In an age when computers grow obsolete faster than ever only to be replaced by the newest and fastest hardware, many students are expressing their dissatisfaction with their campuses’ information technology resources despite universities’ constant efforts to update, IT experts say.
Institutions struggle to keep up with students’ high expectations, said Kenneth Green, director of the Computing Project, an annual study of information technology at 600 colleges and universities in the United States.
‘Expectations are fueled by the consumer economy,’ Green said. ‘They wonder why the same technology can’t be on campus. Students have this expectation of on-demand, at my fingertips and I shouldn’t have to pay for it.’
Because widespread budget cuts have affected campuses nationwide, Green said campuses may be forced to slow the rate of computer replacement. BU Office of Information Systems and Technology Vice President Michael Krugman said technological updates involve spending on a huge scale.
‘Projects might need to be deferred,’ he said. ‘There are tough choices and we have to make strategic decisions because we can’t [make] everything at its very best all the time.’
‘The 21st Century Campus Index’ commissioned by CDW-Government, an information technology company that provides support for government, schools and businesses, asked faculty, students and administrators to rank their institutions in terms of technology in and outside of the classroom.
The study looked at the integration of wikis, which are editable web pages, podcasts and web conferencing and assessed two year, public four-year and private four-year institutions.
The CDW-G study found students often look at how ‘wired’ their campuses are when deciding what school to attend.
‘CDW-G’s study revealed the current state of campus technology to help institutions identify campus technology successes and areas calling for improvement,’ CDW-G Director of Higher Education Julie Smith said in an email.
Smith said colleges could improve technology by training professors and monitoring relevant technology that would be available after graduation to equip students to handle the advances when they are in the job market.
The study said potential employers look for tech savvy students, and a technologically updated campus better prepares students for a technologically advanced workplace.
Investing large amounts of money in campus technology could eventually lead to more savings, however, Council on Library and Information Resources President Chuck Henry said. Libraries will have to modernize their services and better share their resources to cut down on costs, he said, but in the long run, the current economic troubles could actually fuel the drive for more technologically advanced libraries.
‘The electronic environment had made research more rigorous, challenging and in-depth,’ Henry said.