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Laptops Required for Freshmen

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wed Mar 01, 2006 10:45 AM
from the seems-like-a-good-idea-to-me dept.
Education Hardware
An anonymous reader writes "Indiana State University will become the first public university in the state to require all students to have notebook computers, beginning with incoming freshmen in fall 2007. Guess which laptop is the preferred one..." I started bringing laptops to class around my Junior year. I'm unconvinced that they helped me with my grades.
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  • This must be stopped now. If this continues, then they may start telling students where to live, or what books to buy.
    • Just think what will happen when they start telling the freshmen what classes they have to take! The horror!
    • This must be stopped now. If this continues, then they may start telling students where to live, or what books to buy.

      On the bright side, students will most likley pay less for their laptop than they will for their books.
      • On the bright side, students will most likley pay less for their laptop than they will for their books.

        Yes, but in three years, the laptop will be so old and out of date, they'll have to purchase a new one.

        I completed my undergraduate studies 17 years ago, and let me tell you, that Calculus 101 Textbook is STILL providing me with many nights of riveting thrills and spills. I re-read it at least as often as I re-read Lord of the Rings....

  • So they can share music, movies, pr0n, all wirelessly?

    Or so they can sit in class and play online games while the prof is droning on and on?

    Why is this necessary?
    • Or so they can sit in class and play online games while the prof is droning on and on?

      Why is this necessary?

      About 15 minutes ago, I left my weekly project status meeting here at work. About 25% of the attendees are actively USING their laptop in the meeting. A couple of weeks ago, I saw a project leader playing Tetris during this meeting. So, if nothing else, playing games on the laptop in class will prepare the class of 2007 for their future life in the real world.

  • I'm not quite sure why this article is a big deal? As far as I know a number of schools have been requiring laptops for years. I know UNC-Chapel Hill has for maybe 5 years now (while its neighbor Duke gives incoming freshman ipods)

    ~shrug~
    • Yeah "gives" away "free" iPods. Nevermind that those iPods are paid for many, many times over by the student's fees and tuition. :-)
  • You're required to have a thunkpad.

  • Breaking News (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Nom du Keyboard (633989) on Wednesday March 01 2006, @10:50AM (#14826749)
    And in breaking news, laptop computer theft suddenly surpasses bicycle theft at the university. Details at eleven.
  • I won't deny that Thinkpads are nice PC laptops, but it sounds like they're really pushing them on the students. They shouldn't give just one recommendation. They should be offering a set of basic system requirements that student laptops should meet or exceed in order to get them through four or five years of college, and give Mac, Linux and Windows recommendations, along with other software they should have. Something like this can only be attributed to the fact that IU must have gotten a sweetheart dea
    • ...they want to standardise the hardware/software configuration so they can support it?
      • Big fucking deal. They're the students' laptops, and I don't really see why it's the school's responsibility to support the students' computes. Besides, if their techs can't get a printer or a wireless network running on OS X then maybe they should seek employment elsewhere.
    • My guess is that there's probably a deal in there somewhere (as you mentioned, Lenovo) that takes advantage of the ignorance of parents who are basically footing the bill anyhow. I imagine that either mom or dad will say, "The school recommends a ThinkPad, and that's what were getting you. I don't want my little Nancy/Johnny to be behind any of the other students because we got them a computer that might not work. What's that honey? You say you like your Powerbook better? Nonsense, this new computer will wo

  • Guess which laptop is the preferred one..

    They've used Thinkpads at RPI [rpi.edu] for some time and they are great machines. The school, however, does not require you to keep the default OS/software package. You simply find yourself in trouble when your assignment requires MatLab and you don't have it installed anymore - though generally you can just borrow a friend's.

    There is nothing wrong with suggesting a laptop with a good support track record, lots of academic/scientific software available, and and wide u

    • My school used a super secret 40-bit WEP key, that they would take your laptop and enter themselves.

      Yeah, I had linux on my laptop and I didn't give the techy a root account to play with.

      That was fun.

      A bit of social engineering later (and a strong reminder that student tech fees pay his salary) and I ended up with the WEP key which at the time was something like b4d45552 or something like that (something like bigbadboss or whatever).

      I seriously hate admins of schools they're the most useless technologically
  • It'll be another "let's use all proprietary windows intel only tools" scam.

    I only got my laptop in the second half of my program and frankly aside from giving me something to do during class (e.g. read slashdot) it didn't help. I did most of my lab work at home and very little on the laptop at school.

    Now if this uni went the way of OSS and used proper open source networking resources then I may be in favour of it...

    But knowing most unis they're just a money pit so who do you think they'll align with.

