A New Digital Divide – the difference between computer use data and reality

• When: 3:00 PM to 3:45 PM, Thursday, June 18
• Where: Room 104, Kirby Hall of Civil Rights
• Presenter: Heather Woods, Director of Research & Instructional Support, Wellesley College

Labstats data has shown many of our computing labs are now underutilized transitory locations for brief document edits, email/web browsing and printing. Incoming student data shows our laptop ownership level is over 98%. Despite this, 65% of our student MISO respondents still rank the lab computers as somewhat important or important and we are unable to stock enough circulating laptops to make up the “ownership” gap. As a pilot, Wellesley, a GoogleApps school, is testing a chromebox/chomebook solution. We replaced one of most heavily used labs with chrome boxes and are now circulating more than 65 chrome books to students for short-term and semester-long loans. This presentation will address the implementation process as well as initial outcomes.

About the Presenter

Heather Woods is the Director of Research & Instructional Support at Wellesley College where she leads a merged team of librarians, technologists and academic specialists in support of Universal Faculty Happiness.