Mr. Bielec says the university is also installing wireless networks where students gather to relax. It set up a wireless network in the student union, for instance, and made a half dozen laptops available for checkout. The University of Maryland at College Park has also set up a wireless network in a library, and it too lends laptops. That kind of access is what administrators at Carnegie Mellon University hope will happen there. The university is now expanding the service, however, and it plans to encourage students to use the system.
Some administrators say the best use of wireless networks is in the classroom.
Anyplace is a computer classroom with network access. The English and physics departments at the university are also experimenting with wireless classrooms, he says, and the university is considering building partnerships with businesses that are interested in equipping the entire community. But not everyone is sold on wireless classrooms. Jay L. Dominick, assistant vice-president for information systems at Wake Forest University, says the institution decided not to go wireless after experimenting with the technology in 1996. And the wireless network often became clogged when an entire class used the system at the same time, he says.