Selling the Drama: the First Day of the New Year

We are now three weeks into the start of a terrific school year and I wanted to take just a few moments here to reflect on what day one looked like for my group of new Operation LAPIS recruits (that is, my two new Latin 1 classes.) Each year that I've run LAPIS in my classrooms, the initial presentation has become more straightforward and more "in-character." This year I attempted to stay entirely "in-character" -- as Demiurge Omega, the representative from Project ARKHAIA's Mission Control, for the entire time during the first day of school. It was unbelievably fun and, using the first few weeks as a comparison to the past, it worked incredibly well. Selling the narrative -- the ARG layer which is so important to Operation LAPIS -- is vital, I'm finding, to the initial buy-in of the students.

As the students filed in, I said very little to them. Only the "splash screen" with the Project ARKHAIA logo was projected up on the board. After the bell rang, I moved to the center of the room and begun moving down the list of students, calling them each by their name -- except adding "Recruit" before hand. Recruit Johnny. Recruit Beth. Recruit Cameron. The confused looks that they exchanged with one another was priceless. When roll was called, I began the "initiation process", which included a series of automated computer-terminal-like slides processing the new recruits. It concluded with asking all of the new recruits to rise and swear an oath to Project ARKHAIA. I was shocked to see every student immediately rise and prepare themselves to swear the oath without any delay. So much of the success hinges upon students willing to suspend belief, if only for a moment, and allow themselves to pretend to be recruits on a mission to save civilization as we know it.

With the oath sworn, and another series of automated slides pretending to analyze their responses, I begun discussing some of the more intricate logistics of the Operation. I discussed how we (Project ARKHAIA) have infiltrated Google and customized some of the components to fit our need. A few days later I actually prove this to them when we explore how to easily add macrons (long marks) in a Google Doc -- the "Insert Symbol" menu item has the omega character located next to it. The other major component is, of course, Edmodo, for the collaboration and discussion portion of the Operation.

Since our first day is comprised of shortened periods, it works out perfectly to give them enough information to spark some curiosity without overloading them with the sheer number of various components and aspects to Operation LAPIS or practomimetic courses in general. The key is to scaffold in the components over time, rather than trying to explain everything at once -- something important that I've learned over the last couple of years.

As the clock ticked down, I handed out their New Recruit Startup Guides and explained their first two missions:

1. create a Google Account and initiate contact with the Demiurge -- so that I can set up their first two documents in Google docs
2. create an Edmodo account and greet their new (and permanent year-long) teammates, in the process finding out which character they will be controlling in the immersions

I've never had a 100% success rate with new recruits on the first night. Inevitably there are always a few in each class who either forget or just don't create the accounts. That changed this year. By 8pm, all 46 new recruits had created their accounts and introduced themselves to their teammates -- excited and a little confused about how different this seemed from their other courses. In years past I've also lost a handful of students over the first couple of days who decided that all of this felt too uncomfortable being so different from business as usual in school. Not only did I not lose any students, I actually gained a couple whose friends convinced them that this was the class to take (although that means that they broke the secrecy instructions...but I think I'm ok with that.)

What I'm continuing to find is that the more the students see me "buying in" to the narrative (that is, not breaking from character as much as possible), the more that they will continue to do so. The role that the teacher plays in a practomimetic course is much different than that of one in a traditional classroom and that perception shift (from a student's perspective) needs to happen, and continue to happen, starting with day 1. When they see me as a facilitator and guide (sent from Mission Control), rather than an instructor, their attitude and approach to the activities shifts in a positive direction -- something that the 100% success rate indicates. Even as I'm writing this now, after three weeks, I still see nearly 100% participation each night on the new immersion episodes. This, frankly, is uncharted territory based on past experiences. Selling the ARG narrative in a way that I haven't before, I believe, was vital to making this happen.

An Edu Review of the Nexus 7

As a fan of Apple's minimalistic packaging,
Google did a great job with the
presentation of the Nexus 7

So what is a self-proclaimed Apple fanboy doing purchasing a new Google Nexus 7 (Google Nexus 7 Black Wi-Fi 16GB Tablet - NEXUS7ASUS1B16 (Google Affiliate Ad)? Curiosity, for the most part. See, there's been a lot of hype about the Nexus 7 and its potential (like every other new product, it seems) to "disrupt the educational market." Hype aside, but given the price tag, I was very interested about two things: the 7" form factor as a primary device (for students) and how well the Nexus 7 could handle the tasks that a typical student taking part in Operation LAPIS would need it do. As we move to a BYOD policy this upcoming year, if the Nexus 7 fits the criteria, the $199 price tag could be a very attractive solution for parents and students alike.

