Category Archives: Independent Studies

Southwest Air WiFi: Real or Myth?

14 Wednesday Sep 2011

Posted by in 2020 Enterprise Technologies, Branding, Business, Club Leadership, Communication, Customer Relations, Customer Service, History, Honor, Independent Studies, Information Technology, Internet, Management Practices, Privacy, Public Relations, Travel

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Paul Kiser

Southwest Airlines (SWA) has been talking about in-flight WiFi service for over four years, but today most Southwest passengers will find that going online is still something that happens on the ground, not in the air. Even if a Southwest plane has the ‘WiFi hump’ and is labeled as a WiFi HotSpot, it doesn’t mean the service will be turned on during the flight.

Southwest’s goal of in-flight Internet service has had its challenges in getting airborne. A brief history of their communications on the topic:

53 months agoª – In an interview about restructuring fuel contracts, SWA CEO Gary Kelly mentions that his airline is considering adding WiFi service. Kelly is quoted as saying,

“We are very seriously exploring that. We’d be acutely interested in the cost of doing that. It would be a very exciting development if we could make that work.”¹

A Southwest Plane with the WiFi 'hump' satellite antenna located on the top of the plane in front of the tail

44 months ago – Southwest announces it will be testing passenger WiFi service on four planes in the summer using Row 44 as it’s Internet service provider.²

25 months ago – Southwest announces that testing is completed and that they will start equipping planes with WiFi in the Spring of 2010.³

20 months ago – Senior Vice President of Marketing and Revenue Management Dave Ridley states in SWA’s blog, Nuts About Southwest, admits, “… the road to onboard wi-fi has been a long one…,”¹¹ but said that starting the 2nd quarter of 2010, SWA will start installing WiFi on 15 planes a month and increasing it to 25 planes a month. He added:

“…we estimate that our full fleet of more than 540 planes will be outfitted with wi-fi service by early 2012.”

11 months ago – SVP Ridley announces in the Nuts About Southwest blog that only 32 planes have WiFi installed and he adds:

“…we are adding to that number weekly.”¹²

2 months ago – In a call to investors CEO Kelly reveals a timetable revision for in-flight WiFi:

“…Kelly said he feels “very comfortable” with the “2013 timeframe” for fleetwide Wi-Fi installation…”¹³

Last week, after two separate incidents of the WiFi service being turned off on WiFi designated Southwest planes, uniformed Southwest employees had different explanations of the status of the company’s on board Internet service. One claimed that the system ‘worked yesterday’ and another said confidentially that their were problems with the Internet service provider and that the Southwest was no longer using them.

Howard Lefkowitz, Chief Commercial Officer

Not so, says Chief Commercial Officer Howard Lefkowitz of Row 44. Lefkowitz, the former CEO of Vegas.com who joined Row 44 about a year ago, said in a telephone interview that Row 44 is still Southwest’s Internet and entertainment provider and that they are continuing to equip the planes. He said that “…over 100…” planes now have WiFi Internet service and thousands of people are using it everyday. Lefkowitz said he would check into why two of the WiFi equipped flights were not in service last week.

Southwest Airlines was contacted by phone and email, but did not respond to requests for information.

This article first published as
Southwest Air WiFi: Real or Myth?
on Technorati.com

NOTES AND REFERENCES

ªGary Kelly’s original remarks were recorded in the Dallas Morning News; however, that link is broken. The link appears in an April 19, 2007, blog in WNN WiFi Net News. The remarks are from another blog referenced below on the same date.

¹Author Unknown. The Wireless Weblog (2007.) Southwest Airlines Wants WiFi. Retrieved September 13, 2011 from http://www.wireless-weblog.com/50226711/southwest_airlines_wants_wifi.php.

²W. Safer. Switched.  (2008.) Southwest Airlines Adding In-Flight WiFi Internet Access This Summer.  Retrieved September 13, 2011 from http://www.switched.com/2008/01/24/southwest-airlines-adds-in-flight-wireless-internet-access-this/

³B. Parr.  Mashable. (2009.) Southwest Airline: Wi-Fi On Every Flight by Early 2010. Retrieved September 13, 2011 from http://mashable.com/2009/08/23/southwest-wifi/. ¹¹D. Ridley. Nuts About Southwest. (2010.) It Is Official–Wi-Fi Is On The Way! Retrieved September 13, 2011 from http://www.blogsouthwest.com/blog/it-is-official-wi-fi-is-on-the-way

¹²D. Ridley. Nuts About Southwest. (2010.) Southwest Airlines Media Day 2010: WiFi Details (Including Price) Revealed. Retrieved September 13, 2011 from http://www.blogsouthwest.com/blog/southwest-airlines-media-day-2010-wifi-details-including-price-revealed.

