Technology

Chris Fulkerson was interviewed on cybersecurity in higher education.

If a guest speaker can’t make it to an Elon classroom from across the country, campus technology staff members have another solution: bring the class to the speaker. How? Ship them a video conference unit that plugs right into an Internet connection.

Chris Fulkerson, assistant vice president for technology at Elon University, was interviewed by Cisco Systems at Educause 2008, a national conference on educational technology held in October in Orlando, Fla.

Students waiting for an Elon University BioBus can now learn from their stop exactly how long a wait it is before the next bus arrives. Starting this fall, riders can call a telephone number on the bus stop sign, punch in a code from the same placard, then get an update on the next two buses scheduled to pick up at that location.

Technology upgrades, from video cameras in parking lots to new procedures for using library computers, have enhanced campus security as students return to the university for the start of the fall semester.

Elon employees copy thousands of documents each year, from student applications to worker resumes to purchase receipts. All those photocopiers may soon get a lighter workload. The university purchased a program this month that allows millions of documents to be stored in electronic format, a move to both help the environment and increase staff efficiency.

The university has launched a new effort to warn students of the dangers of posting personal data to online social networking sites. Student workers in the technology office scoured Facebook to find classmates whose room location was viewable by the public, and starting this week, school officials are reminding those who do not protect that information of the risks they incur.