According to the Notre Dame Webgroup homepage (http://www.nd.edu/~netgroup/), the ND Webgroup is an "interdisciplinary group of Notre Dame scientists, engineers, social scientists, and business and humanities faculty who meet regularly to explore new directions in electronic technology and the impact of the Internet and the World Wide Web on society, economics, politics, and culture." We thought that this would be a good source for insight into the problem of the digital divide and how it applies to the Notre Dame campus.

Faculty Responses to the Digital Divide

How do we deal with the very real gap that exists in today's society between those who have access to technology and those who do not? Is it the responsibility of a democracy to provide all of its members with access to the Net? We asked Professors Biddick, Hachen, and Barry for their comments on the Digital Divide and whether or not the gap that exists should be bridged. Click the links below to see their responses:

Prof. Biddick | Prof. Hachen | Prof. Barry

Equality at Notre Dame

The difficulty of ensuring that all people have equal access to information and technology is not only a problem that afflicts nations, but also our own University. If one revisits the core question of this site, he/she can substitute the term "university" for "modern nation state." Is equality of technology necessary to the success of a university? Professor Kantor, one of the leading experts on the university effort on eLearning here at Notre Dame, attempts to answer such questions. Is Notre Dame's success as an institution of higher learning dependent on its ability to provide equal information and opportunity to all of its students through technology?

What is the importance of technology at Notre Dame?

In my view, the role of technology at Notre Dame has evolved from a communications vehicle to a repository for storing and finding information. As a communications tool, technology offers cheap, fast, one-to-many, many-to-many, synchronous or asynchronous capabilities. Further, technology has replaced the library as the main information repository for most students. Actually, it would be more correct to say that technology is now the intermediary to information, whether it comes in digital forms of traditional materials like journals and books, or as original source materials.

In my view, for the most part, technology has not become the intermediary in the classroom. This is happening in other areas of higher education, like the University of Phoenix. And that’s growing rapidly. But at Notre Dame and other selective universities, technology does not appear to be replacing faculty or the traditional classroom/seminar experiences.

What prompted the creation of OIT and efforts towards
eLearning?

There has been an administrative office for technology at Notre Dame since at least the late 50’s. At one time, this was only for a small group of staff doing data processing and providing mainframe computing for researchers. This evolved into the Office of University Computing (OUC) in the late 80’s, which became the Office of Information Technologies in the early 90’s. Each of these changes was associated with a broadening of mission, first to include technology in support of teaching and learning, and later to include all elements of supporting end-user computing on campus.

eLearning evolved in the course of this growth. Over the whole history of technology on campus, there have been faculty members exploiting technologies in teaching. This began with the teaching of programming, and the use of simulation to illustrate concepts in technical fields. Projects to use technology for, say, question and response exercises were attempted in the 70’s and 80’s, but these failed because of the high cost of hardware and primitive state of software tools.

A group working on educational media evolved in the early 90’s, which led to WebCT, course management tools, and the like now used on campus.

What is Notre Dame’s future direction with the Internet and other technological services?

We continue to invest in building the network infrastructure on campus. I should actually say, rebuilding. A campus-wide network was in place for academic use for at least the last 10 years, and in the dormitories for 6 or 7 years. That original infrastructure is not up to current standards and portions have been rebuilt several times to keep up with changing technology.

Core issues that face all universities, including our own, is to provide for the continuing upgrade of core communication services, the convergence of technologies, explosion of security issues, and improved reliability.

A subtle point is that these issues are about expenses – that is, managing the tradeoff between cost and benefit, and maintaining infrastructure that competes with other leading universities. The danger in this – and what should keep university administrators sharp – is that it does not look at technology as a strategic and disruptive source of change for Notre Dame. For example, could Notre Dame open a virtual campus for students throughout Africa and/or South America? Could Notre Dame open a new ‘virtual’ campus for, say, an executive program in ethics? Can we bring in a rich set of experiences to student life on-campus (for example, through a partnership with the Vatican offering joint courses on canonical law?)

