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Use of CD-ROMs in Higher Education?
MooseMcMad asks: "I am a 16-year old in England + have just started a new school year working towards my AS-Level exams at the end of the year. I was surprised to receive a CD-ROM at the start of my Physics lesson and told that this contained the syllabus + relevant reading material for my course. Where does this leave many schools (particularly state schools), where the pupils may not have access to a computer? I don't know anything about any precedents for this but it was certainly amusing watching the teacher try and fumble about with the software." Cool idea! This makes a lot of sense for college students as it cuts down on the paperwork they have to keep track of (and possibly lose) and keeps everything in one easy to access place. Of course, if you don't have a computer, you are still stuck with the reams of notes and loose paper and the 20 pound text book. When they can put text books on CDs, I'll really be impressed.
The latter is a real problem for those of us who have to administer computer labs. We lock down lab stations with restrictive NT workstation settings that prevent program installs, so when students get CD-ROMs they must use in labs, they don't work unless we go through and pre-install the stupid software for them.
These days, it's stupid to not have autoplay run the program from the CD without the need for an install anyway. If they just did that, people could just insert and run. No hassle.
But, as another poster said, why even bother in the first place? This stuff should be on a web page somewhere anyway.
What happens when all of the non-computer owning students go to the library and print out all 500 pages? :-)
I work in a UK Computer Science department as system programmer / help desk contact point. At the uni, this october every undergraduate will be given a DVD rom which contains a "snapshot" of all the on-line notes for all the course the department offers (and most of the notes / slides are available on-line).
In addition to this, the CD contains course related software (subject to licences), redhat linux 6.2 (as it is used on about 50% of the departmental computers, and various useful programs that are freely available eg. Netscape, realplayer, flash plugins, IE, ftp, ssh etc.
The biggest problem this year is the amount of data, when the concept was run originally the department struggled to fill a CD-Rom, this year it will probably be a DVD-Rom with a Multiple CD option!
The department finds this invaluable as it can ensure that everybody has access to the software at home (provided they have a computer) as well as on the departmental computers. It also allows the students to look up notes etc. without having to make a trip from digs / halls to uni (and without spending what little money they have on modem phone bills ;). But most of all there is the "coolness" factor - you get a free departmental DVD, no other department at our uni offers anything like it :)
I think that this wil be "the way of the future" as the data / software needed to get the most out of the course increases, there has to be CD / DVD's given out for free otherwise people can never go home or have to spend all their cash on modem bills / CD-R's to take thier downloads home on. Plus with a electronic media animated examples / complete code listings can be provided to give the students a better idea of the material being taught (particularly relvant for computer graphics courses).
Manic.
If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let'em go, because, man, they're gone.
Who owns the CD when the class is over? Do you have to give it back or can you sell it to the next group of students?
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All very well. A useful thing BUT the school is now obliged to provide access to PC's IMHO. It would be seriously disadvantaging the kid's with no PC if the school gives out CDs with the required study info, if not all kids can use it. Even if they also provide a paper copy. A computer lab on-campus would remedy this inequality.
You make the mistake of thinking you can educate the fundamental stupidity out of people. You can't.
Now, I have to admit that it's been almost 25 years since I stepped into a college classroom as a student, but I do recall that every semester I would buy a whole fresh set of hi-lighters so that I could mark the things I found tough to crack. Study time was spent concentrating on the highlighted phrases until I understood or were forced to find help.
Now, unless the "CD-ROM" you were referring to was in reality a CD-RW and you have a suitable recorder, you end up with a net loss.
Every single text book I owned had notes in the margin from the lectures, from the Q&A with the prof and the TA, and from peer-to-peer bull sessions. Indeed, some of the older computer texts I use regularly all these years later are most useful because of the margin notes I wrote while listening to others.
Sometimes newer is not better. CDs in school are a case in point.
(But then again, you have a similar problem with web sites unless you get a copy at the end of the course, and that copy has all your "margin notes" that you of course added during the sessions.)
First off, they obviously can put textbooks on CD rom. The only problem is that people do not buy them much. Most people in a college setting have a computer, and virtually every person on campus has access to a computer. The problem is that most people like to have their texts in class. Now I carry a laptop with me everywhere, but I am currently in the minority at my school. Even if everyone carried a laptop, there's still the issue of taking it to class. I get a whopping 8 hours of battery life out of my computer, but most other students are not as lucky. I rarely see someone carrying a windows machine that can make it the whole way through a lecture class. There are only a couple electrical outlets in the room... my point with this that portable computers need to advance a bit more, and become a hell of a lot cheaper. Then you will see almost all materials distributed electronically.
Most of my classes already post the sylibi online, and a lot of the homework assignments are given out this way as well. You can get textbooks on CD very easy though. Last year, I obtained two of my texts on CD rom. This year, I got a demo CD on campus that had a huge listing of books available.
One future, two choices. Oppose them or let them destroy us.
When they can put text books on CDs, I'll really be impressed.
I could have sworn I just saw this . . .