An Update on Abilene Christian University's Mobile Initiative
Earlier this year, we pointed to Abilene Christian University's mobile initiative. The university would be the first to offer incoming freshmen iPhone and iPod Touch devices, and then integrate them into an entire mobile-culture.
An article at Network World peeks into what has happened at Abilene Christian University, and some of the blessings and challenges of going mobile in a university setting. Here's a snippet:
...When iPhone was released, the school bought nearly two dozen to test out. By December 2007, campus officials decided they had what they needed.
Well, almost.
The university decided to focus on just the incoming freshmen, rather than try to equip and support all nearly 4,000 undergrads. Even so, IT staff realized the campus Wi-Fi net had not been designed to support a fully and constantly connected population. "As I thought this through, I realized these [handhelds] were wireless-only devices, and much better positioned than laptops for doing all kinds of things like quick lookups," says Arthur Brant, ACU's director of networking services. "That meant these devices would be used a lot more than laptops..."
Read the rest of the article at Network World.
What can we gather from initiative that is beneficial for the Body at large? Specifically, from an implementation standpoint, we can see that there was a vision for use that had a lot of hands towards making this mobile-enabled culture happen. There was an acknowledgement of limitations, and a quick response to issues (where possible).
What ACU does as well as point towards a response to technology as the Body has has to understand. There are elements of use and culture, but moreso there is a methodology of equipping for the world at hand that needs to be done if we are going to live in this changing world.
As one who wanted to pull this off with PDAs while I was an undergrade (article written in late 2001, I graduated 2002), there is definitely some interest in me seeing the successes and failures here. But it also is encouraging to see that mobile tech can be used as a part of the education and Christian-life-skills processes.
Labels: community, education, information technology, iPhone, iPod Touch, mobility, tech
posted by Antoine @ 10/18/2008 10:00:00 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
ACU is my alma mater - I can say that the WiFi on that campus isn't really enough for too many laptops, much less a load of iPhones, lol.
I'm very proud, though, to see my school being so forward-thinking.
To add on to the previous comment, I'm glad that they have the 3G network up and running for the iPhone users. It provides a nice alternative to the WiFi @ ACU.
That is so cool :)
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