There is a lot of talk around college campuses - from the administration side of things - about the possibility of requiring students to have a laptop or a Netbook. Some of the arguments being thrown around for such a requirement are:
- With good wifi on campus, students could do work just about anywhere, not just in dedicated labs. This could save money on repairing library computers, managing the time spent on them (especially on community college campuses where the # of students attending is sky rocketing), and could open up square footage for classes currently designated for computer labs.
- If they're required they would then be covered by financial aid. This then would give lower-income students a more even playing field with their more affluent peers.
- It encourages "portable academic study" which these skills will obviously be more and more necessary moving forward.
- All books could be purchased in soft-copy format, ultimately saving money for students - potentially a LOT of money.
Some of the questions being posed are:
- Netbooks often don't have enough memory.
- What about students that only take one class? Would they have to pay for a laptop (if they don't have one) and pay more for it than they did the class?
But, for me, I'm wondering if students would pay attention in class. My hunch is their Facebook profile would get much more traction than their Word doc or excel spreadsheet. Aren't cell phones a distraction enough?
Any thoughts on this? Have you heard of this happening on campuses near you? Is this a good thing?
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As a college student, I had a desktop for my first 4 years and got a laptop for my victory lap of a fifth year. I found myself working on school work more during my off time because I could chill on the couch and work / study versus being cooped up at my desk. On the flip side, I spent class happily checking email, the news, and facebook. It ended up being a fair trade of time in the end, my grades didn't change!
Some schools in the Midwest require a laptop as part of tuition for a rental fee (e.g. Winona State U in MN), and students have the option to purchase the laptop at the end of their stint. In other cases, like at my alma mater (University of Wisconsin, Madison), some classes will not let you bring a laptop because they are smart enough to know that students don't pay attention.
My thought? Most students have a computer coming into school, and those who don't, happily and successfully frequent labs or rent computers from the schools.
I haven't been in school (or without a laptop) in a long time, but observing my son-in-law, who recently went back to college to complete his degree, it would appear that if the textbooks would be available on-line for purchase (or even better to be licensed for use with a password for the duration of the course), the student could easily come out financially ahead for even one class. The problem now is that he had to buy a laptop, plus pay several hundred dollars for books every semester. Of course, he is now using the laptop as he starts a teaching career, so the laptop is not only for school, it's for life after school as well (even though the individual machine will not be for a lifetime).
doc