The 7" Form Factor and Screen

Lots of space for icons and informative
widgets on the home screen

The size of the Nexus 7 is no foreign entity to me. I have a plain vanilla Kindle that I've come to adore for reading. Previously I was using my iPad as my primary eBook reader but now that has been almost completely supplanted by the Kindle. The Nexus 7 fits very comfortably in one hand. The textured back makes a good surface to grip and for general browsing or reading, one handed operation is perfectly natural.

The screen, at 800x1280 pixels, is crisp and bright. Because most 7" tablets have a lower resolution, it certainly feels like there is a lot more screen space with the Nexus 7. Many complaints from professional reviewers have centered around the quality of blacks on the screen, especially when viewing movies. To tell you the truth, I generally keep my devices at low brightness to preserve battery life and so I haven't found the black level to be worthy of complaint.

Outside, I found that with the brightness turned up, the screen was very usable. This is a positive thing for students thinking about using the device on campus in areas other than the classroom.

The on-screen keyboard is good, but I find it slightly less accurate than the iPad. I'd imagine this is on account of the screen size although subjectively I might argue that my iPhone feels more accurate as well. For teenagers with smaller (and slightly thinner) fingers, the keyboard might feel a bit more natural. I've also found the predictive typing to be less accurate than on my iPad, especially with my frequent misspellings.

Focus: Google Drive Integration

One of the largest complaints that I have about the iPad is how poorly Google has developed the mobile application of Docs. The document text editor (even in Chrome) is poor at best and the spreadsheet editing feels very antiquated for 2012 going on 2013. Google Drive (the app) on the Android platform is thankfully slightly more advanced than it's iOS counterpart.

There's a number of rich formatting options, including colored text and colored highlights - something students need, especially in the documents which serve as their virtual 'workbook' of sorts. 

It is also very easy to cut and paste text from Chrome into a document in the Drive app. For the most part, formatting is preserved with two major exceptions. First, tables are still not support within the mobile editing interface, even within the Google Drive app. This is unfortunately problematic from my point of view since tables allow for neat formatting of various things, especially in language instruction. Second, in-document comments (one of Google Docs most amazing features) appear to be inaccessible.

Spreadsheets, unfortunately, still haven't received any kind of interface overhaul. Even within the Google Drive app, you still have a line-by-line editor. This is a bit unwieldy from a student's point of view, especially since the collection mechanic is housed within their Operative Dossier (a specially constructed Google spreadsheet.)

I know that Google has recently acquired the company behind the QuickOffice app and I hope that over the course of the next year, they will improve the mobile interface for the various Docs components. Until then, the experience is slightly cumbersome for students to manipulate anything more than a simple document or spreadsheet. I'd also like to see them figure out how to improve the ability to read (and respond to) comments within the mobile experience. 

However, one positive change is that docs opened within the Google Drive interface will show you live editing from additional users. This is an incredibly important feature with so much of Operation LAPIS being focused on collaborative learning.

The Edmodo App

So much wasted space.

This is a short section. The Edmodo app, unfortunately, is designed for Android phones, not the tablet. As a result, you have a lot of wasted space and a very limited feature set. The iPad version basically wraps the normal web interface in a frame. Hopefully the wonderful folks over at Edmodo will develop a tablet specific app which will leverage the form factor in a more advanced manner.

Fortunately Chrome on the Nexus 7 is a full featured browser and the standard Edmodo interface runs fairly well, albeit a bit slow, inside of it. With pinch and zoom (wait, is that an infringement now?) it is easy to navigate around the various sections and zoom in on posts and discussions. With the impending launch of the Edmodo redesign/overhaul, I'm eager to see how the mobile experience changes. Hopefully there will be a speed and responsiveness increase.

In addition, for an instructor, the LAPIS Console app (which is located in the Edmodo app store in order to post the immersion sequences) works just fine in Chrome on the Nexus, including the edit function before posting. There's plenty of space to zoom in without obstructing a wider view of the material. It's responsive and just as snappy as it is on a desktop browser.

