Iowa College Goes Paperless

As reported in this Wired article, joelav22 writes that an "Iowa college plans to go completely paperless. There are no libraries, just work stations for e-books and online information. the article supports that 'The school plans to be an entirely paper-free campus. Last year, about 75 telecommunications students participated in a pilot program to go paperless. Each student used a Compaq iPaq handheld to access e-textbooks, syllabi and class materials, and to take notes and exams.' less time spent in a library equals more time for beer and filming amateur Girls Gone Wild digital video!"

Comments

No books?

[NineNine]

Call me nuts, but there's no fucking way I'd go to a college without books! I understand their desire to be trendy and cool, but a college without a library doesn't have much of a chance to stay a real, accreddited, college.

A college without a library is called a tech training school. They teach people how to pull cable.

Copyright?

[Apreche]

Isn't the only reason that a library is legal because they have a limited number of copies of a book? I mean if a new book comes out and goes in the library, its ok for the library to lend it out because they only have a limited number of copies. Assuming they will have a collection of fiction these university students will be able to make an e-book copy of every book in the library and share them with the rest of the world. A new book will come out, these students will make e-book copies, and anyone who wants can have it for free rather than going to Borders.
The book companies have been on "our side" in terms of DMCA and stuff, we don't want to make another RIAA evil organization.

Re:there goes any real quality

[Nilatir]

Just remember not to loan out your Readers License to a classmate. Don't want to flunk *and* goto jail...

Private companies that have gone paperless

[PhantomHarlock]

I believe Microsoft is a paper free environment, having all employee related forms and guidebooks online on their corprorate intranet. Would any Microsoft employees care to comment? Anybody else here want to comment about other companies that have gone paper free or at least tried?

as for replacing BOOKS with electronic texts...that's still a problem because of readability due to resolution. It takes longer to read text on a CRT or LCD vs. a piece of paper. I've noticed it's easier to read text for longer periods of time on an LCD vs. a CRT, but the rate of absorbtion is not as fast as nice sharp text printed at 150 - 600 DPI. Technology will fix this eventually, but until then it's a partial solution at best.

---Mike

Re:Private companies that have gone paperless

[emarkp]

Yeah, when I was at Intel, the Intranet was great, especially for benefits questions etc. There was just one problem--there was no record of previous versions of the site.

It was essential to have a paper copy of your benefits so you could know what they were when they were given to you, instead of what they are now.

technology not ready

[fermion]

First, I admit I am old. I admit that my learning was with paper textbooks, the CRC Handbook for mathematical tables, and class notes full of examples to copy from for homework problems. Although I understand many of these can be replaced, in the same way that electronic calculators replace numerical tables, I fail to see how one can access information quickly enough, or read enough on current low resolution screens, to do real work using only a PDA and a portable.

I am not talking about the physical presence of the book, or the convenience of flipping the pages, or the romance of the printed page. Though I grew up with the miles of indexes at the library, and the rows of computer manuals at the computer lab, I transitioned quite happily to central searchable databases and online help. What I am talking about is the sheer quantity of information a student is required to assimilate and fact that all the information needed is never in one place. My desk was generally littered with books to read and resources needed to complete assignments. While having all of this on computer would have been nice, I can't imagine having to read 100 pages a day at screen resolution, or have to flip from screen to screen to find the right information.

On the other hand, I would have killed to have all the classic English, math, and science texts at my fingertips. If all the resources were remotely and wirelessly accessible, that would be way cool. I can see the benefit of not having to search for that one table needed to finish the problem. Manually searching for table is no longer a needed skill. But still, no books at all? I fear for the students eyesight.

A similar story

[maydog]

This is from my Alma Matter:

http://www.d.umn.edu/cse/techreq.html

It requires students in Science and Engineering to purchase IPAQs and extra junk in order to register for classes. The University had tried to require laptops for students, but all EE, CS and ECE students already had several and didn't want to be told what to buy. The laptop deal went to a sutdent vote and failed miserably. This IPAQ initative was never sent to a vote - the chancellor saw the almighty $$ and students had no vote.

