The Griffon News

Technology can make campus life easier

In the growing hustle and bustle of daily college life, finding that extra wad of cash to buy a Pepsi between classes can only help to add to the stress of test anxiety, class and work schedules, and the always present time crunch.

To help alleviate some of this stress, several college campuses across the nation have started to implement new technologies into their food establishments and vending machines.

Missouri Western recently introduced the new student identification card that doubles as a debit card and can be used both on and off campus. Dan Eckhoff was a member of the committee that was in charge of selecting various aspects of the new ID card, including which bank would be partnered with the student ID card.

“We asked for banks in the region to provide us with what services they were willing to provide to our students,” Eckhoff said. “We ended up partnering with US Bank.”

Missouri State University in Springfield provides a similar option through their student ID card, allowing students to deposit money directly on their account and purchase items from vending machines across the campus.

“We’ve got about 130 vending machines on campus that have vending readers on them,” said Wendell Northrip, the director of Missouri State’s ZipCard office.

Other campuses have also implemented cell phones into their vending machines. Eckhoff stated that one such machine was placed on Missouri Western’s campus several semesters ago, but did not garnish enough profit to keep it on campus.

Recently, 15 campuses began using Rave Wireless, a cell phone based program that lets students access information such as dining center menus, bus schedules and even grades.

Technology has also made life a little easier for college instructors. Campuses have begun to use online services such as Blackboard to post grades, assign homework and accept those all-important research papers.

Western’s biology department is in the process of a technological survey. Two separate brands of remote controls or “clickers” are being used to see which one the students and instructors favor the most.

“The Biology Department has five faculty that are working with Instruction,” biology instructor Cary Chevalier said. “The chemistry department has several faculty that are working with Turning Point.”

With these clickers, instructors are able to take attendance and give quizzes and exams, all at the push of a button. The remotes save not only paper on quizzes, but it also saves time.

“When the exam period is over, the instructor simply closes the exam session, and instantaneously the students performances are scored and recorded,” Chevalier said.

As more technologies become available to students to make their academic and social lives more manageable, the use of technology will continue to grow as needed.