Ball State Alumnus Magazine, It's a Wireless World

Offices, homes, hotels, airports, coffee shops, and bookstores have become "hotspots" for laptop users to access the Internet without plugging into a phone or cable line. Handheld devices and cellular phones with text messaging and Internet capability are mainstream, providing instant connection via satellite.

As the world embraces wireless technologies, Ball State's foresight has put it in an enviable position as the nation's leading campus for wireless Internet accessibility. A recent study conducted by Intel for U.S. News and World Report dubbed Ball State the dubbed Ball State the "most unwired campus" in the U.S.

All over Ball State's campus, students, faculty, and staff are able to go online while sitting in the Quad, eating in the Atrium, working from a residence hall room, or participating in classroom discussions with the wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) technology that is in place. There are more than 625 Wi-Fi access points, allowing the population of Ball State to log onto the university's network from virtually any location on campus.

The university's savvy status did not occur overnight. In 1986, AT&T donated and installed fiber optic cable, establishing the groundwork for a wireless community. over the next 15 years, the university prepared campus buildings and infrastructure
for the advancing technology. Updates came in waves. Classroom multimedia connection became available in 1994 and 1998 marked the fi rst installation of wireless in some buildings.

But, it wasn't until 2001 that the university began to look at the importance of having an entirely wireless campus, a goal that became part of the university's information technology strategic plan.

Foresight put Ball State at the head of the wireless fi eld in 2002, with the installation of upgradeable Wi-Fi hardware. O'Neal Smitherman, Ball State's vice president of
Information Technology, explains. "We partnered with Cisco Corporation, who donated a great deal of their equipment and expertise to help us install a network so that it didn't require replacing the hardware. When new technological improvements came along we could update using software," Smitherman says.

Improvements to the Wi-Fi network came months later, making the technology that was available nearly five times faster than the original network. Once installation began, the faster wireless connection was operational within a few days.

Smitherman is pleased with Ball State's national notice, but points out that, even more important than what is available, is how the campus uses the resources. "It's nice to have the technology, but the technology is not the story. The real story is what's being done with it on campus, what our students and faculty are doing," he says.

"Part of our responsibility is to prepare our students for the world they must live in," Smitherman adds. "In order to do that in a world of connectedness, they must feel so comfortable with being connected that they consider it as a part of the way they think, learn, and solve problems."

Examples of a connected learning environment can be found throughout the campus community. Newslink Indiana production students can edit news programs from their laptops. Students researching in Bracken Library can use physical and virtual resources simultaneously. Biology students can perform field research in Christy Woods while being connected to the Internet, to aid in plant identifi cation. The wireless network has even allowed for live video streaming of university activities such as football games and performances. Teachers College and the College of Architecture and Planning have been progressive in making Wi-Fi a part of the daily educational routine by instituting laptop initiatives that require incoming students to have laptops to aid in their area of study.

Besides the benefits of wireless classroom applications, both colleges are finding other ways to apply the new technology to learning experiences. Teachers College students are using the technology to build digital portfolios, while College of Architecture and Planning students are able to use the laptops to participate in videoconferencing.

Off-campus, Ball State is working to see how the connectivity applies to daily life, specifically the lives of school children. Through the Digital Middletown project, Ball State has installed wireless capabilities at Mitchell and Cowan elementary schools in Delaware County.

The project's goal is to test the value, impact, and educational and social potential of wireless communication by using classroom broadband and classroom one-to-one laptop models.

"Part of what we are interested in is not just finding out how the technology works, but truly helping to develop those multimedia learning experiences that help our students and the students of the future learn more effectively this massive amount of information that they are expected to know," Smitherman explains.

Now that Ball State has captured its place among the nation's technology leaders, the challenge becomes staying ahead of the curve. All indications show that the university is poised to do so, as it explores ways to incorporate leadingedge opportunities in Internet and cellular technology.