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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!"
Heavens! That ain't gonna be a pretty site!
for research documentation. There may be lots of info on the net but half of it is outdated, and a quarter of the rest is just plain wrong. Unless they are going to sport subscriptions for everyone to one of the big DB companies this is going to erally hurt researchers...
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
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.
I don't think I can curl up with an I-Paq and get any studying done. The left side of a book is designed so you can rest your head on it and read the right side. Then you fall asleep. Falling asleep on a I-Paq = time for a new I-Paq.
mstyne: real name, no gimmicks
---- El diablo esta en mis pantalones! Mire, mire!
What I'd rather have, instead of a paperless campus, is one that provides good mobility between the spheres of paper information and electronic.
Give me a Paperport scanner or something similar, and give me electronic versions of my course assignments on a website. But also give me the sheets of paper.
The vital thing is to be able to use paper for what paper is good at, and electronic systems for their own purposes. There is no reason to throw out what is otherwise the right tool for the job.
Removing books is an_stupid_00. That means that your ability to study is limited to the availability of computers, and the functionality of said machines. Multimonitor becomes a MUST in this case. I would not mind electronic versions to do full text searches of, but dammit I want dead tree editions- zero failure chance, save physical loss. I also do not want to be forced into a zero-ownership system for my textbooks (which seems to be the primary thrust of schemes like this.)
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
You now have a tremendous reliance on clean, stable power. Without more details, I would imagine that there are additional cooling facilities that become critical, not just desireable. I would hope that there is an extremely fast turnaround on equipment repair and maintenance or that paper you need to finish for tomorrow could be late...
I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a Mobile P4 2Ghz, 512MB, 30GB, 2.2lb laptop.
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.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
That's a nice plan you have but more and more colleges are including the cost of laptops etc in the tuition, so yes you will buy a PC and you may not like it, but they don't care.
Besides the really horrific idea of just 'discarding' their paper libraries in favor of digital media, (They can't be planning to really do this. It seems like conversion would cost far more money than it ever saved.) The introduction of digital textbooks is just too good an opportunity for DRM to get its stinking, rapacious tentacles into the virgin halls of academia in the form of pay-per-read, unresellable, instructional media.
Now if they were planning on introducing textbooks in entirely restriction-free formats like ascii text, PNG/HTML, or postscript, then I can see this happening, but I trust them to do this like I would trust a drunken frat boy at a catholic girls' junior high school.
The article never mentions DRM, but there is a telling quote about half-way through:
"We are heading toward a world where, instead of reading a bunch of Bill Gates' quotes, you want to have a video clip of him actually speaking that quote."
Thanks, but I won't be burning my bridges just yet.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
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
They say they're going paperless, then they say that students pay for printing after 20 pages.
If they were really going paperless, they'd be outlawing printers, too.
http://drteknikal.blogspot.com/
Besides, nothing (yet) can replace a book you own, a highlighter and a pen for making notes in the margin and taking the whole thing to a study lounge to get away from your roommate's beer party (the sacrifices we make for good grades).
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Knowing the bookstores in colleges, they will be able to charge the same wonderfully high prices for books that can be used for only one year.
Personally, I'm broke, and have, on more than one occasion, gone to the library to check out a textbook held on reserve instead of spending $100 for a fucking math (ya, lots of work went into those) text that I will never use again.
That said, consoles and wireless = hella cool, tho I have to wonder about the speed of the network w/a lot of people.
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
But I know my local public University (UTD) has subscriptions to all the major online DB's and research orginizations, and has copies of most referance and reserach journels online. Personally I still think there is a lot to be said for the print stuff, but most Universities are already setup for the electronic research and study end, getting rid of the big old textbooks that you have to lug around would be nice though.
I've never heard of said college. I just finished my college search in the CS career a few years back, and never once got refered to even look at them. This leads me to believe it's one of those "get a few credits and transfer" schools, not a real college.
I live in a giant bucket.
