Faculty and Students Evaluate Kean Technology
By Daris Mendez
For better or for worse, technology has rapidly become an important aspect of higher education and the use of it in Kean classrooms has grown immensely. Consequently, the students and faculty of Kean have been speaking out on the quality of the technology.
On November 11, Kean’s Faculty Senate got together to discuss issues relevant to its students and the university as a whole, and one of the issues mentioned was the poor effectiveness of classroom technology.
Members discussed the specific problems they were experiencing in classrooms, such as the extended amount of time it takes for systems to start up and missing blinds which create a problem when presenting power points.
Other students pointed out that the issues with technology also depend on where you are on campus.
“It is our hope that we can work together to make this place a better place,” said Dr. Pat Ippollito at the meeting.
The students themselves have also noticed of the affect of faulty technology in the classroom. Junior student Kelly Rebele expressed her frustrations with her experience in a computer-based classroom.
“The technology at Kean University is stressful,” said Rebele. “As a student you come prepared and ready to learn however, when projectors, mouse, or even keys are missing from keyboards, it is unacceptable.”
Rebele also mentioned a time where her class ended early because of problems with the classroom projector and the multiple issues that exist with the computers in that particular Mac lab.
Although these types of issues exist, The University does offers Computer Information Services, which tend to be very helpful with technical issues on campus. The University also budgeted $3,162,000 dollars towards equipment and improvements for 2014, which is stated on the Budget Office Website.
Hello Faris. My name is Gerard Smithwrick, President of Student Organization. I’ve been working with my fellow president of the Graduate and Part-Time Student Council (Chazz Fellenz) to address this concern with the administration. We met with Facilities and OCIS last semester and have updates on progress. They’ve updated all the software and panels in the classrooms across campus. There are several instances where more older models of technology must still be used like VCRs for films, etc. If there are additional my concerns with classrooms please let me know, and we’ll continue to meet with administration to address these concerns. My email is smithwrg@kean.edu.