I posted a couple of entries on consumers giving up their landlines for cell phones. This article points to an interesting trend at colleges and businesses. Moving from landlines to VoIP is not a stretch - it's probably the strongest trend in enterprise telephony. Many colleges and businesses have already done so. At our college, we just flipped the switch to VoIP this month. We'll see how the transition goes. Moving from landlines to cell phones is another matter completely. All cabinet members (President, VPs, Deans, etc) are given college smartphones - Blackberrys, I think. Unfortunately, that's as far as our cell phone initiative goes. I'm sure there are many faculty that would benefit from a college cell phone - with the iPhone, I text as much as call. There are also a group of faculty that would never use this new technology - the same ones that are having difficulty with email an VoIP.
Communications - Colleges, Offices Are Scrapping Landline Phones:
Jennifer Wunder, an associate English professor at Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville, Ga., says she likes to keep her college-provided cell phone handy to send text messages and e-mails to students.
Wunder, 38, says her interaction with students is way up because she's reaching students on the same device they use.
'It's an incredible educational opportunity,' she said.
On Jan. 7, she'll join about 75 fellow employees who will unplug their office phone and go wireless for good, said Lonnie Harvel, the school's chief information officer.
The public college is one of a growing number of businesses and organizations across the USA that are shedding traditional land lines and replacing them with cell phones or voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) technology in an effort to save money during tough economic times.
1 comment:
You mention how some faculty will never give up their land line or do any new type of technology. It reminds me of a math teacher who refuses to give up using a chalk board. She will not use white boards or anything else. The school went so far as to appease her to not take down chalk boards in rooms that she teaches in. If for some reason the room she is in does not have a chalk board - she will have maintence wheel a portable chalk board in. This is a person that refuses to upgrade.
Which reminds me of another story about a chair who refuses to allow Internet connection into the chemistry classes... My wife went from a school that had leading edge in technology to teaching a class at the non-connected school and she said it was like going back to the dark ages...
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