Are you refering to Richard Stallman's short "fictional" story on this subject, "The Right to Read"?
cpeterso
so much for anything to actually happen when the power goes...
yeah the Ipaq's have batteries but not the network they would connect to for the libraries of info
that would be a great place to get a contract for UPS systems
Jesus saves souls and redeems them for valuable cash prizes
Thanks but no thanks. I would only do this if the book was mine FOREVER.
---rhad
Slashdot needs to interview Natalie Portman.
Water jets.Intrusive,very cold,water jets.
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
... piece of shit IPAQ
Infuriate left and right
When *I* was in school I got WAY to many of those fluorescent orange pieces of paper tucked under the windshield wipers of my car; I'd have loved to see them try to go completely paperless!
Yeah, things like Maple/Mathmatica and Tex are nice and all, but I get all of my serious thinking done on paper. I generally turn to such systems only when I need to solve hairy differential equations or when I am typing up a paper. I suppose I might be able to survive with a tablet and some sort of simple sketching program, but you still can't beat the stability and user friendliness of good old fashioned bleached wood pulp and graphite shaft.
My $.02
BlackGriffen
On the other hand, most of the static content like books, journals etc. are better read offline.
I am surprised that people keep repeating paperlessness as some kind of an Utopian goal. Not using paper might reduce the number of trees that are felled, but switching off computers saves power! Who's to decide which is a more worthy goal?
All your favorite sites in one place!
Unless there's a fire.. in which case it's a whole lot easier to carry a stack of your data tapes out the door, or rely on a backup off-site data center, than it is to move 500,000 books.
This would be the biggest problem with a paperless campus -- there is a pretty good probablility that research would be lost in a relatively short amount of time.
I have a history degree. In the research for my thesis, one of my most valuable secondary sources was a paper done in the 60's by another student. He's transcribed portions of the original source material which were difficult to read (it was a farm diary, portions of which were written in an ink which had somehow broken down). If this had been digital, I almost certainly wouldn't have found it or been able to access it (I'm sure these bozos are using a proprietary format for their data).
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Paperless information allows better distribution. This is proven with the success of the world wide web, file sharing, etc.
What we need to do is get rid of chalk boards and use smartboards, get rid of traditional books and use ebooks, make the information free, produce digital paper so people can download an ebook into an actual book and read it, of course publishers wont like the file sharing community sharing books but its going to happen so get ready for free information and books for all once digital paper is released.
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I find that about 2/3 of the students elect to purchase the book even though it has nothing more than the online material - indeed - the graphics aren't even animated (although there is a CD with simulators and movies).
As one student told me - the book seldom has a glare problem, never flickers, and you can read it in the bath.
It is good to have the material on-line - but there is still a place for "ink-on-pulped-wood" as a transport media. Just because you can do it solely on-line doesn't mean that you should
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.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
- Support costs will go through the roof.
- Likewise, most likely, with power costs.
- If I was a petty thief reading slashdot, guess where I'd be enrolling right now? And you thought campus bicycle thefts were bad.
- I must be old fashioned, but the idea of reading everything on a handheld instead of out of a book gives me a headache already. I've used an iPaq, and even though it has a great screen, I'm not sold on eBooks quite yet. In fact, as the article mentions, printing costs are anticipated to go up as people find this out. How exactly is this going to save paper?
I am very supportive of tech in education. However, I don't think we're there yet in terms of paperless college campuses. This almost sounds like a propoganda move prompted by a grant from a huge backer.- - - - - - - -
Don't worry, being eaten by a crocodile is just like going to sleep in a giant blender.
It's important to recognize that the college in question is a community college. In many respects community colleges are largely paperless anyway; for example, many (most?) don't have their own libraries.
There's no danger of research universities going paperless.
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!"
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.
My eyes get sore after a certain amount of time staring at a computer screen... if I had to do all my studying/reading/working on computer screens (of various sizes/shapes) I would kill my eyesight. Especially since the iPaq's are way smaller than your average text book. I think the graduating class will all have squints.
I hope you're not pretending to be evil while secretly being good. That would be dishonest.
I can't imagine having to do all of my research and and read all of my class texts on a monitor.