The CODEX inside of Chrome

Speaking of Chrome, how does the rest of the LAPIS experience play out on this 7" tablet? Surprisingly well. Again, on account of the pixel count, you end up with a lot of visible space on the screen. The rollover tooltips work like a charm, text is crisp and clean, and even the integrated Google Maps portions load without a hitch. Overall the mobile implementation of Chrome is almost as good as the desktop version. This is true on the iOS version as well.

 Other Thoughts:

The tight integration of Google's core services into the device is outstanding, especially GMail, Calendar, and Google Talk. I especially like the automatic download and update feature for keeping apps at their latest version in the most unobtrusive way possible.

The battery is solid and a student could expect (with conservative management of the screen brightness) to easily get through the day on a single charge. Most of the "must have" apps on my iPad are available in the Google Play store which is great to see if you are platform agnostic, but not fully committed to a pure web-based environment for your students.

The native display mode is portrait and the Nexus 7 is clearly designed with this layout in mind. In fact, it took me an embarrassingly (for me) extended period of time to figure out how to disable the screen lock and rotate it to landscape mode. I did find, however, that the Nexus 7 felt a bit unnatural to hold in landscape mode (unlike the iPad) and I've mainly found myself using it in portrait like I would my Kindle or iPhone.

The lack of a rear camera may be a turn off for some educational settings. Given the improvement to apps like Evernote, I think the lack of a rear camera may be an unfortunate oversight on the part of the design team, especially since the rumored iPad Mini is all but assured to have that rear camera. While the full sized iPad is a bit unwieldy to use as a camera, the Nexus 7 would fit the bill just fine.

The Bottom Line:

I didn't expect to like the Nexus 7 as much as I do. This has proven to me that the 7" tablet form factor, if done right, is a force to be reckoned with -- especially at this price point. The screen, speed, battery life, and tight Google integration are all big selling points in my eyes. The web experience is almost as good as it is on my iPad at a fraction of the size, weight, and cost. However, if the rumored iPad Mini does hit the $249 price point (as many predict it will, although for my part I think $299 is far more likely), the Nexus 7 fame could be short lived.

As I mentioned above, Google still needs to do some work on it's mobile implementation of Google Docs. This one area holds me back from fully embracing the Nexus 7 as a top tier device for students and parents to consider. If Google can find a way to make that experience work better, the Nexus 7 becomes a homerun in terms of features for the price. Without that, though, it's tough to argue that a $199 (or $249) Google Nexus 7 is a better option than, say, an Asus Netbook or something similar.

If a student has access to a traditional computer at home for some of the more complex tasks (which is how I feel about the iPad), I think the Nexus 7 is, with only slightly reservation, something that I could recommend at this point in time.

Collaborative Productions

Yesterday I promised that I would continue the discussion about some of the collateral effects that the simulated 1:1 environment has created in my LAPIS classroom.  As I noted, the students quickly realized the potential of the social aspect but they also began to pick up on some of the other more important collaborative tools at their disposal.

We've been using Google Docs since the start of the program to keep their Character Sheets, Operative Dossiers (grade sheets), and their Carta Collectionis.  For the most part, all of those items were individual pieces of information shared between individual students and myself so they weren't viewed as a real collaborative tool.  Something interesting happened after, on the fly, I created documents for the teams to share with the .jpg image of the inscription that they were working on deciphering.  For the first time the students saw how instantaneously a collaborative experience could unfold.  They also saw how, in an instant, four of them could be working on the same document trying to figure out the meaning behind a very cryptic (albeit fake) inscription.  Believe me, if you want to see true bewilderment on the eyes of teenagers that have never been exposed to a lot of these tools, watch what happens when they can see three other people typing in a document simultaneously.  It blows their minds.

So within a few days of that exercise (and it was very successful to get them working both face-to-face and digitally at the same time) a few of them starting making 'class notes' documents, and color coded spreadsheets with noun endings and verb forms.  Then they began to ask the best question that students can possibly ask: "How can I share this with so-and-so?"  And then came the realization that they could share with everyone in the class.  They also realized that they could start more collaborative documents with their teammates to work through difficult sections together or sketch out ideas.  It was amazing to see them figuring out new ways to use this brand new magical power.  Again, we forget that without any guidance at any stage in their careers, these students don't know how to utilize or harness this untapped power in front of their noses.  But to stress the above, the most amazing thing is that after they discovered how to start using it as a personal organizer (like any old notebook), their next thought was how they could share what they created with their classmates.  Incredible.

