The next time a professor catches a student typing into his cell phone during class, he may not be texting his friend - he may be checking his grades.
After three weeks in operation, the SISCell service - which allows students to access their SISOnline accounts through their cell phones or handheld devices - has received a tepid response from students.
Students can view their grades, class schedule and account balance. The service was announced in an e-mail Oct. 24 from the Student Resources Technology Team.
According to Assistant Director of Information Technology for Student Affairs Andrew Sonnenschein, the system was given to Tufts for free by the company that makes SIS, SunGard SCT.
"We volunteered to pilot the service and our vendor had a mutual interest in us," Sonnenschein said in an e-mail. "We are a pilot to the vendor in the sense that we are the first to use it."
The technology, he said, is "relatively young, but not new."
In the e-mail to students, the Student Resources Technology Team said the service may not be useful to all students now, but Sonnenschein said he expects students will log on at the beginning of the semester to check their schedule and during breaks to look at their grades.
"This is a new technology that not everyone will have interest [in] or access [to] at this time," he said.
So far the Web site has had about 250 hits. "Usage has been light, but feedback has been generally positive," Sonnenschein said. "Activity on SISCell should rise as the cell phone browser catches on in general."
He said SISCell should not be seen as a diversion of resources. "This was a pretty small project that required very little in the way of labor and resources," he said. "SISCell is a small part of a much broader effort."
Students were lukewarm on the new service. SISCell "doesn't seem very practical or necessary, but couldn't hurt," freshman Michael Collado said. "I haven't found any problem with the current system, but if there is any way that they can make it better, I think they should go that way rather than cell phones."
Junior Lauren Barozie said the service was unnecessary. "There are computers everywhere," she said.
Freshman Petr Bouchal, though, said SISCell may have an upside. "If it helps somebody and it doesn't cost a lot of money, then it's probably practical," he said.