As a poli sci/english student, I've done this and loved it. Last year, I was able to read Plato's Republic, Aristotle's The Politics and a couple of Locke's works without spending a dime, thanks to the e-texts. Of course, they're not necessarily the 'approved' versions, but you can typically get around this. At roughly TWELVE books per english course, with five courses next year, I think Project Gutenberg's going to be my best friend. An additional benefit of Project Gutenberg is that I can do my reading for class during all those hours I do nothing at work right off my monitor.
Student: Hi, I have 300 copies of Postmodernism for Dummies to sell back.
Clerk: Hey, aren't you the guy we bought 500 copies from yesterday?
Student: No sir, that was my roommate. The guy in the room next to me should be stopping by later. I advised everyone on my floor to buy a few hundred copies of each book at the beginning of the year. An investment in "e-books" sounded like a good idea at the time. Guess not.
I cant see this being done very well at all unless they have a collection the size of a small public library, and even then it wouldnt be cost effective.
--aiee
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
I read through the various articles and one point was missed. Why IPaq? Why not a notebook a Palm, a Newton, etc? And yet nobody really said anything about this.
This is a scary notion that an IPaq must be used. it is sort of like saying to study at this college you must drive this car. When I went through engineering we could choose the calculating device so long as it fufilled a certain subset of calculations.
Scary indeed....
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
Digital Paper/Ink Digital Paper
This new paper, with electronic ink would mean one book could hold all your books. One piece of paper could be your news paper, magazine, even your favorite website. One peice of paper could have all your schoolwork on it.
SympodiumInteractive Lecture technology, This allows students to view the board, as well as move along at their own pace doing their own thing. This would allow a student to learn more due to the class not slowing them down. Its interactive so if a person wants
more detail about something they can get it.
Reason, Logic, Cause and effect.
This is something schools never teach and this is one of the most important things we must teach kids, as well as adults.
Example
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
Is this an undergraduate only college? While it might be possible for undergraduates to use digitized versions of their textbooks, it won't be possible for anyone to do much research; it is inevitably necessary to look up research papers, and anything earlier than 1990 is not likely to be available in digital form.
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
just two gripes
1) as far as i know, Lib still contairs *much* more information than
a) the web
b) whatever online lib you can come up with
c) e-book collections
2) now your library is limited to the number of workstations -- "sorry bud, i know you have an exam tomorrow, but we are simply out of workstations right now"
* note to (2) i know a bunch of you will immediately attempt to point out that you can access this stuff at home -- but most propriatory acedemic stuff is quite copyrighted, and you need to be at the lib to access them, even today. (journal databases, a lot of e-books, for example)
3) have anyone ever tried to read a map on a computer screen? it's rediculous how much time you waste on zoom unzoom pan-left pan-right. instead, in the dead-tree version, all the info is right there. you get your high-res view in one fell swoop. same goes with a lot of other big-sheet stuff. why do you think we have plotters for the archetechture kiddiez? sure -- autoCAD makes it easy to *draw* the building, but it's on huge blueprint paper when it really makes sense.
4) iPaq aside -- i would not want to stare at screens all day. it is
a) bad for your eyes
b) i can't study in bed, or on the toilet (cenveniently) -- and we all know men't greatest enlightments are achieved on the throne. (like the FluxCapacitor)
c) iPaq has shitty resolution for any research i want to do; hell, QXGA screen? wtf? i am using dual UXGA and *still* need more desktop space.
5) i lied about the two gripes thing
My life in the land of the rising sun.
Built a EMP device and put it in the trash can in the middle of the quad. Set for lunch time. Watch the fun!
Be sure to record results with pen a paper for extra credit!
Now textbooks are another issue...the disadvantages most definitely out weigh any possible benefits of a paperless environment. This is especially the case for technical texts where it is common for students to add personal notes and comments into their textbooks. Therefore that $100 I spent on my aerodynamics text was not just because my class required it, but was an addition to my personal reference library.
Ideally, it would best to have everything in paper and electronic media. Look up what you want electronically and perform detailed research with both paper and electronic media
Why buy a laptop? Digital Paper can store and display your information at a fraction of the price.