Something so foreign in just a few days became so natural.  Within a few short weeks, a group of Latin I students took another big step in empowering themselves with tools to further their learning experience.  I wish that I had the resources to provide this kind of experience with all of my classes.

Latinity Points

On Monday, I discussed the CARD mechanic and the cartae collectionis. Today I would like to explain our mechanic called 'Latinity Points'.

Latinity Points (LPs for short) are the mechanism through which grading occurs during Operation LAPIS. As you may know, in role playing games (RPG’s) like Dungeons & Dragons and World of Warcraft, players advance towards game objectives by collecting 'experience points' (XP). Once a character has gained enough XP (at predetermined milestones), that character is able to advance a 'level' and usually gains new skills and abilities. We wanted to capture the same essence with LAPIS and so that naturally lead us to LPs.

Operatives (that is, the students) receive LPs for everything they do in the operation (that is, the course). Some of the things they do happen inside the role-playing (practomime) activity-- the time-machine/simulation called the TSTT; other things happen in a more traditional-looking way in the classroom. A carefully constructed practomime response will earn more LPs than one rushed, incomplete, or lacking in any research or Latin. Likewise, standard looking assessments (called attunement exercises) also award LPs in a scale that looks very familiar to students, parents and administrators alike. For example, if on a vocabulary quiz, the operative received what would be a 90% ordinarily, he or she would receive 90 LPs. It is a system that scales incredibly well depending on the gravity of the task.

All of the activities in any given mission (there are 14 in course) add up to a total of 3000 LP. As in real RPGs, these numbers are artificially inflated for no reason other than that people like to receive really big numbers for doing tasks. It is a mechanic that has been a staple of RPGs for nearly three decades. In LAPIS we hope that it'll have the same effect. Receiving 47 LP for a great practomime response is a whole lot more gratifying than receiving 5 LP or even a 9 out of 10 on the top of a page.

So what do these LPs mean for the student? A couple of things, actually. For starters, we do have a level scale built into the practomime. In this version of Operation LAPIS, levels don’t have an effect inside the role-playing portion of the course, but every operative will have a private dossier that prominently displays his or her level. For reasons of privacy, we can’t display that information to the rest of the class, but we suspect that students will want to do so themselves, creating healthy rivalry inside the operation team as a whole. In future iterations, we expect that we'll be able to devise other uses for these levels including different skills, options available during practomimetic prompts, etc. Even with the current simple system, though, there is something to be said for the gratification that accompanies 'gaining a level', even if it is just cosmetic. The current scale is listed below:

1. 0
2. 100
3. 350
4. 850
5. 1,700
6. 3,000
7. 4,850
8. 7,718
9. 10,730
10. 14,435
11. 19,738 (25,500 - maximum total at the end of the 1st sem. for 100% LP awards)
12. 24,143
13. 30,755
14. 37,690
15. 45,523

As the scale above indicates, the maximum total for each semester is 25,500 LPs. Most students should be able to hit level 11 by the end of the first semester. Level 14 will equate to a grade of B and level 15 to a grade of A. We may still play around with the LP distribution a bit, but at this point I am pretty happy with how the levels span out over the course of the year.

Likewise, here's the other half of the LP system: actual grades. We use a traditional grade scale, multiplied many times over. This system counts the LP gained from the CARD collection mechanic as 'alternative ways to advance', something that might be called ‘bonus points’ in a traditional course. With the amount of work (and learning) that will go into earning those points, it makes much more sense to factor them in more substantially.

Grades (per semester) are determined as follows:

>21,855 - A
21,854...21,056 - A-
21, 055...20,351 - B+
20,350...19,411 - B
19,410...18,706 - B-
18,705...18,001 - C+
18,000...17,061 - C
17,060...16,356 - C-
16,355...15,561 - D+
15,560...14,711 - D
14,710...14,100 - D-
<14,099 - F

All in all, the Latinity Point system should prove to be another in a series of mechanics that serve to further motivate and engage the students beyond the traditional way grades are handled. Each student will have an online private dossier viewable in Google Docs (which can only be edited by the Demiurge and only viewed by the student signed in to their Google account) which tracks their LP awards for all missions, broken down by episodes and activities, and provides them with their current total LP and level so that they know exactly what their current status is in the class.

