Netflix, Smartphones Eat Up Bandwidth

The Netflix video-streaming service and smartphones are the two biggest drains on campus bandwidth, according to a report on residential networks (ResNet).

Netflix was named the biggest content threat to bandwidth capacity by 88% of the IT, housing, and business officers who participated in the State of ResNet 2018 Report, while smartphones were listed as the largest consumers of bandwith by 73% of respondents.

The smartphone percentage was an 11% increase over the 2017 report, with desktop computers and laptops finishing second (65%) and smart TVs in third (59%). At the same time, online learning tools and interactive digital textbooks were considered a threat by 33% and 14% of respondents, respectively.

Almost every respondent said their institution viewed “high-performing” ResNet as essential to attracting and keeping students on campus. Ninety-six percent of housing administrators said quality ResNet was “very important,” while 92% of IT respondents and 90% of business officers said the same thing.

At the same time, 41% of the respondents admitted their schools were shaping and limiting bandwidth, up 10% from the year before. There was also a double-digit increase in blocking activities such as peer-to-peer sharing and music downloading, from 34% in 2017 to 44% in 2018.

New Tech Lets Users Tap Out Messages

A new wearable gadget makes it possible for users to compose, edit, and send messages, texts, and emails by simply tapping their fingers. Tap is a one-handed device made up of five interconnected rings that converts any surface into a keyboard and works with smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, computers, or virtual-reality headsets.

It takes users about an hour to learn the basics through the TapGenius mobile app, according to manufacturer Tap Systems. It works with most Bluetooth-enabled devices and is usable for eight hours on a single charge.

“Tapping your fingers is much faster, more precise, and more rich in combinations than any gesture system that has ever been developed,” said Ran Poliakin, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Tap Systems. 

Traditional Computer Labs on the Way Out?

With more students bringing their own devices to campus, there’s a growing trend of moving away from the traditional computer lab in favor of comfortable areas that encourage students to connect to the Internet to study.

“The whole dynamic is changing inside computer labs,” said Casey Gordon, director of IT for College of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, MN, and St. John’s University, Collegeville, MN. “By virtualizing IT resources, we can revolutionize the way students do their work, give them spaces that foster greater collaboration, and expand how they use their own devices.”

However, making the transition requires planning, a commitment to training and support, and a willingness to discuss the change with all stakeholders because eliminating a bunch of desktop computers doesn’t automatically mean the move will cost less. Available campus bandwidth has increased threefold over the last five years, requiring more investment into the technology necessary to support it.

“I shy away from discussing cost savings and focus instead on deciding what’s the best use of our dollars to meet the changing needs of students,” Gordon said.

Faculty must also be part of the conversation. The University of Nebraska, Lincoln, found that some faculty members saw the labs as a way to attract students into their department.

“So if you remove them, that’s a major concern,” said Heath Tuttle, assistant vice chancellor for IT services at UNL. “We discuss the benefits of collaborative learning spaces where students can sit down with their laptop or a device they check out, have a coffee, and do their work.”

Study Looks at Classroom Tech

A new survey from Campus Technology found that traditional laptops and desktops are the most common forms of instructional technology used in the classroom. Both devices were used in 82% of the time, according to a poll of faculty members from across the country.

More than 500 instructors participated in the study, including 49% who worked in the field of higher education for 21 years or longer. Nearly 70% of the respondents worked at public institutions, with another 23% teaching at private, not-for-profit colleges.

Laptops were ranked as either “essential” or “valuable” by 95%, followed by high-end computers with faster processors, more storage, and dedicated graphic cards by 76% of the respondents. Instructors said they used tech for instruction about 62% of the time, while one in 10 reported using it all the time. A quarter said they used it at least 75% of the time.

Instructors are less thrilled with mobile phones in the classroom. About one-fifth allow their use and 57% allow them with limitations. Another 22% forbid the devices completely.

When it came to use of digital course materials, 74% reported using a mix of digital and paper-based textbooks. A similar number said they used open educational resources to take advantage of free and low-cost content.

Computers Consume the Most Bandwidth

College and university IT departments know students using smartphones and tablet computers to play games or stream movies eat up plenty of bandwidth. However, traditional computers are the biggest bandwidth hogs, according to a new report from the Association for College and University Technology Advancement and the Association of Colleges and University Housing Officers-International.