I was lucky to graduate before this requirement was imposed. I think it is the school's plan to eventually require all students to purchase this at an inflated price. I am sure some UMD are reading this right now - Do you feel that these PDA's are helping you with your educational experience?

In the professional setting these are great for keeping track of apointments and emails but are not much good for anything else. I am curious how they are getting worked into the cirriculum.

"Sorry teacher my dog ate my IPAQ!"

I don't like the sound of that...

[Critical_]

With the lastest advances in comptuer, e-mail, and e-whatever use on campuses has prompted the computer-age equivalent of "my dog ate it" excuses. All I hear from people is:

"oh my e-mail isn't working"
"my computer crashed"
"my printer doesn't have ink"
"the network is down"

The problem is that these things happen frequently as well so they cannot be just passed off as an excuse. Sure, with the load on school websites around midterm and final time, it is plausible the server might have been inaccessible. So what do you do? Hold it against the student? You can't because of circumstance. Now with this entire e-book thing which I can't stand. I've done a lot of research and sure using an online database to help search the card catalog is nice but reading books online is a drag. Let's face it, staring at a computer screen is far more fatiguing than staring at a book. I want access to both the e-book and the hardcopy. Lastly, I am not shelling out a couple hundred bucks for an iPaq nor am I carrying my laptop on campus. I already have enough to carry and a laptop + charger doesn't help anything. The iPaq is just too much money and I don't see much use for it since I can do everything on my laptop. I bought a Palm pilot when they first came out many years ago. Other than checking for an occassional phone number, I never use the thing. Its a waste of money for me. Sure I see my friends trying to make good use of theirs by sitting their and struggling with the stylus on the same stuff that would take me 1/3 the time.

Bottom line, computer equipment needs to be more reliable, the networks need to be able to take the strain, and PDAs need to come down in price.

Another step down the Road to Tycho

[Anonymous Coward]

Colleges take another step down the road toward RMS's distopian future.

For the one or two of you who haven't read his piece:
The Right to Read

Paperless might not be the best

[shrikel]

I worry about going paperless. I mean, it's great and all, but will the information really last? I keep reading posts on /. about entering a "digital dark age," where centuries from now, nobody will be able to access the information we keep now. Information just a few years old is unreadable. (10" floppies, anyone?) How is our information supposed to last for millenia?

I think that for some applications it's just fine -- nobody really needs to see all my archived emails a hundred years from now (though I'm sure it would be interesting to my progeny to learn about me), but what about the research and scientific understanding in our colleges and universities? We ought to do SOMETHING to preserve our knowledge. Maybe inscribe it in stone or metal and send it off to the moon or somewhere, I dunno.

I think going paperless is good. But I think the paper trail to our history should be replaced instead of just chucked out the window. Something for long-term storage of our archived electronic information would be fine -- but it should be in a format that we are sure will be readable in the future.

Not What It Sounds Like

[Zevon 2000]

This "Iowa College" is just a single branch of Des Moines Area Community College--emphasis on the community college part. What's more, the branch is in West Des Moines so the students taking classes there can take classes at the main branch (West Des Moines, as you might expect, borders Des Moines) or any of the other four branches with no real hassle. Apparently this branch is going to cater to those just taking tech classes for work or to get a degree that will get them the above-mentioned job pulling cable so they can stop working at the Hy-Vee. Really, with the public libraries and main branch library so close to the students, it seems kind of silly to build a separate library just for this campus--so they decided to become "paperless" and capitalize on the ensuing publicity.

At least, that's my bet. So don't be alarmed that books are going to be disappearing from colleges and universities, and don't mistake this for the beginning of a revolution in education. It's just a clever marketing spin on the fact that building a separate West Des Moines branch library would be redundant and a waste of funding.