Last month, Boston College was ranked sixth on PC Magazine's "Top Wired Colleges" list, higher than MIT, Stanford University, and other prestigious universities across the country. This honor comes as BC continues to integrate technology both into the classroom and into the lives of its students.
Mary Corcoran, associate vice president of Information Technology Services (ITS) at BC, said that in today's day and age, students are much more reliant on technology than they were even a few years ago. Referring to surveys of the freshman class, she said, "In 2004, we had a little over 80 people who didn't have any type of computer. In 2008, we're under 30 who don't have a computer." She also noted another trend that has arisen in recent years: Unlike what numbers indicated three years ago, this year's freshman class uses more Macs than PCs. "[There are] 1,464 Macs versus 1,150 PCs. That was taken on a particular date in September, so the numbers fluctuate a little bit," Corcoran said.
Since the announcement of the Institutional Master Plan, though, BC's outlook toward technology has changed. "Technology will play a key part in the Master Plan. What we will do in our department is work with the people who are designing the buildings and the people who will be occupying the buildings," Corcoran said. The technology aspect of the Master Plan, she said, will focus on convergence, an industry trend that seeks to create technology with fewer cables and fewer devices. "Things that used to come over just the Ethernet wire, the telephone wire, the cable wire - you can now get all of those services over an Ethernet wire."
Retrofitting the older buildings on BC's campus has been the biggest problem faced by ITS because the concrete walls were not constructed for wireless environments or new wiring. New buildings will make implementing new technology much easier. "We will, in the buildings that are built, as they're built, put the most modern technology into the building," Corcoran said.
Regarding how students will be affected in the future, ITS is focusing on three major projects: the wireless network, voice-over-IP, and video-over-IP. Joe Harrington, director of Network Services, said that though all of the administrative and academic buildings on campus have wireless Internet access, there is still more that can be done. "What's going on is that when we first put the wireless out there, it was really to provide coverage. Since that time, the use has gone up dramatically, so we have to go back and put one, two more access points in some areas."
Students agree that wireless needs to be improved. "You have all the basic stuff you need, but one thing that I don't like is that you can't get wireless in your dorm room," said John Bacon, A&S '12. "In some places on campus, it seems like the wireless is not very sound. … It's reliable but just not very fast. When you have it plugged into the wall it is much faster."
Bacon also mentioned a problem that many students experience - cell phone coverage. While cell phone coverage does not operate on the same system as wireless Internet, it is still an important part of students' lives on campus. Corcoran acknowledged cell phone coverage is a problem and that ITS was in the process of addressing it. "We are aware that there are some locations on campus that don't have great cell phone coverage, for example some of the residence halls. We are working with some of the vendors to understand where we have issues with cell service."
BC also has plans in mind for new technologies that students might not have considered. One of those is voice-over-IP, which offers the ability to receive telephone service through a standard Internet line, is a technology with which other colleges are also experimenting. "We are actually doing some testing of that right now, getting our telephone switches ready to accommodate that transfer. In about January to February … the [ITS] building will do a test of voice over IP with the telephones on our desk … close to 150 of us," Corcoran said.
Another new service that is being tested is video-over-IP, a technology that allows television to be streamed over an Internet line. "We have actually done some testing with small pockets of folks with a product called Video Furnace that will deliver IP video to the desktop. We will be looking to use a technology like that for the Boston College specific channels," she said. This service, though, would be unrealistic to receive over a wireless network in the near future. "Video-over-IP would not work initially over a [wireless network]. Wireless is a shared medium. It gets increasingly difficult to support higher bandwidth applications … [but] as technology evolves, those technology requirements may go away," Harrington said.
BC's technology also extends into the classroom, for use by faculty and students alike. "They're testing in Fulton Hall this semester course-capturing technology, which means the instructor in the front of the room is capturing not only the sound but also what is going on in the classroom, [which can] be made available to students after class," Corcoran said. She also noted another phenomenon taking hold on BC's campus. "There are faculty all over campus who are doing podcasting, and capturing their lectures and making them available to Blackboard Vista or iTunes University," she said.
There is no doubt that over the next 10 years technology will drastically change at BC. "The University senior management is committed to the investment in the technology infrastructure here, and especially as it meets the needs of faculty and students; that's our biggest priority," Corcoran said.
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