The Computer Age
By Lindsay Bjerregaard
Preparing for a new school year was simple in grade school. Parents were given lists of supplies that could easily be found in any school supply aisle and shopping could be done in an afternoon.
College, on the other hand, gets a little more complicated. Instead of colored pencils and glue sticks, freshmen are expected to bring flip flops for the dorm showers and quarters for their laundry. And, in an age of rapidly changing technology, one of the most important decisions is whether to buy a computer. Most colleges provide computer labs on campus, so is it really necessary to bring your own computer to school?
According to Darcy Hansen, a sophomore at the University of Iowa who was unable to have his own computer during a class this summer, it definitely is.
“I was pretty much in the computer lab all day. It was painful and expensive because I had to print off a lot of stuff in the labs to read at home,” he said.
Hansen had to use lab computers for researching and writing papers, making PowerPoint presentations, and accessing course content on ICON (Iowa Courses Online), an online site where professors post grades, assignments and other content, and students can engage in online discussions. Over 2,000 courses were accessed on ICON during the Spring 2007 semester, according to the University of Iowa’s Information Technology Services.
Colleges throughout the country are quickly moving toward putting more and more courses and content online.
Chris Vaughan, director of information technology services at Augustana College, Rock Island, said the college has started using more online resources over the past several years. Students can access Moodle, the online course management system, for course content such as quizzes, notes and articles. The system allows faculty and students to communicate with each other through e-mail, chat and blogs. Students also use the Internet for web mail, registration, and checking grades and graduation requirements. While the school has about 400 computers available for use in labs, Vaughan has noticed that having a personal computer is a very common practice.
“Augustana does not require a student to bring a computer to campus, however, about 96 percent of our students do,” said Vaughan.
Kristin Dagley, a senior at Augustana, feels she would miss out on a lot of things without a computer at school because so much is sent via e-mail.
“I use the campus computer labs if I am on campus or don’t have a certain program on my computer, but I mostly use my computer,” she said, adding that it’s hard to get personal things done in campus computer labs because a lot of web sites are blocked.
Lawrence De Geest, a junior at the University of Iowa, has found that relying on a school’s computer labs can present some unforeseen obstacles.
“The biggest problem is that if you need to print something or use the computer and the labs are closed, there’s nothing you can do,” he said.
De Geest thinks that it’s usually easy to find an open computer throughout the school year, but things get busier around finals week and most computers are occupied. Other difficulties he has encountered in relying on computer labs are that students are unable to save information and have to carry their files with them on disks, CD-ROMs, or flash drives. He also noted that school computers can’t be used for personal things like music and art.
Even though depending on computer labs can present inconveniences, De Geest thinks it has its benefits as well.
“You put in more focus in the library as opposed to in your living room with all those distractions,” he said.
For students who prefer not to be tied down to one location, some schools offer laptop checkout services. At the University of Iowa students can check out laptops from the main library for three hours or overnight, but some schools have gone even further. Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, has a one-to-one mobile computing program where all full-time students are issued laptops for the school year for a cost of $455 per semester. According to the school’s web site, the campus has wireless accessibility and students receive a new laptop every two years so that the technology stays current.
On other campuses, the decision of whether to purchase a computer is less clear. Andrew Steffen, a member of the student technology advisory committee at the University of Iowa, strongly recommends that freshmen bring their own personal computers to campus.
“So much of basic university functions are computer-based nowadays. More and more courses are having online components, so [having a computer] makes life a lot easier and a lot better,” he said.
“Laptops tend to be a popular thing just because if you go home for the weekend you can take your computer with you,” he said.
Because there is always the chance that a laptop might be stolen, particularly in the dorms, Steffen recommends that students buy locks for their laptops. Steffen said that every modern laptop has a slot for a lock to go into and that these combination and key locks can be found at electronics stores
Most campuses have recommendations for the types of computer equipment and accessories necessary to access the campus network, which can be found on their information technology services web sites, but the choices between operating systems and whether to go with a laptop or desktop computer are up to the individual.
What seems certain is that college life will be a lot easier on those who join the click clique.
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I added a sentence on at the end, so that the ending isn’t quite so abrubt.
