Free iPhones and a Switch to Google Mail: a Campus Tries Mobile Learning and Outsourcing

Thursday, April 24, at 12 noon, U.S. Eastern time

Kevin Roberts is chief information officer and director of re-engineering at Abilene Christian University, in Texas. He has overseen the university's give-away program of Apple iPhones to provide students and faculty members with a new platform for mobile learning. And he has worked on the university's complete transition to Google Apps for Education. Mr. Roberts has been at the university for nine years and served as CIO for the last two.

A transcript of the chat follows.

Josh Fischman (Moderator):
    Mobile learning and outsourcing e-mail operations are two of the hottest topics in campus IT today. Kevin Roberts, our guest today, knows a lot about both of them. Kevin, the chief information officer at Abilene Christian University, has moved his institution from a home-grown e-mail system to Google Apps for Education, and overseen experiments in group learning using various Google applications. He also has pushed for mobile computing, providing free iPhones to faculty members and students to create and complete course work from anywhere on the campus. How has it worked out? Can his experiences serve as models for other institutions? And what has been the reaction to those changes on his campus? Welcome, Kevin, and thanks for joining us online at The Chronicle.

Question from Amy DiLorenzo, University of Kentucky:
    What challenges have you encountered in implementing curriculum via the iPhones?

Kevin Roberts:
    i wouldn't characterize it as "implementing curriculum." We have clearly said to our faculty that we are giving them a tool to use. We don't expect every faculty member to use it nor do we expect those who do to use it everyday. we are trying to demonstrate ways it can be used and let them determine how to maximize it in their classroom

Question from Debora Stewart, Palm Beach Atlantic University:
    I want to know if and how the library at ACU has taken advantage of this venue to push library services and instruction.

Kevin Roberts:
    We have a group of our librarians who have devices and exploring ways to do just that. i confess that i haven't met with them recently to see what they are thinking. however, we recognize that they are a fundamental group.

one thing i know they are thinking about is using the location sensing (not GPS yet) capabilities of the device to help locate resources. i don't know where they are on that, but i know it something they were exploring.

finally, i know they are looking at simple things like optimizing the existing library website/portal for viewing on an iphone/ipod touch.

Question from Andrea Foster, chronicle of higher education:
    Is your campus trying to measure whether the iPhones are effective learning tools? If so, how are you measuring this?

Kevin Roberts:
    we are trying to measure it. we are working extensively with our office of institutional research to determine what best to measure.

we will be recording our discoveries (and methodologies) on our website www.acu.edu/connected

the learning outcome piece of this is what we are most excited about. we are committed to making sure that this is not a gimmick.

Question from Catherine Rampell, The Chronicle:
    Have you found that most students and faculty members who have received free iPhones from your university ditched their previous cell phones? Or do they just carry around two phones?

Kevin Roberts:
    we will be distributing them in the fall, so i can't answer that question yet. it is our hunch that a good portion of existing ATT customers will probably take the phone. as of now though, we just don't know.

as for faculty and staff, we are already an ATT campus for our cellular service so that makes it much easier.

Question from J.D. Haight, North Lake College:
    How are the cellular services paid for? Does the plan include unlimited data?

Kevin Roberts:
    The cell service is the biggest cost by far. In our current model, if a student chooses an iphone they will be responsible for the cost of the plan with ATT. The ATT iphone plan, does include unlimited data.

All of our apps make use of our existing wifi infrastructure so a student doesn't have to have a phone to participate.

Question from Josh Fischman:
    Kevin, what prompted you to give students iPhones? It almost sounds like a stunt. There was an educational purpose, right?

Kevin Roberts:
    we have been looking at the idea of mobile learning for many years. it is certainly not anything new to our campus.

the combination of a mobile device and a fully functioning web browser, was what tipped the scale for us. we felt like that combination was powerful and compelling. we feel very strongly about making sure these are used as educational tools.

Question from Curt Dodds, Simpson University:
    Which Google Apps have your students found to be most useful? How about faculty?

Kevin Roberts:
    of course the email app is the most widely used as is perhaps to be expected.

the students make heavy use of the chat feature and calendar.

faculty members have commented on the value in the collaborative features built into docs and spreadsheets.

we are all excited about the possibilities of sites

Question from Jim Parlett, University of the Incarnate Word:
    How long ago did you begin this venture, and when did you/will you "go live" with the iPhone and google apps for faculty/students?

