"Dude, what are you still doing here?" your roommate asks.
"Well, actually I'm about to take some classes."
"Get yourself to the library; you have a meeting in 10!"
"Chill, bro', it's all good."
Yawning a little, you put on your suit -- your bathrobe and favorite slippers -- and slowly walk down to the common room. You sit and look up, and there it is. A 37-inch, flat, high-resolution Travis Green pops up on the centrally-placed TV. "Video conferences rock," you mutter while opening your first morning Keystone.
If this situation sounds more like a dream than a nightmare from a cheap dystopian science-fiction movie, keep your fingers crossed: national technological frenzy is sweeping through college campuses. Dartmouth has spearheaded technological innovation in the past, and will introduce new technology in the coming years to try and maintain its tech-savvy reputation.
With the introduction of BlitzMail 20 years ago, Darmouth's vox clamantis has been taken from the deserto straight into the massive conscience of college students nationwide. According to David Gelhar, a senior programmer in the software development department, Dartmouth was at that time certainly bypassing all technological norms and standards. All dorm rooms were wired, and the e-mail usage was very frequent relative to other institutions', Gelhar said.
Right along with Dr. Seuss, pong paddles and Superbad, BASIC, one of the earliest computer languages developed in the world, should help form the foundations of our Big Green pride. BASIC was designed by two Dartmouth professors in 1963, but it helped the College win the title of the Hottest Tech-Savvy School in Kaplan/Newsweek's "America's Hottest Colleges" as recently as three years ago. Dartmouth's status as the first school to say no to Ethernet cables and establish a fully wireless campus didn't hurt the College's ranking, either. The past was indeed glorious, but the question remains: how is the present?
The College has continued to be at the forefront of technological change; it was the first to use its network for transferring not only data, but also voice signals with the VoIP phones in residence hall rooms and video-signals with DarTV. It was also one of the first to use 802.1x wireless standard for the network, which improves network security, according to David Bucciero, Dartmouth's director of technical services.
All those high-tech novelties only minimally affect the lives of average Dartmouth students, however, and haven't kept the College in the tech rankings. The Top 20 Wired Colleges chosen by PC Magazine have introduced online courses and video conferences, or support free peer-to-peer transfer through the campuses' networks -- controversial changes that the College has not attempted.
MIT, number two on the list, supports the OpenCourseWare program, which makes all the courses offered by the Institute accessible by anyone from anywhere. MIT students, their wannabes, or other curious individuals can easily download lecture videos, assignments and even class notes directly off the Web.
Creighton University, number five on the list, sent admissions notifications to applicants via cell phone text messaging last year -- the first college to do so -- and has since then continued to send out text messages to its students to remind them of important university events. It also allows peer-to-peer file-sharing applications and does not limit students' software or music downloads. At Dartmouth, Computer Services has been vigilantly attempting to curb illegal downloading for years, and students who do not delete illegal music when asked risk getting their IP addresses blocked from the College's network.
The classrooms at University of Southern California, number eight on the list, are wired and equipped with microphones and webcams which allow students to participate in meetings and lectures through video conferences.
Those who already lost faith that similar innovations will in the future be part of the Dartmouth reality are soon to regret their vacillation: several technological modernizations, if finalized, will certainly influence student life on campus.
BlitzMail seems to be the first of the College's technological icons that is going to be subject to unavoidable changes. Although Gelhar denies that Google's Gmail will replace the BlitzMail system, he agrees that the old software needs updates.
"There have been several issues with BlitzMail, the biggest one being that it cannot support html e-mails, which seems to bother a lot of people," he said. "A special committee will evaluate student and faculty opinions at the end of the year and we will decide what to do."
The College is also looking to introduce a dual cell phone system. The system would require usage of cell phone handsets that support both Wi-Fi and cell coverage and would let students make calls for free from anywhere on campus through the wireless internet connection.
"The technology is still in its infancy and we're considering our options," network engineer Peter Ejmont said. "We're trying to be forerunners in this matter, but the technology is just not there yet. It takes some time."
According to Ejmont, the College is currently moving towards the beta-testing phase.
The College's plans also involve the construction of a highly modernized science building and a second computer server room three miles from campus. Another long-term project involves digitalizing the College's library resources to compress the archives.
Those who dream of an online education might have their wish fulfilled.
According to Malcolm Brown, director of academic computing and adjunct assistant professor of Jewish studies, tests will be held throughout the next two or three months to determine which technology would introduce podcasts in the most efficient way.
"iTunes U is certainly one channel we could use, but there are many other options," Brown said.
It has been implied that the introduction of podcast technology would decrease class attendance since students could choose to download their lectures instead of attending them, but both Brown and Avery disagree.
"Based on what we know from professors already posting their lectures online, the attendance shouldn't significantly decrease," Avery said.
Remember those fingers you crossed at the beginning of this article? You may let them go. It's all quiet at the College on the Hill, and it seems like the high-tech madness invading colleges nationwide will reach our campus at just the right time, when online courses could be the only alternative to freezing on the way to 10s.
