URBAN CLASS COMPUTING: Promising or

Perilous

MARIA VICTORIA G. PINEDADe La Salle University-Manila,

PHILIPPINES

9 July 2009Corfu, Greece

Map source: http://www.mapsharing.org/MS-maps/map-pages-worldmap/images-map/1-world-map-political.gif

Distance from Manila, Philippines to Athens, Greece is 6010.3 Miles( 9672.7 Kilometers / 5219.4 Nautical Miles )

Roughly 6244.53miles From Manila to Corfu

“Urban computing is the integration of computing, sensing and actuation technologies into everyday urban living and lifestyles”.

Kindberg, Chalmers & Paulos, 2007

This is the traditional university in an urban setting environment

The DE LA SALLE UNIVERSITY

of the oldest, private, Catholic university in the Philippines founded in 1911.

The old buildings have neoclassical style & the new buildings, modernist style

The DE LA SALLE UNIVERSITY

Has over 750 computer workstations of varying specifications spread in 30 different laboratories.

There are wired networks and wireless connections available for computing, internet and online services’ access.

Internet infrastructure dedicated to university is 26Mbps bandwidth

Some of the De La Salle Bldgs

Yuchengco HallMost Blessed Sacrament Chapel

St. La Salle HallAndrew Gonzalez Hall

Ampitheatre

This is the profile of the students accepted in a

traditional urban setting environment

GenderM F TOTAL

  63 35 98    

Birth Year 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991  4 33 47 14 0

Age Entered College15 16 17 18 and

Above

  10 42 36 10  

Original Birth Place Metro Manila Province Outside the

Philippines

75 21 2

Childhood LocationMetro Manila Province Outside the

Philippines

75 21 4

Study LocationMetro Manila Outside Metro

Manila

93 5  

Basic demographic

s of the students

Have Mobile Phone Yes No 

98 0

# of mobile phones

one two threemore than three

57 39 1 1

Have Laptop Yes No 

83 15

no. of Laptopsone two three

more than three

 38 49 2  

 

Basic demographics of

the students

Bar chart showing the Laptop and Computer Statistics of the

Students

15

36

17

9 10

52 1 1

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

No. of Laptops or Computers at Home

one

two

three

four

f ive

six

eight

nine

ten

Bar chart showing the students’ average time spent surfing the

web Average Time Spent in the Web

3

21

23

50

0

9

5

82

1-2 hours

3-4 hours

5-6 hours

More than 6

Ave Time Spent on internet during Weekend

Ave Time Spent on internet during Weekday

The top three preferred social network sites are Multiply (89%), Friendster (88%) and Facebook

(83%).

E-mail 94%IM 96%Online Chat 78%Doing Research 83%Downloading files 83%Online Games 61%Social Networking 86%Watching Video online 81%

Top web activities

of the students

Top items downloaded by the students from the web

Top items dow nloaded from the Web

movie, 68

music, 72TV Show , 52

Program, 53

e-Book, 24

Synthesis of the Survey

A student engaged in UCC

1. prioritizes mobile and web connectivity for communication and information access; gives importance to virtual interactions as part of social activities; has high consideration to quality, traditional educational structure

Self-service learning skill

refers to the habitual ability to get fast, relevant and immediate knowledge and information, manage and organize time and effort, experience online, mobile and physical interactions and views technology engagement as second nature together with learning.

A student engaged in UCC

2. the students’ perspective of UCC based on the survey as “good, helpful, an emerging trend of gathering data and information, necessary to learning and that it should not be abused.”

2. Urban Class Computing“a condition wherein there is a natural, opportunistic reliance on the ICT tools to facilitate efficient and immediate task and learning delivery be it in the classroom or at home, or anywhere in the campus.”

A student engaged in UCC

3. the approbation for quality, traditional on-campus educational structure is very evident.

Students’ view of physically going to school gives high regard to the need for (1)social interaction, (2)more learning, (2)getting good grades, (3)having daily allowances, (4)interactions with good professors and (5)earning a degree.

Other results

4. Learning or studying in an urban university prescribes a technology learning tool. This is favorable to the students who have access to a wide range of ICT tools.

5. Projects related to the permissible use of ICT in the classroom or campus should start

Challenges Faced by the Urban

University

Provision for changing ICT infrastructure from wired connection to wireless

Computer laboratories may be out of date

Keeping the wireless connections always available

Classroom policies on the use of technology will have to be studied in the light of what will be more conducive to learning, what is permissible and extent of technology use.

Expansion in the form of creation of buildings will have to be planned to accommodate sustainable ICT infrastructure and ambient informatics

Sustaining the ICT infrastructure may require urban setting universities to establish linkage with private companies to be able to deliver and sustain quality ICT service facilities for learning.

Thank youHave a great

Greek evening!

Maria Victoria G. Pinedamavicpineda@yahoo.com

mavic.pineda@delasalle.ph http://whymanagetech.blogspot.com