Kevin Roberts:
    we started looking at mobile learning close to a decade ago. More specifically, we started allowing people to opt in to Google apps in April of 07 and fully converted everyone at the beginning of October. We started testing the iPhones this past fall and made the decision to distribute them to the incoming freshmen in February.

Question from Amy DiLorenzo, University of Kentucky:
    Can you please give some examples of they types of courses /instructional methods that your faculty are using on the iPhones and any advice you would give to other schools exploring the use of this technology.

Kevin Roberts:
    we will be in a much better position to fully answer that question after this fall. we are anxious to see what our faculty members end up doing with the tools as well and are poised to make sure we capture the best practices.

one quick example is what i mentioned earlier about using Google forms to distribute realtime quizzes and polls. many faculty members are excited about being able to quickly ascertain their classes' understanding and tailor their lecture accordingly.

Question from Jennifer Ruark, Chronicle of Higher Ed:
    Mr. Roberts: Can you talk more specifically about how students create and complete coursework over their iPhones? Are there any drawbacks to the approach that you've needed to compensate for and, if so, how have you done that?

Kevin Roberts:
    we do not envision students doing all their coursework on their iphone. for example, it would be a terrible device to write a term paper on.

however, it can be used as a handy field research device. you can use it to make notes, take photos, record podcasts, etc.

the "drawback," is that it is often easy to assume that these devices will replace a computer. we don't see that as the case at all. we see them as augmenting the existing technology landscape. to mitigate that risk, we are simply continuing to make the "it is a tool" case and to try to demonstrate best practice uses.

Question from Jim Parlett, University of the Incarnate Word:
    How will you assess/measure the impact of your project with iPhones and Google apps?

Kevin Roberts:
    We are finalizing the assessment outcomes now. We also have several research areas that are currently under way. you can see more detail on them at www.acu.edu/connected

Question from Josh Fischman:
    OK, students like Google mail. What have professors done with other Google applications that are now available?

Kevin Roberts:
    One example that comes to mind is an English prof. who is a friend of mine. He tells his students that if they choose to do their papers in Google Docs, that they can share it with him. If they do, he will "check in" on their progress from time to time and give suggestions.

i also know that profs in our college of business are using the spreadsheet tool to let groups collaborate in real time

Question from Christopher, Cabrillo College:
    We seem to be a device-centric in our questions. Let's hear about your move to Goggle Apps and especially the privacy of content issue. How do you address content privacy in Google Apps?

Kevin Roberts:
    sure. the contract with Google states that we still own the data. it is ours and they will not harvest it. same with Google apps.

finally we feel that Google's ability to secure our data is much greater than our own.

Question from Christopher Stormer, Saint Louis University:
    Have you found that outsourcing your e-mail and calendaring functions has forced you to increase your campus internet bandwidth? Do you now route internet traffic differently, for example, giving precedence to traffic headed to Google?

Kevin Roberts:
    like everyone else we are seeing exploding growth in bandwidth usage. we can't see any significant change by adding Google apps. I am sure there is some, but it is not clear what that is. we do not shape the traffic differently.

Question from University of Virginia:
    Can you talk a little about the types of applications/web sites ACU has built to support the iPhone, which have been the most useful and what do you see as next steps?

Kevin Roberts:
    sure.

by the way, if you have an iphone or access to a safari browser on a mac, you can go take a look for yourself at acu.mobi

we have created an application for example that allows a professor to take attendance in their class. the app shows pictures of the students which helps with name recognition. it is not earth-shattering, but if it helps a professor and a student form a connection quicker, then we believe that it will help the learning process in the end.

Question from John David Barham, Union University (TN):
    What kind of support staff is in place for this project - tech folks in the academic depts, instructional tech folks in your area, folks at Apple, etc.? Also how much training did faculty need/want?

Kevin Roberts:
    that is a good question and one that is hard to answer.

we are mobilizing a number of our staff in IT to create applications and support the devices. we anticipate the addition of one support FTE in the fall.

as for training, it has been focused mostly on the faculty and showing them ways the tool can be used.

it is very intuitive, and doesn't really require much hands on training to use it.

Question from Curt Dodds, Simpson University:
    Who were the primary drivers of your iPhone project? (faculty, IT, marketing, admissions?)