Of course its good to have a laptop, but digital paper would be far more useful.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
The whole idea of "paperless" is a sham... I read some statistic a while ago that since e-mail has been introduced into offices, paper use has gone UP, since a lot of people would print out their e-mails. I don't know about everyone else, but whenever I get a lengthy reading assignment online in one of my classes, first thing I do is print it up on my laser printer and find a quiet spot to read. If I'm on my computer, I generally don't have enough discipline to shut down instant messenger, my mp3 player, and all the other apps I run as distractions in the background.
Another problem with the whole iPaq thing: battery life. If you're reading a book that takes more than a few hours to finish, you've got a problem! (Especially if you've got a wireless card or some power-sucker plugged in). From my own observations, a lot of people don't read near outlets all the time.
If you actually want to learn stuff, or if you plan to have children, those books will be VERY useful later on.
Lets assume you want to become a programmer, you can learn C and C++ in college, keep the book and use that book later when you need a refrence.
Lets say you have kids, and you took a class like say, discrete math in college, lets say your kids have an interest in math.
Well, you have the math books right there.
Books are always useful until we come to the day where digital paper and ebooks rule all, when we get to that point, expect bookster to be released and dominate the file sharing world. Free information for all.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
I am an engineering student, but I love to read. Her insights (especially while reading Ulysses) are wonderfully helpful to someone who has a limited knowledge of literature. To boot, I have something that I can really associate with my mother about.
There's something intangible about picking up a 30-year old copy of your favourite novel and knowing that 5 or 6 other people have enjoyed it as well. This might seem sappy, but reading something from a monitor (or even from the screen of an iPaq) just doesn't have the same soul as reading from paper. It's the same reason why the National Post (a Canadian newspaper, eh?) will ALWAYS be better than The National Post.
Let's keep books of literature and education alive and relegate more soul-less forms of communication (like porn) to the computer world.
Windside
--------
...Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
Churchill
Harvard always has the newest books.Consider the fact that most people who go to Harvard have much more money than you.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
Most of the people who get laid alot, are also the least intelligent part of the human population.
I suggest you learn more, and find a nice girl, instead of just worrying about getting laid and having sex all the time.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
This would be really useful at our college.. we have course materials online, grades, etc. It cuts down on a lot of wasted resources (time, paper, etc). I can't help but wonder if eBooks gain more popularity, what kinds of implications DRM, etc will have at libraries and colleges. If even CDs can now contain EULA's, it seems a little scary to think what could be done with eBooks. Hopefully, though, I am just being way too paranoid.
slashdot!=valid HTML
Learning how to learn doesnt happen in college, This happens usually in highschool when you either do well in their style of teaching or you teach yourself.
Competition is not as good as Cooperation.
There is no such thing as a smartest person of the world, everyone has strengths and weaknesses, each person is a genius in some areas and just damn slow in others. There are of course people who are well rounded, but those people usually major in liberal arts and become teachers who then try to teach students to be well rounded.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
This actually brings up a substantial point. There are a large number of people who do not feel comfortable reading on a computer screen. They retain less information off the screen, and the experience is less desirable. Many people print out web pages - they feel more comfortable reading over physical pages. I think this has two sources: the hardware and the sensation.
CRT computer screens are not the easiest thing to read from. They are stressful on the eyes and, especially when combined with fluorescent lights, produce a flickering image, no matter how subtle. Also, CRTs aren't very convenient for very casual or very involved reading, as they tend to be completely fixed in location. LCDs are easier on the eyes, though this may depend upon whom you ask. Desktop LCDs are still adhered to one spot, but laptops break this boundary. You can sit on the couch, lie in bed, take them virtually anywhere a book can go, and read. It isn't a book, but it's a far sight closer than a desktop computer. Of course, that's where the sensation comes in.
