How Many Colleges Have Gone Wireless?
On the Horizon
Source: “2007 Horizon Report”
College classrooms with wireless connections became the majority in 2006, according to the Campus Computing Survey. In the 2006 National Survey of Information Technology in U.S. Higher Education, wireless networks reached 51.2 percent of college classrooms. That was up from 42.7 percent in 2005 and 31.1 percent in 2004.
In private research universities, 58 percent of the classrooms had wireless capabilities in 2006, compared with 52.8 percent in 2005 and 47.4 percent in 2004.
The survey also found that 60.5 percent of colleges and universities increased campus IT budgets for wireless for the 2006–2007 academic year.
Other interesting findings include the following:
- 24.7 percent of public universities reported major computer virus problems, down from 46.1 percent in 2005.
- 55.7 percent of institutions reported a strategic plan for IT disaster recovery.
- 53.9 percent said open source “will play an increasingly important role” in their IT strategy, but only 28.2 percent say open source “offers a viable alternative” for key applications right now.
Source: The Campus Computing Project