How many ND students own personal computers?

My understanding is that virtually 100% of students have access to computers in their living spaces, though ownership is sometimes shared with roommates.

How many computers are available for use in the clusters?

Somewhere between 400 and 500. But the important thing to see is that the clusters are evolving towards specialization, such as video production, architecture, engineering workstations, science and visualization. At one time, the emphasis on clusters was to be sure all students had access to technology to avoid haves or have-nots. Increasingly, the implicit expectation is that students come to campus with their own laptop and that the role of OIT is to support the underlying communications, and specialized needs that cannot be reasonably addressed through student ownership.

Are these resources sufficient for a school of this size?

Depends on your view of roles and relationships. The resources would not be sufficient to provide all tools for all students. We do rely on the student purchase of computers for much of the current infrastructure, such as the residence halls. The issue is whether we are meeting the demonstrated research and teaching needs of the University, and in that regard I think we are, though stretched thin.

In your opinion, has ND fully recognized the revolutionary impact of the Internet?

Don’t know. We have certainly invested. With regard to the eLearning euphoria of five years ago, I think we now look remarkably prescient in the type of project we took on, and avoided some enormously expensive mistakes made by other universities. On the other hand, there are well-regarded leaders in higher education who argue for substantially more radical investments. James Duderstadt, ex-president of the University of Michigan, is a prominent example.

Are ND’s resources equal to those of other universities?

Again, yes and no. Other schools have substantially larger capacities in infrastructure while others have less. We defined our goals as offering a premier learning experience, and the question to ask is what we mean by that, whether technology has a role, and whether we meet the resultant need. Some on campus would argue that technology is no substitute for a great teacher in a small seminar room. In that case, this question is irrelevant. Others would argue differently.

Are ND students receiving less of an education if the school’s resources are not equal to those of other universities or, in the contrary situation, do they possess an educational advantage if these resources are superior?

Basically the same response as above. And I’d like to reflect the question back to you by asking what was the most important educational experience you’ve had during your time at Notre Dame? Did technology make a difference? When I ask students this question, a common answer is that a semester or year in one of the international programs was a life-changing experience,
or they might mention a research experience in a laboratory, a leadership experience in one group or another, or a great teacher. Technology can have an enabling role in any of these. So my answer is that the educational experience at Notre Dame and peer
universities is dominated by the learning opportunities developed by faculty, and by leadership experiences. Technology is secondary, but can significantly enhance those experiences. A technology strategy is secondary to other elements of what we’re trying to accomplish.

Other Universities and eLearning

Other Universities have utilized the Internet for various educational purposes. Below are some links to syllabi, eLearning sites, and classes which are utilizing some of the latest in technology.

Thomas More College

Courses which utilize new science and psychology related technology
http://www.thomasmore.edu/academics/study/fys/Sharma.asp

Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt's eLab
http://elab.vanderbilt.edu/

Schedule of classes offered at eLab
http://elab.vanderbilt.edu/curriculum/courses/index.htm

Some syllabus info
http://elab.vanderbilt.edu/curriculum/courses/hoffman/
mgt557_fall01.htm

Georgetown University

A sample class from Georgetown
"393 (371). Wireless Networks
Accessing information, anywhere, anyplace, and at anytime, will be the key in future information systems. In this course, we will study various technical aspects of wireless communications and network systems. Depending on time and interests, the course will cover the following topics: Communications, including, Spectrum allocation and characteristics, propagation characteristics, coding, frequency, and time division multiplication; Satellite systems; Network Systems, including, Cellular telephony, GSM system, TDMA system, CDMA system, network protocols (1G, 2G, 2.5G, and 3G), mobile IP, and ad-hoc networks; and Applications, including, Browsing through wireless devices, WAP and WEP."

Syllabus
http://www.cosc.georgetown.edu