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While Wi-fi may benefit practically all its users, it nonetheless brings its own technological, applicability, social problems that have consequences in the educational setting.
Technological Drawbacks
Security. Relative to wired connections, wi-fi is much more vulnerable to security breaks and leaks to potential hackers. It is just harder to provide security to transmissions that occur over the air. "If sensible protections are not used, wi-fi equipment could be used to steal personal information (passwords, identity theft, etc.)" [Wikipedia 2005]. With any security setup, unauthorized users can easily just connect to other Wi-Fi networks. But even with security encryptions, the picture is far from perfect. WEP, or Wired Equivalent Privacy, the most commonly used encryption standard, has proven to be easily breakable even when properly set up. WPA, or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), has proven to be a better security standard, but nonetheless is not impossible to have security leaks through. This is the reason why some companies have implemented additional security layers to ensure protection against interception from outside sources like hackers.
Interference from other devices. Common wi-fi standards such as 802.11b and 802.11g use the 2.4 GHz spectrum, for its radio signal frequencies. However, these levels are often crowded with other electronic equipment such as Bluetooth devices, microwave ovens, and cordless phones. This crowding of devices among same frequency spectrum has a detrimental effect on the performance of wi-fi to the point where there may be connection problems between user's electronic devices and the local access point.
Instability & Reliability. Wi-Fi can often be interfered by other electronic devices that operate on the same frequency. Its range can also be affected by the number of objects that are in the path of the wireless transmissions. For some students, connecting to wireless networks can be unrealiable, more so than with wired netowrks. In Wheeler Hall at the University of California, Berkeley, "access to Airbears is unrealiable, " said freshman Briant Carcamo [Zaman 2005]. This can fustrating for a technology that supposed to provide further convenience.
Educational Applicability Problems / Concerns
Distraction from class focus. There has been a rising backlash for the ways students are using their laptops in class with wireless connection. The original purpose was for students to use wi-fi for educational or research purposes inside and outside of the classroom. What professors at numerous educa
tional institutions are seeing are students "glued to the 14-inch screen at the end of their nose" [McWilliams 2005], multi-tasking between instant message, checking email, shopping online, and other activities. It's causing students to focus on areas that are not relevant to the subject of the class, but relevant to the student's own personal life. This can result in less interactive discussions between professors and students, especially if students are not even paying attention to the content at hand. This problem has become an increasingly problematic and is the main concern regarding wi-fi for many educational institutions . As wi-fi becomes the norm through educational institutions throughout the US, more and more students could potentially follow suit of this trend and this would dramatically go in the opposite direction of what university institutions are trying to do with this technology in the educational setting.