Every other person on the street has an iPhone or a Blackberry — or so it seems. But how common is Smartphone usage on a university campus? And how worthwhile is it for departments to invest in the future of mobile phone technology? These are the questions departments across campus are asking themselves in light of an explosion of mobile improvements worldwide coupled with their own budgetary constraints within the University.

Jason Austin, Senior Solutions Implementation Engineer of the Office of Information Technology, said universities nation-wide are responding to a changing communications industry.

“When I was a student at State, I don’t remember seeing anyone bring laptops to class,” Austin said. “Now some students have moved past laptops to being able to check their e-mails and facebooks anytime on their mobile phones.”

Although Austin said Smartphones are not the norm for most students yet, they are becoming more popular as they become cheaper and easier to obtain. He thinks handheld devices will be the tools of the future as people find them more convenient to use.

Other departments on campus have not found the rise of mobile phone usage to be prevalent enough to justify implementing their own programs. Alan Schueler, Director of Academic & Administrative Technology for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, started a Mobile Initiative within CALS several years ago to see how much CALS students use mobile technology.

“We didn’t see enough evidence to continue putting a lot of money, time and effort into developing mobile technology programs,” Schueler said. “We have been more focused on making wireless access available everywhere on campus, whether students have laptops or Smartphones.”

Schueler said based on a pilot survey conducted with the University IT committee in 2007, less than 50 percent of University students use Smartphones, although he acknowledges that this estimate could be constantly changing.

“We are always behind the curve in evaluating the use of technology because it is constantly changing,” Schueler said. “We know where mobile technology is heading but we don’t know how many people will have access to this technology and what they will use it for.”

The bottom line, according to Schueler, is that right now, with the University being under serious budget constraints, his department is not spending any money unless they absolutely see a need.

“It’s an evaluative, ongoing process,” Schueler said of his department’s incorporation of mobile technology.

The University library has chosen to embrace mobile technology with a mobile campus library site they launched this past November. The site can be reached from a mobile device at the Web address lib.ncsu.edu/m. David Woodbury, a Library Fellow, said the site gives students access to a variety of library services on their mobile phone.

“If we look at trends for adoption rates of smart phones, we can expect the majority of people to be using them in a matter of a few years,” Woodbury said.

The library mobile site allows students to access locations and hours, computer availability, the search catalog, reference desk services and instant messaging all from their mobile phones. Students can also look at webcams set up in the Hill of Beans to see how long the line is and look up library news and events.

OIT also launched a mobile Web site this year, m.ncsu.edu, which Austin said is meant to give the University another way to connect to students. The site allows students to connect to other popular Web sites such as the Wolfline, University news, the library and people search.

“We’ve had a lot of good response from this Web site,” Austin said. “People see us as pushing the model for the incorporation of education and technology.”

Austin said the next goal for OIT is to make an iPhone application for the University.

“We are constantly looking for ways to improve the mobile Web site and we appreciate student feedback,” Austin said.

Students who do not have access to mobile technology should not be at a disadvantage as of now, although that may change in the future.

“Having constant access to information changes the way I work,” Austin said. “I think as the price catches up with what students see as value, mobile technology will become more popular. Ironically, the technology is invented to help students get things done quicker, although they also present students with a lot of ways to waste their time.”