications on their Facebook and MySpace pages.
Cornell University shared how they’re using The University of California-Berkeley Continuity Planning Tool to create and share emergency plans on campus. The tool, according to the Berkley Web site, “was developed.. to organize disaster preparedness for the 300+ academic departments, research units, public service units, and support units [on campus].” Cornell has personalized the tool to incorporate FEMA and university emergency plans, authorization levels, and CGI. Using the Berkeley tool – which is in the public domain – allowed them to get the tool up and running within hours while leaving room to customize to their own needs.
A GIS project in the Cornell University planning office is beginning to show possibilities for campus safety planning. A GIS tool, originally conceived to look at accessibility issues from a birds-eye view on campus – is now being used by campus police, allowing offers to take a large view of campus or drill down to sidewalk level. The system could help officers plot crime locations, create maps of traffic areas or overlay walking paths onto areas of increased crime. They system could have applicability for other groups, such as environmental health, individual departments and Facilities.
Instead of relying on individual platforms to deploy emergency notification messages across different channels, Brigham Young University and Virginia Tech have created a unified console to send out broadcast messages. An individual user can access the simple interface, type in a message or record an audio message, and then select the channels over which to broadcast it. (Text message, email, etc.) If an audio recording is not entered, the system will automatically convert text to voice. For the university, the console was motivated by practicality and speed.

EDUCAUSE Now - Show #6 - Back To School: Helicopter Parents & Emergency Notification Systems

gbayne — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:35:01 -0500

Welcome to our back-to-school episode of EDUCAUSE Now! EDUCAUSE Now is a monthly podcast, focusing on the intelligent use of information technology in higher education. Each episode features a variety of stories, interviews, and views that relate to IT in higher education. Let us know what you would like to hear at podcast@educause.edu.

Subscribe to EDUCAUSE NOW RSS feed

This episode of EDUCAUSE Now features:

Helicopter Parents and Technology
(01:18–12:32)
The term “helicopter parents” refers to parents that are overly involved in their child’s life, usually at an educational institution. Why do some parents have trouble letting go once their child is ready to leave the home for university? Can technology help parents feel connected? We speak with three professionals that have extensive contact with parents and students:
Barrie Smith is the founder of MOFchat dot com, a support website for parents who are having difficulty adjusting to their children being on their own at school.
Terry Winters has been the Director for Academic Technology in the department of Computing & Information Services at the University of New Hampshire since 1996. She has been key in developing a Blackboard portal for parents, allowing them to access to instant bill pay and information on parent's association and student life at the university.
Tracy Mitrano is Director of IT Policy and University Computer Policy and Law Program in the Office of Information Technologies at Cornell University and has extensive contact with both parents and students through her office.
A Commentary from EDUCAUSE President Diana Oblinger
(12:33–15:33)
Diana considers the various facets of openness in higher education.
Emergency Notification Systems - Everyone on the Same Page
(16:13–23:30)
Choosing and implementing an emergency notification system is a complex undertaking. We speak with Mark Katsouros, Director of Telecommunication & Network Services at the University of Iowa (which underwent tremendous flooding in June ’08), and Bruce Myers, Business and Technology Analyst at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. They give their thoughts on the multitude of considerations when taking a layered approach to emergency notification.

Music for EDUCAUSE Now:

”Groove IT” by Denis Kitchen
“Lapse” by Might Could
“F1-11” by Blues Garden
”Lorge” by El Ten Eleven

Outdoor Sirens, Low-Tech but Highly Effective, Bolster Colleges' Emergency Responses

ckeller — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:37:57 -0500

Colleges and universities around the country, ever more mindful of campus safety, are installing outdoor sirens. The systems can blast spoken messages or tone alerts of danger—and one of the preset messages on many of the public-address systems warns: "There is a shooter on campus. Seek shelter immediately."

Do Emergency Text Messaging Systems Put Students in More Danger?

ckeller — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:41:19 -0500

The rush to use text messaging as an emergency notification system fails to consider the weaknesses and potential hazards of this solution.

Leveraging Technology and Human Systems in an Emergency

ckeller — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:40:09 -0500

Saint Peter’s College responded to a bomb threat and evacuated the campus safely and efficiently thanks to close integration of human systems with IT.

Messaging and Communication Survey

ckeller — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:06:39 -0500

This July 2008 survey is a critical component of the EDUCAUSE Center on Applied Research (ECAR) study of messaging and communication in higher education. It seeks to understand the provision, policies, use, and emerging trends related to telephony, mobile communications, e-mail and calendaring, and emergency notification systems in colleges and universities.

Citation for this work: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research. "Messaging and Communication Survey" (Survey Instrument). Boulder, CO: ECAR, 2008, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.