When you read, there are certain parts of the experience that play on your senses. Not only can you see the words, but you can instantly guage how far you have come and how far you have to go by looking at the thickness of the book to either side. You may equate this with the scrollbar, or a percentage indicator, but it isn't the same. You can feel the remaining quantity as you read. You can bookmark passages as you read and look back instantly at how many bookmarks you have made. The nature of the book allows you to see how far apart the marks are, the overall density, and the volume of the marks. All this is simple visual acuity that comes pre-programmed (or socially programmed, depending on your views) into our brains. There are not only visual clues, but tactile ones as well to the progress of the book. You may also assign qualitative values to the book based upon the binding and the paper's texture and scent. These things are not found on the screen, nor can they be. Moby Dick has the same value as Green Eggs and Ham when are staring at representative icons.
Perhaps that is a major addition that eBooks need - descriptive icons. Moby Dick may have a thick, dark, leather-bound, strapped volume for the icon where Green Eggs and Ham would be slim, sharp-edged, and bright orange, as it should. If a sufficiently comfortable inerface could be acheived, more people might take to reading eBooks. I do not suggest, however, that we should model the interface after real books. The computer offers us many freedoms that printed voumes do not, and we should take every advantage of them.
There is something to be said for a physical book. There is an involement in a book that is hard to transition to a computer. I have read everything from Science Fiction to Shakespeare in physical text and on the screen of my laptop. There is a positive quality difference to reading with a book. But there are advantages to electronic texts. I can reach a specific point without flipping through chapters. I can search for a quote or a passage. I can carry hundreds of books with me instead of four or five for the same weight. I can read in bed without a separate light source.
And I can learn to appreciate the value of the information over it's presentation.
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
What happens to bed-time reading? None of the devices I've seen so far are comfortable to fall asleep with...
Also, I don't believe all of the decent content is available in digital form. May be, it is good to have the course materials paperless -- the new content, but the libraries should still carry the old texts.
Finally, sometimes the pure knowledge, that a book you are holding was printed and first read 100-200 years ago can be quite exciting and thought provoking... Not even a reprint would do that, forget an electronic gizmo :-)
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Per student numbers such as those do not work, because its not evenly distributed money.
Kids in richer areas, get the majority of the money because they pay more taxes. Raising the federal budget helps the people who arent living in rich communities or suburbs.
Have you ever went to new york or some city and looked at the schools there? They are crappy as hell. The solution is to raise the federal budget, or change the method of distribution so that its perfectly even to all schools.
Per student does not work for schools, it does however work for the military because the military protects all cities and neighborhoods, even yours.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
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.
Any sufficiently simple magic can be passed off as mere advanced technology.
Spend all day on an iPaq = drained battery. ...
Is that the new excuse for not being able to take a test? "Sorry, my battery is dead"
The school plans to be an entirely paper-free campus.
That is not very real-world training. The boss will hand them hand-scribbled notes on a paper reports, and the graduate will reply, "Can you retype your notes into Word, by chance? I am not used to this medium."
They won't even know what the pink-slip is that will then be handed to them.
Table-ized A.I.
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.
"Someone somewhere had to wear pants for the first time. The meek and indecisive do not change our world." -Montville
So now we know where all the ex-dot-com "business idea planners" went.
Table-ized A.I.
is this a bong only school now?
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
Paperless good. Paperless plus good. Paper can stick around, carrying un-information. Paperless makes it easier for the Ministry of Truth to remove references to unpersons, and to change unfacts when they are no longer true.
With new paperless media like DVD-ROM and Ebook and the DMCA, it is already a federal crime to circumvent the Ministry's control over information. Once the DVD player expires, or the rights-managed usage grant expires, then it will be a crime to circumvent protections in order to access un-information. Downloaded music from PressPlay will all die when PressPlay does. It becomes un-music! You'll have to buy the next big star they want to sell you!
Paperless good! Long live Big Brother!
I've used a Newton and more recently a Jornada 720 for taking all of my notes and a lot more at school. I would love to have electronic versions of my textbooks rather than sticking with the expensive and bulky papers ones I have now. Where can I get e-textbooks instead of regular ones? What do they cost? Do they have a decent selection?
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
There will still be plenty of rolling papers.
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
has any one tried those 'e-book' readers? are they easy on the eyes? is there enough material for it yet?
Somehow I don't think the paper is what makes college textbooks cost hundreds of dollars.