Again, thoughts, feedback and ideas are always appreciated!

Radio Silence and CARDs

When I started out this summer, I had every intention on blogging fairly regularly as we worked through the development of the first introductory language course in a series of fully practomimetic courses. Obviously, I didn't follow through on that goal, but it wasn’t because I was slacking! Seriously! The project became so engrossing by itself that all of a sudden it became the middle of August. Over the next few weeks leading up to the 'launch' (the start of the school year), we'll be spending the time talking about the mechanics of the course. Be sure to keep an eye on the blogs from Roger Travis and Karen Zook for more details.

Since Roger has already eloquently defined 'practomime', there's no need to regurgitate that in this post, you can read all about it here (and I strongly encourage you to do so.) The first course that we have developed for this year is Operation LAPIS. The operation is intended to be the equivalent of a Latin I course at any institution. In this case, this first offering will take the form of sections of Latin I at NFA and at UConn taught by Karen.

This post in particular, though, is about one specific mechanic from Operation LAPIS: the cards (or CARDs) you might have seen me post on Facebook. CARD stands for (Classical Attunement Reward Device) and is a key element to the success of one particular mechanic in LAPIS which is easy to follow regardless of your familiarity with the concept of a "practomime". This mechanic is called "cartae collectionis" (or, "collection sheets") since the operatives (students) are scouring through their text building their collections of morphology, syntax, culture, etc.

How does it work? Here's the introductory communication about the collections that they will receive:

BEGIN TRANSMISSION
HUD PARAMETER: “CARTA COLLECTIONIS”

Carta Collectionis (Collection Sheet)
Instructions

Operative, the Demiurge has optimized this mission activity to build your attunement to the demands of the TSTT’s increasing complexity. You will progress in knowledge of and facility in using and analyzing key elements of Latin morphology and syntax, and of Roman culture.

You may collect from the stories in your text or from the material in the TSTT itself. You collect by copying the appropriate element, with a citation and translation, into your collection sheet (located in Google Docs). It is important to note that you can only claim a word once per Episode or passage. For example, even though ‘servus’ may appear multiple times in a passage, you can only claim it one time.

Example claim:

Nominative singular nouns

1. servus – slave – “Cerberus” (pg 7) 
2. malus – bad man – Episode 1.1.a

You will obtain increasing attunement rewards–commonly called “CARDs” (Classical Attunement Reward Device) as you progress, by accumulating longer lists of collected elements. Each element has a certain number of items specified for earning a CARD, and you receive an LP bonus for each CARD you receive.

Not all collection elements are known at this time. The TSTT will occasionally update your HUD with new elements. The Demiurge will communicate to when this occurs through the COMM LINK section of your HUD. You are responsible for updating your own carta collectionis when new categories are available.

HUD PARAMETER: “KNOWN ELEMENTS”

Morphology

• 3rd person singular verb: CARD at 100 
• nominative singular noun: CARD at 100 

Syntax

• subject-verb unit: CARD at 100 

The operatives will build their carta collectionis in a document they share with the Demiurge via Google Docs. When they reach their goals, during periodic checks, the Demiurge will award the appropriate CARD to them in that same document in a section reserved for their CARD collections, For example, when an operative records their 100th nominative singular noun, they will receive the following CARD:

Why the CARDs? There is something in human nature that compels us to collect things. In games it is even more profound (think Pokemon, MMOs, or even basic Facebook games like Farmville): there's a drive to get complete 'sets' of items, even without an apparent reason to do so. Sometimes this can be for purely cosmetic reasons; sometimes there are nominal rewards attached to it. The idea here is that once the operatives realize that there are rewards attached to the collection mechanic, the extrinsic motivation of receiving the CARDs will hopefully compel them to continue doing the collections. The operatives will also receive a small Latinity Point reward for completion as well. (We’ll cover the concept of LPs in future post; briefly, they are the LAPIS grading mechanic)

The collections themselves are an alternative way to think about and learn both "endings" and (the bane of every Latin student) vocabulary. They'll quickly hone in on "-us" or "-a" for their nominative singular endings and since they are required to type the definition for everything, they'll be subconsciously building vocabulary without doing the traditional vocabulary studying (flashcards, etc.)


