Last Tuesday marked the kickoff of “Tech Tuesdays” at San Diego State’s Love Library. The events will be held once a month at the library to expose students to new technology.
For the inaugural event, SDSU students were given a demo of Google Glass.
“This is part of our pop-up instruction,” Assessment and Instructional Services Coordinator Carolyn Baber said. “We want to show up, show how to use it and disappear.”
The library wanted to find out if technology such as Google Glass would be useful to students because other schools are using it already, Baber said.
“Graduate students in journalism have been using this in the field and students in the arts are using it to create performance pieces or mini-films,” Baber said. “It’s cool, but we’re trying to see how it can help students in their studies or their chosen professions.”
After the demo, students were surveyed on how they would use the glasses if they had them available through the school.
“We wanted to have a conversation with the students on technology,” Digital Technologies Librarian Keven Jeffery said. “If students are wearing these in five years, would these be their main form of communication? If so, events like what we had will help us communicate with them better.”
Jeffery said 38 students demoed the glasses and 206 watched the demonstrations.
“It’s the beginning of augmented reality and how it can instantly connect people to restaurants and reviews while you’re out and about,” finance junior Joey Zaliagiris said. “It’s like the ultimate tool of the future.”
The technology starts at $1,500 and the library currently has one to be shared among the librarians. The glasses were funded with the library’s state budget, not the library student use fee, Jeffery said.
Google Glass isn’t available for students to check out now, but students can check out e-readers in the media center in the library. Students can also check out Nexus 7 tablets at the circulation and course reserves desk to take a self-guided tour of the library using QR codes that are placed throughout the library.
Google Glass isn’t available to the general public, but you can sign up for the Glass Explorer Program and help Google develop the product.
Photo by J.D. Hodges, staff writer