In this case, DMACC does have a library -- but not at this location. As stated by others, this is only one location of a fairly widespread community college (they have classes at an urban campus, the main campus is in a neighboring city, and the West Des Moines campus is a new addition). In other words, while this specific location may have a tech library, it's not necessary.
..leaves out the word "an."
Ideally it should read "An Iowa college has gone paperless," but due to some bad choices in titling, some people may interpret it otherwise.
Luckily most schools have technology called 'printing' wherein you can create a paper copy of this weeks lesson from your digital copy, as many times as is needed. That is unless they screw you with DMCA crap and don't allow printing of the text...
Otherwise i'd say that just printing out what you plan to read for that hour in the park is much nicer than lugging around a big text book.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
I would hate trying to take notes with an iPaq.
I mean, not that I ever take notes anyway, but still.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
This is a pretty clear indication that the decision was made to go electronic before any reasonable assessment was made of whether the necessary course materials were actually available in that format.
Did the college factor in the cost of developing their own textbooks into their calculation of the overall cost of this initiative?
Did they pause to consider that maybe their students would benefit more from having the best course materials available for use, regardless of format?
The observation that "students prefer to look things up online" is irrelevant. Part of a decent post-secondary education is learning how to locate the best source of information available, which isn't always the most convenient source.
My concern arises from the fact that most scientific journals don't have their pre-199x back-issues digitized. Most have their old abstracts online, but when it comes to full-text articles, most of the subject-specific journals simply don't go back far enough. As an example, look at the journal "Cell Motility and the Cytoskeleton", whose full-text electronic archives don't go back any further than 1996 or so.
JStor and a few other databases have done admirable jobs at breaking the pre-1990 barrier, but only for a very few titles.
But how many electronic documents do you think are still surviving from 10 years ago?
A lot actually. As for College books.... No longer have a one of em.. ok I've got one yearbook. Books don't change. That's true but the world does. None and I do mean NONE of my college books would be useful. Why. The math books yep pi is still 3.14159 but since it doesn't corralate to any class being taught today. It's useless. Shakespeare.. ok good stuff grade school (6th and 7th grade) not from college. Oh and of course the history of computing... yep talking all about those modern pdp-11's and how in the future mini computers will allow a mini computer in every office to serve dozens of thin clients running over a Token Ring Network. Oh and how about my Dad's college books now there is some really useful information. I mean studies on engine design covers the possiblity of overhead valves is absolutely priceless. Want to know what books do? They mold, they rot (paper is acidic as heck) They stink like heck when you are cleaning out a dead relatives attic. (anyone want a mechanics manual for the IBM 16 digit easy-pull adding machine?) Books as a physical media have a definite shelf life. The information in Text books has a definite life as well. And it's much shorter. Heck I had books from my freshman year that in my senior year I couldn't sell back to the bookstore. Why, they were too far out of date. (and yes I was on the 4 year plan.)
Now electronic documents. Hmmm just helped a friend move tapes of all the USENET traffic from the early 80's from tape to CD (It was pretty well at the end of it's life. Shouldn't have stored it in his basement and let mold set in.) Oh the books next to the tapes are toast. That's 10 to 20 years there.(1980 - 1990) I've got access to a 9 track tape in storage with the original 386 BSD on it. (Nope can't give it out.) Prior to that I've got stacks and stacks of punch cards.. (I'm getting them read off to disk...that's singlular by the way.) In Hollywood the Museum of Film history has movies that go back to the turn of the century. If you can preserve this volital media you can easily preserve mag tape, CD's and floppy's are lot easier. Oh and the wheight of all of those 9 tracks About 1200 lbs (guestimate) the weight of the CD's about 10lbs... now which one is easier to copy. All the the printed material and all of those dead trees or 10lbs of CD's that need to get re-burned every 50 years.
I'm sorry, I'm to tired to be witty at the moment so this message will have to do.
Also on wired (and greplaw for that matter) is the mention that the school intends to introduce thumbprint scanners for security purposes. (http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,53912,00. html)
Having your thumbprint taken at the beginning of the semester will be compulsory. I'm not entirely sure I'd want my thumbprint in a subphoenable database for all time because of where I went to school..