¹³Dennis Schaal. tnooz. (2010.) Southwest Airlines: Fleetwide Wi-Fi Won’t Come Until 2013. Retrieved September 13, 2011 from http://www.tnooz.com/2010/07/29/mobile/southwest-airlines-fleetwide-wi-fi-wont-come-until-2013/.

Is Higher Education Doomed? (Part III): The missed opportunity – a viable alternative to the status quo

04 Friday Feb 2011

Posted by in College, Ethics, Government, Higher Education, Independent Studies, Internet, Politics, Social Interactive Media (SIM), Taxes, Universities

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by Paul Kiser
USA PDT [Twitter: ] [Facebook] [LinkedIn] [Skype:kiserrotary or 775.624.5679]

Paul Kiser

Article first published as
Is Higher Education Doomed? (Part III): The Missed Opportunity – A Viable Alternative To The Status Quo
on Technorati.com

Part III
(Click on link for Part II)

In Part I of this series we reviewed the factors that are setting the stage for a major paradigm shift in Higher Education. In Part II we discussed a hypothetical scenario involving the two people who matter in higher education: the Professor and the Student.

Is the Sun setting on the state-run university?

Unfortunately, when considering how to resolve the current financial crisis confronting higher ed, state-run university administrators have tended to focus increasing class sizes, cutting class offerings, and replacing permanent faculty with less costly contract lecturers as is the case in Iowa (Article:  Iowa State increases class sizes.) No one can defend this strategy as beneficial to the Professor or the Student.

So what is the solution?

Some have proposed replacing public, state-run universities with private, for-profit schools (See: Are America’s University In Danger of Being Privatized?;) however, substituting a public bureaucracy with profit-motivated, uncaring people does not solve the financial pressures crushing higher education. Past attempts to privatize public sector industries demonstrates that the concept rarely offers the results promised (Ellen J. Dannin paper on privatization.) Existing private, for-profit universities are already under fire for mining federal loan programs for their financial gain (See: For-Profits High Risk Loan Strategy.)

Another alternative are online and/or independent study programs. These programs have been around for decades; however, both have a questionable track record with some programs being too expensive, lacking quality learning objectives, and/or being illegitimate scams to trade money for a diploma. The parent university accreditation group (The Council For Higher Education Accreditation or CHEA) encourages universities to aggressively discredit any higher education program that might be a ‘Diploma Mill’ (CHEA paper,) so most alternative higher education programs risk unwanted negative publicity from traditional schools.

Yet, the current crisis in higher education offers an opportunity for a Socrates-type model of learning that re-establishes the Professor/Student focus without the costly baggage of a brick and mortar university. The use of Social Media blogs, webinars, and other online connection tools have the potential to re-invent higher education; however, there is little evidence that these tools will replace the traditional university system of teaching.

No one can doubt that higher education will survive this crisis, because it has too. Our economic success is driven, not by people who have a college degree, but by people who have a higher education. In the end, the success of any post-secondary teaching program will be measured by how well it educates, not how much it costs.


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Is Higher Ed Doomed? (Part II): The cost of Higher Ed doesn’t add up

01 Tuesday Feb 2011

Posted by in College, Ethics, Government, Higher Education, Independent Studies, Internet, Taxes, Universities

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by Paul Kiser
USA PDT [Twitter: ] [Facebook] [LinkedIn] [Skype:kiserrotary or 775.624.5679]

Paul Kiser

Article first published as
Is Higher Ed Doomed (Part II): The cost of Higher Education doesn’t add up
on Technorati.com

Part II
(Click on link for Part I)

Since 1983 college tuition increases have not only significantly outpaced cost of living increases, but they have also outpaced the spiraling inflation of medical costs (Wikipedia.) Those involved in Higher Education admit that a major change is needed to address the financial factors crushing affordable education and are throwing around ideas like a ‘three-year’ degrees (Inside Higher Ed article: A Call For Change, From Within,) but these changes seem to only tweak the existing paradigm.

To find a solution to the existing crisis will require stripping higher education down to the basics: The Professor teaching the Student. Consider a hypothetical scenario for an undergraduate degree program.

If a college student paid $250 to each of his or her professors per semester, and this student took five classes (3 credits per class) for 15 credits, then the total amount paid would be $1,250.

College Student – 5 classes @ $250/class = $1,250

Assuming the college professor was paid $250 from each student, and if she or he taught five classes per semester of 20 students per class she/he would earn $25,000 per semester.

College Professor – 5 classes x 20 students @ $250/student = $25,000

Assuming two semesters per year, that makes the annual cost to the student for tuition $2,500 and the total annual salary for the professor will be $50,000.

