AU will be the first school in the world to provide BlackBerry 7100t phones to its graduate business students, AU media relations announced last week.
AU gave out 50 of the T-Mobile phones to faculty, staff and graduate students of the Kogod School of Business during a Jan. 25 press conference and will distribute another 250 to incoming graduate students who have paid their tuition deposit and other faculty and staff.
"The intent is for all grad business students to have a BlackBerry 7100t in September," said Robert Ranson, director of Marketing and Communications in Kogod. "That is when the 'Kogod Edge' of technology innovations actually is integrated into our academic experience and operational infrastructure."
Currently, Kogod will pay up to six month's data service until costs decisions can be finalized, Ranson said. Voice service expenses will be up to each BlackBerry owner to decide, he added.
The BlackBerries may cut back on the listserv e-mails students receive, as faculty will be able to send information about classes, speakers, internships and other information via Real Simple Streaming (RSS) over the BlackBerries.
"[W]e are the first business school to make the leap into using RSS technology to advance the academic and operational processes within a business school," Dr. William DeLone, acting dean of Kogod, told Media Relations. "We also will be the first business school to integrate the use of BlackBerry devices throughout those same operations and academic functions."
Using streaming technology is "especially easy" since AU is a wireless campus, Media Relations reported. Intel Corp. ranked AU as one of the top 10 wireless campuses in the United States. AU is a technology partner with T-Mobile and uses its HotSpot wireless technology, so T-Mobile offered an exclusive deal on the 7100t, Ranson said. He also listed other reasons for choosing BlackBerry.
"The BlackBerry brand of data device/smartphone simply 'means business' in this market. No other device or phone carries the same cache," Ranson said.
"The 7100t is a brand-new device using a new forms factor that RIM [Research in Motion Ltd., the company that produces the BlackBerry] has discovered is more appealing to a younger demographic than the 'traditional' BlackBerry design."
Students think the program is a good idea, but acknowledge that it won't affect those outside the Kogod graduate community.
"It is a very novel program. Hopefully someday they will be able to expand that to not only the undergraduate body of Kogod but possibly to other schools on campus," said Miguel Hermann, a junior in the School of International Service. "It really would make the AU campus unique with regards to being technologically forward."
This is not the first time Kogod integrated new technology into its academic program. Kogod introduced a "Web-centric" program in 1998 that "focused all of our marketing efforts around the use of the Web," Ranson said.
"Along with Sloan [School of Business at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology], we were the first business school to require online applications. In doing so, we received coverage on the front page of The Wall Street Journal and lots of additional coverage," Ranson said. "That coverage was an important factor in Kogod's very rapid rise from nowhere to national rankings in 18 months. We hope to do even better with Kogod Edge."
AU will consider expanding this technology depending on the project's success, American Weekly reported.
