We at Maricopa are fortunate to be "wired." Since the late 1980's, the District has been vigorously wiring buildings to provide a system-wide network of voice, video, and data- wires that connect offices, libraries, computing centers, and chemistry laboratories, for example, across the entire system.
Now, the instructional technology jargon is changing from "wired" to "wireless." This is a step forward to more connectivity, freeing us from the tethers to the wall, simplifying the deployment of computer technology in non-traditional learning spaces, and opening the door to more cooperative learning activities that use the Internet.
This technology allows one transmitting device, or "access point" connected to the net (by one wire, so we are not totally free of them) that allows many computers to share that network connection via radio waves that travel through walls and over hundreds of feet. Small receiving cards in laptop and desktop computers connect them to the Internet without any cords, at reasonably high speeds.
But this is not an article on the nuts and bolts. Instead, it is an article on how people at Maricopa are using wireless networks now. Some of the colleges are looking at this technology as a means to bring the Internet into older facilities where it would be expensive to run cable. For instructors, wireless networking provides a mode conducive to collaborative activities. Most importantly, wireless networking makes technology more transparent to students.
Buried Cities and Lost Tribes at Mesa Community College
Rick Effland, MCC
|
With Rick Effland's ASB 222/223 courses, "Buried Cities and Lost Tribes," he continues his pursuit of the leading edge of technological innovation. Rick teaches in an ordinary looking classroom complete with chairs, tables, and white boards. Lying on the tables are tangerine, blueberry, and graphite colored Apple iBooks; however, nary a wire can be seen.
Students stream in for an 11:00 AM class, sit down, and start their work-- without an opening lecture. On our visit, 35 students are grouped 2 or 3 to a computer. Some jump in right away while others take longer to hit the right button to log into their class web site. It is a noisy atmosphere of conversation and exchange. Not one student avoids participation.
These ASB 222 students are exploring one of Rick's web sites, a virtual visit to Angkor Wat, where they discover and interpret the meaning of the various dimensions of the ancient site. Room sizes, numbers of statues, etc. all have symbolic meaning. Students navigate through images, maps, floor plans, and descriptive text. Like what often happens in the study of anthropology, they are problem solving with limited information provided up front. They toggle from web sites to their textbook to class notes to calculators. The computer blends in with the other learning materials. As they work, students often shove the computer across the table and show a classmate what they found and where.
ASB 222 Class, MCC
|
Their assignment requires the students to submit a group reflection online to a shared community on Yahoo eGroups. In this environment, nine sections of Rick's courses are one virtual community (228 students), sharing ideas although some are studying the course with a New World focus and others have an Old World focus.
With a wide range of choices in how they present their information, students are often creative. One student inquires, "Is it okay if we do our report as a web site and we just submit the URL?" Rick just smiles at this initiative.
South Mountain Community College Wireless Brings the Internet to Older Classrooms
At South Mountain, an initiative for wireless networking is driven by a need to bring connectivity to older classroom buildings. Wireless technology here is a cost effective solution to a facilities problem.
Currently, in the Physical Science and Life Science buildings, only one classroom in each is sufficiently wired with electricity and network cables to provide network access. Details provided by Manuel Lopez include newly installed Cisco Aironet 350 access points, one per building, that provides the network capability for a total of 8 classrooms.
Faculty who teach in these buildings can share a fleet of 51 laptops equipped with wireless network adapter cards. And that, Manuel says, is "turning every classroom in these buildings into an Internet-ready learning space."
Pushpa Ramakrishna, CGCC, and Biology Students
|
Biology instructor Pushpa Ramakrishna has led an effort now in its third semester to use wireless laptops in CGCC's science lab classrooms. It is part of an effort to create "seamless" learning in lab sciences with a mixture of introductory lecture, computer-based inquiry exercises, hands-on wet labs, and follow-up discussion.
The wireless technology at Chandler-Gilbert allows faculty to quickly deploy a fleet of 24 laptops to any of 4 lab classrooms. Then students can explore an online simulation, build their hypotheses, and try them out as they do a hands-on wet-lab exercise.
On the day of our visit, students in BIO 181 were working in pairs to find information about respiration, using Pushpa's "Wonderful World of Yeast" web site. On this site, they find information presented as content and they can analyze microscopy images using Java simulations to gather data.
While it was hard work to restructure her courses, Pushpa has found that wireless access provides a smoother transition between online learning resources and the activities occurring inher class. She has trained
Biology adjunct faculty to teach in this environment. Other faculty in
Chemistry and Physics are using the wireless fleet in their labs as well.
According to Instructional Technologist Tom Foster, wireless technology supports the college's "emphasis on cooperative learning across the curriculum--it takes away the requirement to go to a computer lab for an online activity And it is relatively cheap!" At this point the main challenge is developing a system for scheduling the use of mobile computers, and Chandler-Gilbert is addressing this by identifying a faculty liaison responsible for each equipped classroom.
Pushpa had told her students that we would be visiting to observe their use of wireless networking. One of their students commented, "Wireless? I never knew we were using wireless technology." We cannot do better for making technology transparent.
How Wireless to Go?
No doubt we will see more use of wireless network technology at Maricopa (also in use now at Rio Salado College and Paradise Valley Community College). It addresses issues of providing flexible technology (using the Internet in the context of a class activity rather than forcing an activity into a computer lab). Bringing the Internet to class becomes much simpler. And we can more fully realize the power of communications technology for collaborative learning activities.
Other institutions are going as far as providing enough transmitters to provide network connectivity from any point on campus. As soon as you enter the grounds, you are wired.
And you can expect even more "wirelessness." My local dry cleaner showed me his new wireless web cell phone, where he can read email, check online financial information, read news stories, etc. Palm pilots and next generation PDAs will open more doors for connecting net based information.
What happens as computing devices shrink, cheapen, and have fewer wires? Perhaps we become less aware that we are doing something with a technology and more aware of what we are doing with it. Wireless networking is a fantastic tool, but we will always need worthwhile ideas for what we do in this new environment.
Wireless Resources
A bonus collection of related resources only available in the web version of the Forum!
Rethinking Wireless
an article by Matt Villano in the April 2003 issue of University Business: "As wireless LANs grow on campuses across North America, academic technologists strategize for the challenges of the future."
http://www.universitybusiness.com/page.cfm?id=226
Net@EDU Wireless Campus Networking Group
is an Educause working group looking implementation of wireless LAN and WAN's.
http://www.educause.edu/netatedu/groups/wireless/
Wireless Ethernet Compatability Alliance
a consortium of industry partners that certifies "interoperability of Wi-Fi™ (IEEE 802.11) products and to promote Wi-Fi™ as the global wireless LAN standard across all market segments."
http://www.wi-fi.org/
High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network (HPWREN
an NSF funded project at the University of California San Diego that "is creating, demonstrating, and evaluating a non-commercial, prototype, high-performance, wide-area, wireless network in San Diego county."
http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/
Wireless Computer Networking: WANs and LANs
The Texas Center for Educational Technology provides this overview of wireless networking technology with a large collection of links to more information
http://www.tcet.unt.edu/wlan.htm
Center for Wireless Information Network Studies (CWINS)
at Worcestor Polytechnical Institute "is a renowned compact wireless research laboratory with a successful history of research alliances with other industrial and academic groups. The center has performed research for government agencies and has close ties with the world-leading organizations in the wireless industry. "
http://www.cwins.wpi.edu/
| 