The survey of IT leaders, housing officers, and business officers at more than 360 colleges and universities for 2016 State of ResNet found that computers consumed 58.6% of the bandwidth used on campus. Tablet computers came next, at 57.7%, and mobile phones were third at 55.2%.

Participants were asked to rank devices by the severity of bandwidth consumption on a 1-10 scale with 8-10 being the area that used the most. The 58.6% result is down from the 76.5% the category registered in 2015, but it was the second year in a row that traditional computers topped the list.

“In previous years of the study, tablets were forecast as the largest bandwidth consumer in the years to come,” wrote authors of the report. “However, these past two years show a change as desktop and laptop computers take over the top spot and are now gateways to many disruptive applications, which may require even more bandwidth than ever before. Through these devices, students have found a larger canvas for complex games, virtual learning, 3-D modeling software, computer animation, or simply storing photos and videos.”

Nearly 49% of the IT professionals surveyed said that media devices such as Roku and Apple TV were in the severe 8-10 range, while gaming systems rounded out the top five at 41.9%. Just 7.4% of the respondents put e-readers in the 8-10 category.

More Malware Attacks, Harder to Detect

Malware attacks are happening more often and are harder to detect, according to the State of the Endpoint Report from the Ponemon Institute. Of the 694 IT security administrators surveyed, the number of respondents with a strategy in place to deal with malware fell from 43% in 2015 to 38% this year.

The report found that 68% had experienced distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, where multiple systems are used to target a single system. In addition, 80% said that they believed their mobile endpoints—defined as laptops, desktops, smartphones, printers, POS machines, or ATMs—had been targets, up from 58% in 2015.

As troubling as that may sound, a bigger concern involves employees. More than 80% of respondents said the biggest threat to endpoint security was negligent or careless employees who don’t follow security policies.

“You’ve got how many different types of laptops? How many versions of Windows? How many applications for those devices? How many phone types, etc.?” asked Michael Davis, chief technology officer of the security start-up firm CounterTack in an article for InformationWeek. “IT has to struggle with all of that variation, while also trying to enforce a standard set of security protocols. And then, on top of that, they have to deal with the end user, so it’s very difficult to enforce anything, even from a purely technology perspective.”

Production Trumps Consumption

One conundrum in the digital education world is consumption vs. production, according to Inside Higher Ed’s tech blogger Joshua Kim. Consuming content is more convenient on mobile devices, while producing that content is easier on a laptop or desktop computer.

“What this means for education, I think, is that we need to design our content primarily for mobile,” Kim wrote. “Anything that has to do with consumption will occur on a small touchscreen. Our text, presentations, and videos all need to be designed mobile first.”

However, don’t toss the laptop just yet. The keyboard makes the device much more important in the digital world because keyboards on mobile devices are simply too small to be useful. And, to Kim, writing remains at the heart of education.

“After having spent a few weeks with the new $169 iPad Pro Smart Keyboard (the combined case and keyboard), I can tell you that it is not something that you will want to use for any serious writing,” he wrote. “We should be suspicious of any education program that is mobile-only. Mobile-first, sure, but not mobile-only. Any good postsecondary program should stress production over consumption.”

Really Low-Cost Computers Are Here

The notion that improvements in technology normally lead to lower costs for consumers is taken to an extreme with some of the new devices hitting the market, such as the CHIP computer.

The CHIP website calls the device the world’s first $9 computer. It’s about the size of a credit card and has WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities built in, a 1GHz processor, four gigabytes of storage, and 512 MB of RAM. Keyboard, screen, and mouse are not part of the package, but CHIP can connect to any Bluetooth device and has a USB port to plug into older accessories.

Next Thing Co. created CHIP through a Kickstarter campaign that got the backing of nearly 40,000 people and raised $2 million, according to a report by National Public Radio. A teacher from the Nelson County Area Technology Center, Bardstown, KY, contributed $150 to the campaign and was selected to test the device in the classroom. Students at the school have used CHIP to rewire Star Wars toys with LED lights.

“This is one way to do it, by intriguing their interest and seeing what’s on the cutting edge of technology,’” said Jeremy Booher, principal of the school. “If we were still using typewriters and using Microsoft DOS, then obviously people come in and fall asleep.”