    Tom
  • Although the article reads like one big advertisment, I've always liked the thinkpads. I bought mine while the line was still under IBM. Does anyone have experience with Levano??
  • Thinkpad. Not a bad choice for a Windows/Linux laptop.

    Once Windows emulation is working well, though, I think a MacBook (Pro or not) would be a better choice. Fewer security issues, better GUI and applications, and it runs more software. Apple is sure looking good these days... :-)

    MacBooks might even be less expensive!

  • Through Access Connections, students and faculty will be able to seamlessly move from classes to dorm rooms

     Through the ancient and hallowed technology known as 'feet', students and faculty will be able to seamlessly move from classes to dorm rooms

    Fixed.
  • I've never owned a notebook, but at the beginning of my first year of college I bought a Dell Axim + foldable keyboard to take notes on in class. Unfortunately, though, I just ended up loading it up with emulators and playing Final Fantasy or Legend of Zelda through entire lectures. I can't imagine that it would be any different for any other college student, though I don't have a large enough sample size to be sure (at the college that I go to, most people still use paper and pencils.)

    Has anyone else had

    • No, I've had a very different experience. Here at UNC-Chapel Hill, incoming freshmen have been required to buy or own laptops for six years. I work in the Undergraduate Library and I took a class recently (great perk) and I was the *only* student (out of 60) in the class taking notes with pen and paper. Many also had iPods with microphones and were recording the lecture.
  • Will the university be paying for these laptops if students aren't able to afford them?

    Also, the decision that all students require laptops is baffling. I'm a maths with physics undergraduate and I manage perfectly well with a desktop, and to be honest, I don't think it would affect my work much if I had to do without it.
  • Will they be required to bring it with them to class? Will it have to have WiFi and a P4/G5 processor. Will it have to run windows? What happens when it gets stolen? Do you get kicked out until you buy a new one?

  • Remember its just a tool... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by WebHostingGuy (825421) * on Wednesday March 01 2006, @10:54AM (#14826802) Homepage Journal
    Requiring a laptop will not help a student get better grades. Far too often people don't realize that a computer is just a tool which enables you to do something else more efficient. It is not the end all solution to every problem. Unless the computer is needed in the class or you suck at hand-writing notes there is no need for it (and no, IM the cute girl one row over doesn't count as a need). I've had quite a few college classes and I am willing to say less than 5% need a laptop as a course requirement. This seems more like the school is saying we are on the cutting edge because every student uses a laptop. Big whip, show me where this is definately improving grades, quality of work or anything else.
  • Now you can get a degree in Solitare!

    It might be useful if all of your class books were available in a searchable format. And it would be good if you could get access to the notes given in class, as some teachers write too fast, and immediately erase after writing.
  • An anonymous reader writes "Indiana State University will become the first public university in the state to require all students to have notebook computers, beginning with incoming freshmen in fall 2007. Guess which laptop is the preferred one..." I started bringing laptops to class around my Junior year. I'm unconvinced that they helped me with my grades.

    Bring/take, PowerBook/Chinese rebranded ThinkPad, notebook/laptop

    Its all the same.

    BTW, don't a number of universities require notebooks already? I know
  • no need to worry about viruses, adware, spyware, malware...

    as user-friendly as Windows, as secure as BSD Unix.
  • My son goes to Centennary College in NJ, and they hand out laptops to all incoming students before the first day of class. He happened to get a Thinkpad, but his friend got an HP. The whole place is wired/unwired. Don't know if it helps their learning, but it does seem to make it easier to swap email and do reports in a consistent (M$) manner.
  • The widespread use of laptop technology will leverage the power of mobile computing to provide campuswide access through the university's extensive wireless network, said Susan Powers, professor of curriculum, instruction and media technology and chairwoman of ISU's notebook implementation committee.

    "The notebook initiative gives us an opportunity to use technology to support learner-centered, knowledge-centered, assessment-centered and community-centered learning environments. It is a window of opportuni

  • Laptops don't help in lectures. I've not seen one professor who has ever asked me to bring one to a lecture, and hearing the tap-tap-tap of someone not even looking up from their screen must be distracting. People with laptops, even with best intentions, have their attention split two ways, and it doesn't work. If you want to absorb what you're being told in lectures, pen and paper, or better, pre-printed lecture notes and annotating them helps you stay focused on the lecturer.

    What the uni really wants is f
  • The notebook initiative gives us an opportunity to use technology to support learner-centered, knowledge-centered, assessment-centered and community-centered learning environments. It is a window of opportunity for true innovation.

    ---The above statement really doesn't tell us anything IMHO.

