ALEXA GOES TO COLLEGE
Echo Dots move in on college campuses
“Sure, some individuals have unplugged or muted them, but for every one case I’ve heard of someone not using it, I’ve heard 20 or 30 cases of students using them.” Brendan McGuire, a resident adviser at one of SLU’s on-campus apartment complexes
“Hey Alexa, why is tuition so high?” wrote Lexie Vasos on her university’s Facebook page.
The 22-year-old recent graduate of Saint Louis University wasn’t expecting a response from a smart speaker. And she didn’t quite get one.
“Hm, I don’t know that one,” Amazon’s virtual voice assistant replied.
Vasos was voicing concerns about how her alma mater spends funds after it announced that it was installing more than 2,300 Echo Dot smart devices in student living spaces campuswide.
At face value, its seems like a natural fit for young adults to use hightech assistants in a connected age.
However, the digital roommates supplied by Amazon were met with varying degrees of acceptance by students descending on their campus homes for the new school year. Privacy and security also play a major role when introducing college students, many of whom are living on their own for the first time, to technology that could turn out to be a surveillance nightmare.
“When I first heard about it, I was actually pretty shocked – in a bad way,” Vasos said. “If a friend breaks it, then who pays for that? What if it gets stolen – how do I prove that? I guess it just seems like it could lead to a lot more problems.”
Some students decided to unplug the device altogether.
“I stored away my Echo Dot because I don’t plan on using it,” said SLU freshman Savannah Smith, 18. “But I think it’s a great idea and learning tool for students to use on campus.”
Others applaud the school, saying they’ve already begun using the cloud-based service to get help with homework.
“I’m very proud that my school is using such innovative technology,” said Brendan McGuire, 19. “Instead of fumbling around with Google while I’m writing I can just ask Alexa, ‘Hey Alexa, ask SLU what’s the molecular weight of water?’ And I can have the answer without interrupting my process.”
McGuire, a resident adviser at one of SLU’s on-campus apartment complexes, said far more than the majority of students on campus have welcomed the smart speaker.
“Sure, some individuals have unplugged or muted them, but for every one case I’ve heard of someone not using it, I’ve heard 20 or 30 cases of students using them,” McGuire said.
SLU said it expects students to use Echo Dots to get instant answers to such questions as “What time does the library close tonight?” or “Where is the registrar’s office?”
However, students have expressed interest in using smart home devices for other tasks.
Vasos said the Missouri-based institution already has an app that students can use to get answers to common questions, and she suspects the hockey-puck-shaped smart speaker may have an adverse effect on campus culture.
“It just makes it easier for students to avoid talking to one another and socializing,” she said.
Another concern is privacy. The popular internet-enabled device, dominating 75 percent of the virtual assistant market, is always listening and stores recorded voices in the cloud.
To ease privacy concerns, universities such as SLU use versions of the gadget that don’t store personal data.
“There are those rumors that the government listens to what you’re talking about, and you can’t help but wonder, could the university be listening in, too?” Vasos said.
“Privacy is part of the reason why I didn’t plug it in,” said Monica Ryan, 21, a senior.
SLU isn’t the only campus to experiment with Echo Dots in undergraduate housing.
Students at Northeastern University in Boston have the option of linking the smart speakers to their university accounts, and last fall Arizona State University equipped 1,600 students with devices donated by Amazon.