Kevin Roberts:
    hands down, this has been the most exciting part of this project. it is truly a collaborative effort. (no really it is!) The leadership team is made up of administrators, IT professionals, and faculty members. It has been a FANTASTIC partnership

Question from Jeff Young, The Chronicle:
    Duke U gave away regular iPods a few years back to all incoming students, but they ended up ditching that idea and deciding that it made more sense to give out iPods only in individual classes (or maybe in certain majors) where they were most useful. Do you think that might be a future model for your university with iPhones?

Kevin Roberts:
    i don't know. i hope not, but i don't know. we have spoken with the folks at Duke and have certainly read a great deal about their experience.

we are trying hard to come up with classroom applications that can be used across the institution and hope that will help anchor the devices quickly.

one last thing about the Duke experience. event though they backed off the idea of giving one to everyone, they blazed quite a trail for the rest of us in using podcasts in a university setting. in the end, that is what we are interested in as well.

Question from David Stack, UW–Milwaukee:
    Since virtually every student already has a cell phone, why did you go with the iPhone rather than the iTouch which has the portable web browser and would have been cheaper with no contract required. Was it because you wanted access from anywhere and not just wi-fi hotspots?

Kevin Roberts:
    great question.

yes part of it was the anywhere access. although we have an on-campus housing requirement for the first two years, so it is not that big of a deal yet.

mostly though it is because we see more value in the phone. mostly that is because a student (or any of us for that matter) never goes anywhere without their phone. we want to be able to leverage that.

however, as it stands now, the cost of the plan with ATT is still great enough that we felt strongly that we need to provide an alternative. fortunately, the touch fits the bill perfectly. it is a very powerful device.

Josh Fischman (Moderator):
    Great questions, folks. Keep 'em coming, but quickly. We have about 10 minutes left!

Question from Jeff Cain, University of Kentucky:
    Do you have any examples in which faculty have used them in instructional contexts? If so, what have been the reactions from both instructor(s) and students.

Kevin Roberts:
    We don't have any yet, because they won't be deployed until the Fall.

Question from Bakari Middle Georgia College:
    Does YouTube play a role in the dissemination of information through the iPhones?

Kevin Roberts:
    I think so.... we are heavy users of iTunes U and wrestling with what role YouTube plays. It is certainly valuable, but I don't know exactly how to leverage it yet.

Question from Chris Kaufman, Fuller Theological Seminary:
    How do you deal with hacks on the iPhone? Do your students try to use Jailbreak? is there anything you see in firmware 2.0 that you are waiting for/looking forward to?

Kevin Roberts:
    since we aren't deploying the devices until the fall, it is not a problem now.

once we deploy the devices, we will communicate heavily that it will void their warranty, etc if they hack the device. that being said, i am quite sure it will be something that we will always struggle with.

we are most excited about the possibilities that SDK brings for new application development. most of our focus has been on web app development because it leverages our existing tools like Google. however, we are certain that the "market" will create some really cool stuff using the SDK.

Question from Dean, NJIT:
    Have you been able to outsource your entire email operation or have you had to maintain some level of local email capability on your campus?

Kevin Roberts:
    we have outsourced it all and let me tell you that is a good feeling.

we felt strongly that for us, it needed to be all or nothing. we lost our economies of scale if we kept an email service running on campus. we still had to pay for it and pay someone to run it.

Question from Josh Fischman:
    You mentioned Sites earlier, Kevin. What is that? And why are you excited about it?

Kevin Roberts:
    Sites are a new feature that Google has added. (I think is about two weeks old.) It gives the ability to create websites and deploy them. You can embed gadgets and calendars and other things. We think there are some real possibilities to use them for class websites and other areas on campus.

Question from Josh Basara, Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, MN:
    Is the cell phone service rolled into tuition, or is it a monthly expense each student incurs?

Kevin Roberts:
    This coming year, if a student chooses an iPhone, they will be responsible for getting a phone plan from ATT.

Question from Robin Ashford, George Fox University, small private liberal arts university:
    What about the issue of data mining? Have any students, faculty or staff voiced concern over using gmail because of this practice?

Kevin Roberts:
    by contract Google will not do that. it came up very briefly, at the very beginning. we were able to easily address it and since then it has not been an issue at all.

Josh Fischman (Moderator):
    That is, sadly, all the time we have for now. Clearly, there's a lot more to learn about mobile computing, cell phones as a learning platform, and what faculty can to with all this to teach better. And of course, outsourcing things like email generates constant questions. Kevin Roberts, thanks for sharing your expertise with us, and come visit again. That goes for all of you out there, too. See you later!