Drexel Launches First Mobile Wireless Web Service
Drexel University will launch the first mobile wireless web service for students, enabling them to retrieve a range of information, including their grades, via virtually any web-enabled handheld devices from anywhere in the world. Drexel President Constantine Papadakis announced the availability of this new service during the University’s 115th commencement today.
With the new service, called DrexelOne Mobile, students can get campus news and personal announcements, check their grades or search the University directory using their choice of cellular phones, newer BlackBerries, Palm compatibles, PocketPCs and other web-enabled devices. Access to DrexelOne Mobile is made through the same network connections as a cellular phone, pager or notebook computer.
Students who depart the campus after taking their finals will be able to log onto DrexelOne Mobile to check their grades from anywhere in the world or look up a professor’s phone number and email address in the University directory.
DrexelOne Mobile is linked to the University’s administrative systems, which include admissions, registration, human resources and finance. The service is being developed and implemented by Drexel’s Office of Information Resources and Technology, headed by Vice President and Chief Information Officer Dr. John A. Bielec. According to Bielec, “Allowing students a choice of devices and service providers is critical with the rapid rate of change in technology.”
“DrexelOne Mobile is the next advancement of our University’s technological capabilities,” Papadakis said. “It is a natural progression for Drexel to provide service to our students via mobile wireless technology.”
In 2000, Drexel became the first major university to operate a completely wireless, high-speed campus network.
“This new service is similar to those offered by cellular phone carriers that enable users to check the stock market, movie times or sports scores,” said Papadakis. “It’s a big leap for students that Drexel makes real-time University information available to them just like many corporations do for their high-level executives.”
Cellular phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) are becoming commonplace. According to published studies, worldwide sales of these devices are expected to increase 14 percent this year to 458 million and by 2005, 85 percent of college students are expected to own cell phones.
“Drexel is offering mobile web service to its students because of the rapid growth in the use of wireless technologies,” Bielec said. “Embracing this technology now keeps our students ahead of the curve.”
Drexel is a co-operative education university. During their second, third and fourth years, students alternate classroom study with six-month periods of paid, professional-level jobs related to their field of study. Employers participating in Drexel’s co-op program are located in 39 states and 12 foreign countries.
“This new service will provide added cohesion for our student body, making interaction with our campus and each other easier, no matter where our students are,” Papadakis said.
Drexel’s Office of Information Resources and Technology is developing customized applications for DrexelOne Mobile that include access to class schedules and academic calendar information. DrexelOne Mobile will be able to provide access to email and personal calendars through interfaces with the Campus Pipeline™ Web Platform, the technology infrastructure for Drexel’s digital campus, a network that integrates and unites portals, data, student information and learning management systems, and Web services, under a single online roof.
Drexel University, a pioneer in integrating emerging technologies into the curriculum, was the first university to require students to have microcomputers (1983), the first major university to operate a fully wireless campus (2000) and the first to provide free voice recognition software to its over 15,000 students (2000). In the 2001 Yahoo! Internet Life rankings of the nation’s 100 “Most Wired” campuses, Drexel is No. 1 in “Wireless Access” and sixth overall.
About Campus Pipeline, Inc.
Campus Pipeline, Inc., an UPSIDE magazine “Hot 100” Internet Infrastructure award winner and Codie Award “Best Educational Total Comprehensive Solution” finalist, delivers software and services for higher education, helping institutions unify campus data, enterprise applications, and services into a Web-centralized digital campus. Today more than 150 colleges and universities worldwide use Campus Pipeline technologies including the Campus Pipeline™ Web Platform, the industry’s first and most widely used Web platform, and the Campus Pipeline Luminis™ product family of platform, content management and integration technologies, to build their vision of a unified digital campus. For more information, call 888.682.PIPE or visit www.campuspipeline.com. Contact Laura Kvinge, 801/257-4158 lkvinge@campuspipeline.com or Stephanie Miller, 801/487-4800 ext. 107 smiller@ppch.com.
News Media Contact:
Kevin C. Kaufman, Drexel University News Bureau Director 215/895-2705 (office), 267/228-5599 (cell) or kauf@drexel.edu For more information on Drexel University please visit www.drexel.edu/dateline.
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