I thought I would write about the article we talked about in class concerning the horrible incident that occurred at VA Tech and how computers and "instant tools" could have helped warn people alot sooner. The thing that most people are concerned with is that fact that the first incident occurred at 7:15am, but students were not informed of this until 9:26am through an email. Students who had classes before 9:30 had no idea what went on just hours earlier and so they went to class not knowing that there was a gunman on campus. Now even though they sent an email not everyone checks their emails before going to class. The article we discussed in class explains how there are so many tools out there that students use in which information is sent to them instantly.
One such thing is text messaging. I think by now 98 or 99% of college students have cell phones and text message daily. If the school somehow had an emergency system that sends an alert to students in a text they would have seen that news right away and maybe would have not gone to class which could in effect possibly have saved those 30 lives. I heard on the news that Drexel University was trying to implement this text alert system and I think it is a good idea. One of the setbacks though is if all those cell phone numbers got into the wrong hands somehow. Could our cell phones turn into email in the way in which we get spammed? Or could cell phone numbers get leaked out to people such as stalkers who will use the numbers for harm not good?
The article also mentions that students started making blog posts by 9:47am which shows how instant and viral blogs and Web 2.0 can be. The school took 2 hours to send an email to warn students about the first shooting, but blog posts were up 2 minutes after the second one. This is a perfect example of what we are learning in class. We have such great technology out there, but not everyone is aware or involved in it. I am also sure that the majority of students visit Facebook.com several times a week, maybe even everyday. I thought it was interesting how on the top of the sheet we got in class it says, "Virginia Tech: If You Are OK, Please Update Your Facebook Profile." I thought this was a very good idea because students go on Facebook for just about everything. I myself looked up one of my friends from high school on Facebook to see if she was OK and she had over 200 wall posts saying how they were glad she was OK so I knew her status through that in a matter of seconds.
I would not have imagined that a domestic fight would have continued 2 hours later involving 30 more innocent people. Because of this I do not think that the school is to blame for this incident, but I think that they should have researched better ways to warn students if something like that were to occur. Hopefully this event will raise awareness of every school, business, organization, etc. I think that they are even giving RAs here on campus extra training on what to do in a similar situation. Everything happens for a reason and as horrible as the VA Tech incident was, maybe it will prove to be good in the fact that it helped other institutions to realize that things like this can happen to anyone anywhere and they should have the best possible plan set up in case of emergencies like this one.
For more on the story, mainly about his supposed girlfriend and the courageous RA that went to her aid and was killed in the process you can go to the website here.
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After reading this post I can honestly say that I agree with everything you are saying. One side of me thinks that using a mass textmessage system would be the perfect solution to a situation like the VT one. Students send and receive texts everyday throughout class as a way to communicate with their friends to talk about what to do after class or simply to say how boring the class is. If a mass text message went out you can be sure that in each class someone would read that message almost instantly. On the other hand however, I do not know how comfortable I would be in giving out my cell phone number to the school to compile a massive contact list. This could cause problems not originally thought of. Kathleen touched on a big one... what if this list got in the wrong hands and used for harm rather than help? I realize that this thought may be a little far-fetched but it is something that all schools need to consider before obtaining everyone's cell phone number!
You made me think of another point. Even if everyone does not have a cell phone or one that has text message capability word travels fast. If even one person in the class gets that message than they will tell one friend and within minutes the whole class would know. So this may be useful because a list of many students' numbers may be just as effective as having every single student's numbers. This may seem more attractive to students who are not comfortable giving out their information. They can feel safe having the system available and also safe with not having to give their own personal cell phone number. I actually know that Delaware has tried to ask for our cell phone numbers through UDSIS. So if you are in favor of this go ahead and add your cell phone number. As you said when I mentioned that these numbers can get into the wrong hands it is far-fecthed, but there is always the possibility. Hopefully that will not happen because this system seems that it will be very beneficial to schools.
Yeah Kathleen I don't know if you saw my post about VT, but I basically said all of the same things. "Twitter" is that mass text messaging program that I think UD is instilling here, too. (I heard they wanted all students to post our cellphone numbers online for their access & use for this program).
Anyway, it is so sad to look at the after math of this tragedy & think that many lives could have been saved if a better crisis communication response plan was in order at VT - I know this incident is very thought-provoking and will probably promote change on college campuses throughout the nation.
I did not actually read your post on this Sharon. But I am glad you shared the same points as I did. I did not know the name of the program, Twitter, like you said. I did not even know it had to have a special program to have those mass text messaging capabilities. I will have to look that up to see how it works. It could be interesting. You are so true when you said that it is so sad to think how so many lives could have been save simply by utilizing a better system of communication. Let's just hope that this mass text messaging system will work and actually let's hope that it never has to be tested out in a real life tragedy situation as occurred at Virginia Tech.
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