The CHIP is just one of a number of low-cost basic computers now on the market or coming soon. They have been made possible because the price of microprocessors and computer components has fallen so dramatically.

A Slower Year for Tablet Sales

This year is proving to be rather flat for tablet computers. A new International Data Corp. (IDC) report predicts growth in shipments of new tablets will fall to 7% in 2014, compared to 52.5% growth just a year ago.

The report said worldwide tablet shipments for 2014 will be 235.7 million units, with Android devices accounting for 67.7% of the total. The iPad comes in at 27.5% and 4.6% of the shipments will be Windows tablets.

“In the early stages of the tablet market, device lifecycles were expected to resemble those of smartphones, with replacement occurring every two or three years,” said Ryan Rieth, program director of the mobile-device trackers at IDC. “What has played out instead is that many tablet owners are holding onto their devices for more than three years and, in some instances, more than four years.”

The pace at which consumers replace their tablets is just one part of the slowdown. The iPad, which has been the industry standard, has seen its sales slip 14% because of competition from dozens of inexpensive Android models. In addition, Apple has failed to make the kinds of upgrades to the device that get people back into a buying mode, according to a report from C/Net.

IDC also reported that PC shipments continue to fall, but at a far slower rate than expected. Total shipments in 2014 will likely be around 306 million units.

“In the best case for PCs, we’d see a significant wave of replacement as users who spent on phones and tablets in recent years decide they really need to update their PC,” said Loren Loverde, vice president of Worldwide PC Trackers. “As younger generations become more mobile and web-oriented, and emerging regions in particular prioritize converged devices (or economy in number of devices to purchase), the PC market will continue to face tough competition and be more focused on replacements, with limited potential for growth.”

PCs Aren't Dead Yet

Sales of personal computers are declining, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the PC is near. While tablet computers are a hot commodity, there are good reasons why PCs remain useful, according to Chris Hoffman in a post at How-To-Geek.

“In reality, there are more different types of hardware and software than ever,” he wrote. “Not everyone is forced to use a beige tower running Windows. But PCs aren’t dying just because people have more choice. Some people will always need large screens, multiple windows, mice, keyboards, and all that other good stuff. Not everything will be done on a 10-in. or smaller touchscreen.”

To prove his point, Hoffman referred to a Gartner Inc. report which showed that 82.6 million PCs were shipped in the fourth quarter of 2013, a 6.9% drop from the fourth quarter of 2012 and the seventh straight quarter with a decline. However, web traffic analysis from StatsCounter showed that PC browser-usage data in January 2014 accounted for nearly 72% of visits, compared to just 22.42% for smartphones and 5.69% for tablets.

And while tablet shipments continue to rise, it was at a much slower rate. International Data Corp. found that 76.9 million tablets were shipped in the fourth quarter of 2013, which represented growth of 28.2% in a market that had increased 87.1% over the same quarter in 2012.

“The statistics show that PCs are still selling in large numbers and are used much more than tablets,” Hoffman wrote. “But we don’t need statistics to see this—we all know that huge amounts of people still use and need PCs.”

Students Still Taking PCs to School

While sales of tablet computers continue to grow worldwide, many college students still prefer to go the PC route. In its annual back-to-school survey, Deloitte found that while 82% of college students own a personal computer and 80% have a smartphone, just 18% bring a tablet to campus.

“Unless you’re shooting for a degree in Angry Birds, tablets are a horrible back-to-school purchase,” said Louis Ramirez, a features writer for DealNews.com, in a MarketWatch article. “You can’t write a 10-page research paper with an iPad.”

Most of functions that make a tablet computer so popular for home use—playing games, surfing the Internet, checking social media sites, and e-mail—can be done just as easily on a student’s laptop. Students also find taking classroom notes using their laptop or desktop keyboard much more convenient, while a bigger screen and better audio makes watching a movie or listening to music a better experience on a laptop.

Another PC selling point for students is price, particularly during the back-to-school sales push when manufacturers offer special incentives on desktop and laptop models, making desktop PCs available for as low as $200.

“The desktop PC is simply a wiser, more realistic investment for any student this fall,” Ramirez said.