    The problem is that there is a potential to suddenly lose all of your work on a laptop, whereas if you had written it all down, you would still have instant access to it on paper.
    I never had a laptop in college
  • I started bringing laptops to class around my Junior year. I'm unconvinced that they helped me with my grades.

    Laptops aren't supposed to "help you with your grades". Taking a hard math class isn't going to "help you with your grades" either. The purpose of university is that you learn things. Not even useful or practical things in general, but the kinds of things that you need in order to be a scholar. Computer use is in that category. And, incidentally, it happens to be even useful and practical.

  • Laptops in Class? Bad Idea (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Prototerm (762512) on Wednesday March 01 2006, @11:23AM (#14827138)
    OK, Firsta disclaimer: When I went to a University, the only "laptop" that existed was a tray table you used when you were sick, and a "calculator" was also called a "slide rule". Anyway...

    In my opinion, there would only be one way a laptop would be useful, and that's if every one of your text books could be loaded on it electronically, thereby avoiding the need to lug books around all day to class. Of course, in the real world, this would create a problem, because publishers would put DRM on their ebooks, and make sure you couldn't buy and sell second hand texts. You have that problem to some extent now, of course. I remember a teacher who made sure to check each student's text book on the first day of class, to make sure it was the latest one. It turned out he was getting a cut from the publisher of everything sold by the campus book store in an under-the-table deal. A second teacher did the same thing, but he co-authored the book. I think he taught the Business Ethics class :)

    Anyway, I question the need for forcing students to spend even more of their hard-earned money on a specific hardware/OS combination on something that really serves no purpose. Of course, I'd say the same thing about a college education in general, but I digress. If they want to use a computer for their term papers, fine. If they want to live in the previous century and use a typewriter (they still make them, right?), then more power to them.

    I can see only very limited benefits to doing this, none of them for the student.

    And for crying' out loud, don't enable wifi or cell phone reception in the classroom, either! Students don't need it, and the teachers don't (or shouldn't) want it. Teachers have enough to worry about as is.

  • Useful for some (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sg3000 (87992) * <{sg_public} {at} {mac.com}> on Wednesday March 01 2006, @11:31AM (#14827236)
    A laptop is useful for some but not for others

    I used my 17" PowerBook G4 during the two and a half years of getting my MBA*, and I found it invaluable. I used it in three ways:

    First, I converted the professor's inevitable PowerPoint presentations into PDFs and used Acrobat to take notes. (Admittedly I prefer when professors don't use PowerPoint. Do it on a marker board if you must write something. PPT is too lazy.)

    Second, I used an application called InkBook [magesw.com] along with a cheapo Wacom tablet which allowed me to do sketches and take notes which were parsed into English, a la the Newton of yore.

    Third, I would often receive case studies as a PDF, so I could quickly take notes and refer back to them during class.

    The benefit was I didn't have to carry around a folder with a bunch of paper notes, and I can refer to my notes even to this day. I'm very comfortable with using a computer as my primary tool during class, as I suspect many on Slashdot may agree.

    However, I noticed that while everyone in class had a computer, few used it the way I did.

    There was a lot of reading emails, playing games, or browsing the web during class (admittedly, when I got bored, I did that, too). Although some people took notes in PowerPoint, many people just printed stuff out and hand wrote their notes, so their laptop was just for messing around. If that's the case, then I don't see a benefit with requiring students to have a computer. If the person isn't comfortable with it, and the class isn't significantly enhanced by using it, then there's no point.

    Plus, I'd be pissed if my school forced me to use a laptop of their choosing, rather than what I believe works best for me.

    __
    *hey! before you harass me, consider my relatively low Slashdot user ID. I will accept the taunting and mockings from only 87991 other users.

  • Laptops don't help with grades. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by massysett (910130) on Wednesday March 01 2006, @12:20PM (#14827800) Homepage
    I started bringing laptops to class around my Junior year. I'm unconvinced that they helped me with my grades.

    For my first two years of law school I took a laptop to class. I'm utterly unconvinced that they helped me with grades. Laptops do allow students to take more verbose notes, as one can type faster than he can write. However I did not find this to be a benefit. If anything, greater verbosity to review for exams turned out to be a hinderance.

    My last year of law school I got tired of carrying around my Dell clunkster. Some people had Palms and folding keyboards that they used to take notes. I considered going this route, but decided to reject it to try an alternative on a trial basis: pens and spiral notebooks. Light, easy to carry, no technical failures. It worked great.

    On distractions: yes, sure, some people will use laptops to play games in class. These are the same people who would otherwise be daydreaming or drawing doodles. With pen and paper, I would daydream and draw doodles.

