A friend’s kids just went to college.  Their university charges them $10 a month for their dorm room phone, as part of their on-campus living expenses.  They, of course, never even use the dorm phone (they are 100% mobile) and their dad doesn’t even know the number.  Seems like a waste of money for the school and the student.

Mobility in higher-ed is an open issue right now.  A big chunk of campus wireline infrastructure for living quarters is arguably unneeded and under-appreciated.  What telecommunications services (if any) should a college provide?  Should they give every student a mobile phone?  But many kids will already have one and have no desire to switch.  It makes sense to give students a way to access data more cheaply, more easily, and at greater speeds from their phone while on campus.  It also seems reasonable to complement access with new campus-related mobile apps, whether for coursework, research, extra-curriculars, or safety.  

But how does the college fund this?  Is it just part of the basic package a 21st century college has to provide to remain competitive?  Or is it a value-add service that can provide new revenue for the institution? 

Very practical concern.  But I worry that asking only the “funding” question locks us into a mindset of mobile phones as just a dorm phone replacement, instead of as a potential catalyst for changing the basic educational experience itself.

Maybe that sounds a bit too grandiose, but some folks are thinking about campus mobility very broadly.  Here is a snippet of what Duke University was doing last year to encourage its faculty to integrate mobility:  http://cit.duke.edu/tools/mobile/index.html  They say:  “… mobile devices offer an opportunity to further educational goals by leveraging and building upon the functions of technologies already adopted by and considered indispensible to a majority of students.”  

That last part is dead-on.  Here is a technology kids love and find absolutely immersive.  Use it for all it’s worth.  Over the next 5-10 years, I truly believe we are going to see mobile phones become as intrinsic a part of the college educational experience as they are today of the social experience.  They will be a conduit of learning and, let’s face it,  much more fun than my memories of watching freshman physics tutorials on closed-circuit campus TV.