But I guess if you're a student you can get used to it- just sleep less. Once you've hit the age where all-nighters aren't possible anymore (not without getting a bad cold the next day), the all electronic office proposals can be a horror. I've met several Sun employees who still shudder at the virtual desk idea: same problems as the parent poster said. And it isn't just engineers who need to have multiple projects visible at the same time and/or overnight without having to clear their desk.
E-Books are like E-Jobs -- they don't feel "real" to most people.
Case in point -- I work for GameSpy Industries, doing writing, editing, and management. However, their offices are located in Irvine, California. This is quite a daily commute from Winnipeg, MB, Canada. The solution? Telecomutting.
However, people don't seem to quite grasp the fact that, even though I'm at home, I'm still working. My mother asks me to do housework, people say "dammit Cary, get a real job".. and I make almost 3x as much as they do at their real McJobs.
I imagine that the e-book situation is quite similar -- because there is no tactile book to hold, it isn't "real". (I've been told that, if I had to go to an office but still telecommute, then I have a real job.
I've been reading on the palm for a couple years now, and I have to say, it's a about a billion times more efficent than paper. Back lighting, annotation and just always having the book handy are the 3 top features for me.
I just finished the _Fellowship of the Ring_ last night. I thought I had read it in grade school, but I guess not! What a freaking GREAT story!
Having the book on your palm makes it accessable everywhere. I always have my palm, so I always have my book. I dunno if it'll get the 'non-reader' into it, but it's at least doubled the number of books I go through.
I'm 'syncing' some Sherlock Holmes right now, which I would probably never have read if it wasn't for the e-version.
Check out www.memoware.com, for lots of free e-text classics, and www.peanutpress.com for some contemporary stuff, which you'll have to pay for.
If you've got a PDA, and you don't have a book or two on it, your wasting a really great resource. If anything, you'll spend more time on the throne at the office.
M@
Krispy Cream is people
Skylarov was the first to be brought up on charges for circumventing the protection for books. Expect more troubles to come if the best source for learning (books!) are primarily on digital media... The move toward highly restrictive licensing instead of outright ownership of information will likely lead to information only being retained by multi-national corporations. Just wait and see, or write your congressmen/senator and stop the loss of your rights.
A semi-paperless campus could succeed today. Assuming that there is a lot of free (as in Gutenberg) college-course-caliber reading material on the net, a university could assign many of its books as free downloads and provide a convenient cost-of-materials printing service for those who want it. Said prints would be available in the library and used bookstore to minimize reprinting, and recyclable once worn beyond legibilty. As long as the university completely avoids DRMs and maintains a bookstore and library for the 90+% of reading material still only in print, they could start a good trend.
It's in the university's interest: going semi-paperless would save money for a big tuition hike!
Another advantage is that they could require only the passages actually used in the courses. College courses today frequently assign books over 1000 pages and only use 50 to 100 of them.
So there's another gain for the university: Fewer students would go to the clinic for back problems, so there's money for a second tuition hike!
Penn State had so many PEBCAK problems between the departments and the bursar's office that I would have never grad-a-tuted if I didn't have paper copies of transcripts. Amazingly they always found the 'computer' errors after I showed hard copies of shit I printed out the semester before. Thank you PSU.
Paperless reading is supposed to save the environment, but how much more coal and oil will we burn to run our PCs longer? To save power, will Iowa College buy lots of LCDs? Reflective or backlit? How about OLEDs?
http://www.rosettaproject.org:8080/live/technology
Thanks, but I'll take a more stable approach.
--
Two witches watched two watches.
Which witch watched which watch?
Hmm. Perhaps 2096 is a bit too far in the future for The Road To Tycho.
here is one, oh, and here is a list of about 4 more intro physics online texts.
Want some chemistry ones?
All of this information could have been yours with a simple Google search.
This message brought to you by the Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People.
In the UK about 15-ish years ago all schools in Britain took part in the new Domesday project where information was gathered about the places we live. It was stored on laser disc. Now there aren't any laser disc readers around to read the data and it's effectively useless.