Lastly, the CARDs themselves contain vivid images of people and places in the ancient world. As the students look at their CARD collections, they'll also be familiarizing themselves with some important names. These CARDs, as you noticed, also contain a little blurb about the person or place. Every part of the carta collectionis will reinforce continual and on-going learning. After all, who wouldn't want to have a limited edition foil of Julius Caesar in their collection?

Comments? Ideas? Suggestions? We'd love to hear them!

One small step...

Along with the announcement of upgraded Edline features (our grading program) to include a centralized course hub, calendars, discussion boards (albeit archaic ones)and online access to grades, our school is also going to be staring a new initiative oveq this summer into the next year.

We will be sending txt messages to any student who ops into the program. These will range from reminders about school events, vocabulary words of the day, quotes, etc. Many of the faculty are both confused and outraged that we would be using something like txt messaging to reach the students. Then again, this is also the same group that can't believe that we would willingly allow students access to their grades through their own individual portals.

That group aside, I'm happy to see some forward thinking ideas coming out of the IT and administration with regards to different uses of technology. While I think that we could be doing so much more to increase student access, we are at least taking some small steps in the right direction.

I just wish we would go all in with Google Apps for Education and get each of these students their own email address and build from there.

Some data to digest

At the risk of making this blog morph into something that its not (an iPad blog), this entry will have nothing to do with the iPad (or will it?).

Over the past week as a way of experimenting with Google Forms and to satisfy my curiosity about my student's technology habits, I created a very simple survey for them to complete as part of their homework assignment.  Because the assignment sheets, materials, and anything else they would need are already accessible online through the course website, asking them to click on an extra link was not at all Herculean in its magnitude.  Also, the prevailing argument across the faculty and administration here is that student's don't have as reliable access to the internet as we think (or want) them to.  I wanted to put that argument to rest.

The Questions:
The original catalyst for this was to find a quick and easy way to gather a class email list without collecting note cards with information written on them, typing in the addresses, etc.  Once I had set up that portion, I said "Why not expand it a little more and learn a small bit about what they have and what they use?".  So I did just that.  I asked them about the various pieces of technology in their household, the web services that they use, and what platform (Mac, Windows, other) they are most comfortable with.  The coup de grace question was direct data mining about whether or not it makes sense for us to push harder for a wireless network on campus.  Just so you know, we're one of the top schools in the region, piles of awards, and our overall technology access and integration is horrible.  There is no official method for faculty to use their own devices on the network, never mind students using their own netbooks, laptops, etc.

Responses:
One-hundred percent of my students responded to the survey before the next class meeting (it was, after all, assigned as part of their homework.)  Yes, 100%.  No excuses - I showed them where the survey was located, how short it was and they did it.  In my larger classes (26 and 30 respectively), I haven't had 100% compliance on anything all year.  That intrigued me right then and there.

From there, the responses (I felt) were fairly typical and predictable.  80-85% of all the students have their own personal email address, nearly 95% of all my students have facebook/myspace/other social networking accounts, a relatively small percentage (under 20) use AIM/Google Talk/Skype, and all other web services are overall very low.

90% of all respondents said that they had internet access- although a handful of those that said they didn't, responded that they had a wireless network.  I think the terminology is what confused them.  Given the compliance of the survey, and the time stamps on responses that were no, I'm inclined to believe that the actual number is closer to 100% for internet access at home.  Far more students have video game systems than laptops: again, not at all surprising.

Lastly, and this surprised me given the prevalence of the iPod-Apple-ecosystem... Preference of using Mac OS X was in the single digits. Over 90% use Windows in their homes.

The Wireless Response
Over 50% in every single class responded that if the school were to establish an open wireless network for students to access that they would bring a netbook or a laptop to school and use the device in their classes.  I had a hunch that the number would be statistically significant, I didn't know that it would eclipse a majority.

We are doing such a disservice to the students in equiping them with 21st century skills for use beyond their high school years.  Even now, in April, I'm still struggling against the accepted culture of technology use and integration in my day to day teaching.  However, this small sample of around a hundred students is indicating to me that they have the desire to use more and to make their lives as students more simple.  The other side of this argument is that if more students are using their own devices during the day time, it'll free up more of the school's computers for students who may not have as reliable access off campus.

Now the hard part is fighting the uphill battle with those in charge of  IT to figure out ways to get access to these students.  If the faculty can't have a wireless network (especially those who float), it is tough to see the student's gaining access any time soon.