    Finally though, laptops have the potential to improve class interactions and learning experiences. In law school a few students would use IM during class. Sure, sometimes they were gossiping, but often they were helping each other with the material that was being discussed. Another neat idea would be to have a chat room for the class, going on at the same time as the lecture.

    But for the most part, class is just a waste of time anyway. Just a rehashing of reading material. In those cases laptops won't help anything.

    • Gotta agree. There's still WAY too much voodoo involved with switching from networks and even just changing any network settings on a PC. These things weren't bad under OS 9 (When Windows still needed a restart for basic stuff like this), but I can't see it getting much better than how OS X and my Macs do it. I've never had to find a fucking driver or figure out which card I was trying to use.
        • Something's messed up with your system. That's not how it works; the auto-switching features of OS X are quite "smart" in my experience (assuming you have it set up to join any available network when no preferred ones are connected). I think the default is to prompt the user when connecting to a non-whitelisted, unencrypted network, however.

          That said, my corporate laptop doesn't do a horrible job of WLAN management either, although I use a 3rd party program rather than the built-in Windows tools to manage d
        • This sounds like a known bug in some versions of the Airport software. You can fix it by re-running the Network Setup Assistant. From the Terminal run, open /System/Library/CoreServices/Network\ Setup\ Assistant.app. Then recreate all your connections. For some reason simply removing and recreatng the connections in Internet Connect or System Preferrences does not fix it, but running the setup Asistant does. Probably deletes some preference file. I never really investigated the details.
    • Your powerbook doesn't require any software (help) to use a wireless network? What magical box is this?
    • Err, yes PowerBooks switch networks automatically just like the Thinkpad does. You still have to enter the network keys and any other required information to set things up. After that the prefered network gets used. I've configured wireless networking on both of the systems in question. There really isn't anything magical or special about either. Thus I have to label your statement as pointless Mac Fanboy Babble.
    • "That's very nice that your Stinkpads need help to do that. My Powerbook does automatically it without any help."

      Wander by my dorm room sometime. Park outside and use my connection for a few minutes and I can really show you why that's a bad idea :D

      A computer should never ever ever ever ever ever connect to a network without the users authorization. In a wired network that authorization is often just plugging the cable in. In a wireless network there has to be some level of user authorization at the OS or y
        • Because you think Thinkpads are cheap? What world do you live in?

          Cheapest Thinkpad: $750 [ibm.com]
          Cheapest Powerbook: $1750 [apple.com]

          That's $1000. Go away.
            • "Cheapest Ford: $11,000
                Cheapest Porsche: $45,000

                That's $34,000. Go away.

                Don't spout numbers without comparing Specs."

              But if all you need to do is drive to and from class, what's the point of spending another $34,000?

              Just like there is no point in spending an extra $1000 on a laptop when all you need is a web browser and an office suite.
            • Specs:

              Can travel at the maximum legal limit in all states:
              Ford: YES
              Porsche: YES

              Refuelable at all gas stations in the US
              Ford: YES
              Porsche: YES (but requires "special" premium gas at extra cost)

              Passenger capacity
              Ford: 4
              Porsche: 2

              Legal on all roads in US
              Ford: YES
              Porsche: YES

              Servicable at most local service stations and dealers
              Ford: Yes, extensive dealer network in almost every city
              Porsche: No, limited dealer network, hard to find parts

              Tell me again about those specs? Just like apple... except the macs can't fue
    • No, actually they probably received some special deals from IBM to make ThinkPad the official laptop. That's good business for IBM. Also, am I the only person that wishes the ThinkPad would update its design. I can't stand how IBM laptops look. I'm quite sure the design has not changed since the early 90's.
    • quality that is not made by IBM... lenovo sent me an invite to a thinkpad university symposium at a nearby college (i work in another college). YOU HAVE TO PAY TO LISTEN TO THEM TALK ABOUT HOW GREAT LENOVO AND THINKPADS ARE! what's up with that? shouldn't lenovo be footing the bill for the event since it's just a marketing event? that's great that the college is going to talk about their laptop program, but it's lenovo inviting people to attend. i think that's the worst PR move they could possibly make
    • Us old farts never had laptops and frankly I wouldn't want one. Laptops invite too many distractions and even if you focus 100% on note taking, there's often too much of a temptation to get involved in spellchecking or formatting.

      A good friend of mine is a college professor and he is forbidden from banning them from class (he did so as long as possible until the department head said he no longer could). In his experience, the kids with laptops instead of paper notebooks and pens generally get worse grades

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