College Student – $1,250/semester x 2 = $2,500

College Professor – $25,000/semester x 2 = $50,000

Taking this one step further, let’s assume the student pays someone (an ‘Educational Coordinator’) to create an individualized college-degree program, select qualified professors for the desired degree, and coordinate the students schedule with the professor’s availability. For this service the student will pay the Educational Coordinator $150/class.  Assuming five classes per semester and two semesters per year the student will be paying $1,500 per year for his or her Educational Coordinator. Assuming the Educational Coordinator handles 50 students per year that gives them a salary of $75,000.

College Student – Tuition of $2,500 + Educational Coordinator for $1,500 = $4,000

Educational Coordinator – 50 full-time students @ $1,500/student = $75,000

Finally, let’s assume that instead of using textbooks, each professor provides electronic versions of her or his own research/writing and selected scholarly papers and verified information available from the Internet. For this, the student pays a $25 fee per class for an electronic data transfer of documents and URL addresses of the subject matter needed for the class.

State-run universities continue to dig themselves deeper in a hole

The totals are as follows:

The student pays a total of $4,250/year for tuition, individual educational counseling, and digital versions of all required written materials.

The Educational Coordinator earns $75,000/year for giving one-on-one counseling to 50 students

The College Professor earns $55,000/year for teaching 10 classes of 20 students per year.

In 2010, the average annual cost for tuition and fees at a four-year state-run university, excluding textbooks, was $7,605 (College Board website: ‘What It Costs To Go To College.’) This is $3,355 more (almost 180% more) than the hypothetical scenario from above and the student does not need to buy any textbooks. In addition, the student is receiving one-on-one educational counseling and a program individualized to their interests.

The financial burden that is not included in this hypothetical scenario are the student activity fees, housing fees, construction, building maintenance, parking fees, athletic programs, administrative staff, grounds keepers, security, Deans, Presidents, etc. The question that reality forces us to now confront is whether or not we can afford these extra costs.

NEXT:  Is Higher Ed Doomed? (Part III): The missed opportunity – a viable alternative to the status quo


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How Social Interactive Media Could Transform Higher Education

06 Thursday May 2010

Posted by in College, Consulting, Customer Relations, Customer Service, Higher Education, Independent Studies, Information Technology, Management Practices, parenting, Public Relations, Re-Imagine!, Rotary, Social Interactive Media (SIM), Social Media Relations, Tom Peters, Universities

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by Paul Kiser

Mom!

A Future Phone Conversation Between Mom and her Son
Mom! I just got a flash from Dr. Ramjan..HE ACCEPTED ME!!!!…Yes!…I start his program right away….for crepe’s sake Mom, it’s not like when you went to college. I don’t have to go sit in a classroom and listen to some no-name drone on about stuff nobody cares about!….No, I’m not slamming your education, but honestly Mom why did you put up with it? Going to classes, paying for parking, student fees, and being told what professors you had to learn from, etc., etc….

Paul Kiser - CEO 2020 Enterprise Technologies

Tomorrow’s College to Be Professor Based, Not University Based?
Brick and mortar universities have created elaborate rules and policies (and fees) that tell a student what classes they must complete (some required, a few elective) to obtain a degree. Many of the classes will have facts based on outdated research that must be memorized for tests. In the end the student has a degree that includes course work that had little to do with what is going in today’s working world, but was forced on him or her by a system of Higher Education that is designed for the education of a group, not of an individual.

Social Interactive Media (SIM) tools create new options for Higher Education that could overcome many of the shortcomings of the current University environment. Here are a few issues with the status quo and how Social Interactive Media offers solutions to these issues:

Less Education at a Higher Cost – Universities are slashing budgets as they are being given less money with which to operate.  This means larger classes, fewer professors, and older facilities and equipment.

SIM Solution: Eliminate the major costs of massive campuses and administrative overhead using Social Media as a student’s access to the professor. The classroom can be anywhere in the world, including in the field or in the student’s home. This is not a new idea and the use of the Internet for teaching is becoming widely accepted.

Lack of Choice – In the University environment the student has little say in what classes they will take and even less choice in the professor. The professor might be a graduate student with little or no teaching experience, or a tenured professor that has years of teaching experience, but has not performed any research in his or her field for a decade or more.

SIM Solution – Allow the student to choose the seminars and the instructors based on the information and reputation of the professors through blogs and references online. This may create a new classification of the Education Coach who advises and recommends professors and course work. Perhaps Education Coaches will be individually accredited and specialize in certain fields, or perhaps they will be accredited to help a student define a general studies (liberal arts) type program.

Inflexible Scheduling – University classes are based on the concept of group teaching, which requires all students conform their lives to the schedule determined by administrators.

SIM Solution – Individualized studies where the professor works with the student schedules programs that are mutually beneficial.

For decades there have been versions of independent study programs and in the past decade, many legitimate Internet-based colleges programs; however, the negatives of the existing University environment, exacerbated by funding shortfalls open the door to Re-Imagining higher education as a Student/Professor centered system that is relevant, rather than an administrator/bureaucratic centered system that is insensitive to the individual.

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