Lets also not forget that there is real concern about the transitory nature of the web. Old sites go and never return, what will have to show our grandchildren about the beginnings of the web?
What will happen to the data from the University library, the students Ipaqs (or similar computers).
All these digital storage ideas are great as an addition to paper but they require another piece of equipment to read it, whereas good ole paper and ink just requires eyes!
as an aside (if they're taking notes on their ipaq I hope the lecturer is talking really slowly - inputing anything with a stylus is so monumentally slow)
But, my god, how can anyone argue with the economics of the situation. Pay $100 once?
Even though a CD-R costs well under a dollar (except in Canada, which taxes the crap out of them), that still doesn't change the fact that the author of the textbook needs to get paid. Say a textbook costs $10 to replicate (figure pulled out of my behind). Good. Now instead of costing $99.95 per copy, an electronic textbook will cost $90.15 per copy ("please insert the original CD and plug in the USB dongle").
I was reading a book the other night, that's been mostly out of print since the 1800's. Great book, but damn hard to find, even to order a copy online.
Was it on Project Gutenberg? If so, you've just showed the value of a rich public domain. Now go to eldred.cc and donate to a legal fund dedicated to making sure it stays that way.
Will I retire or break 10K?
the college in question is a community college
Chris Rock on community colleges:
Will I retire or break 10K?
I don't know how this tradition got started, kind of like a penguin dropping a rock in front of potential mate, but here are some of the things a diamond ring is good for:
- Intent. A guy may tell you he loves you and wants to marry you, but if he actually goes out and buys a diamond ring, you can surmise that he's serious.
- Security. The fact that he can afford to buy this ring, and he's willing to buy it, indicates he's a good provider, and generous, and that there will be more goodies where this came from.
- Attachment. When you start wearing the ring, it's a sign that you're "taken" and for all other guys to back off, especially after you get the matching wedding ring.
- Status. Size matters. People notice. When a girl gets engaged, her friends surreptitiously compare the size of her ring with theirs and others'.
- Insurance. An engaged woman may quit her job, sell her home, move to another area, etc. to prepare for the marriage. Her family begins wedding preparations. So if the guy breaks off the engagement, she gets to keep the ring, compensating for some of her costs, inconvenience and embarrassment, not to mention the lost opportunity of looking for another, more suitable mate during the engagement.
- Beauty. Finally, all the mystique of how beautiful, sparkly and everlasting a diamond is.
It's worth noting that plenty of people find lasting happiness with or without marriage, with small diamonds, no diamonds, rubies instead of diamonds, etc., but I wouldn't recommend trying it with a fake diamond.One of the nice things about a textbook is once the course is over, you will have an excellent reference. Assuming the text is used alot, you will have communed with it and when you need to, you can quickly find the answer to a question. E books tend to disappear once the course is over. You have nothing but your notes. E books perhaps have a place in courses where the knowledge being diseminated will be obsoleted quicky but for a math or english course, where syllabus seldom changes, they are a raw deal.
Wansu, th' chinese sailor
What fraction of books have even been turned into an electronic form?
Do you want your only copy of Dante to have a limited number of plays? Or perhaps be limited in how long you can read it? And then you run out of plays/time just before the final?
Textbook publishers have already complained legally about reselling books that come with an included CD. It seems the rules on the handling of CDs might imply that this could be illegal, though if this has been tested, I don't know about it. Perhaps that was lawyer baffelgab.
I can conceive of circumstances under which this would be a good idea, but it would require a very different legal system, and better hardware, too. As it is, this is a quite bad idea.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
People in expensive areas have enough money to put their kids in private schools, buy their kids books and computers etc.
The cost of living is high everwhere so lets not even go there, however the cost of education is too great for the average working class parent, they cannot afford private school, they cannot afford tutors, they cannot afford the things needed to help a kid do well in a bad school.
However, a rich person with a kid in a bad school can easily afford on their own to educate their kids, even take them out of public school.
It makes no sense for the few upper class families in the suburbs to get the best public AND private schools while everyonne in the city gets what? Cheap beat up old schools, knowing the people in the city have a cost of living thats just as high, because its sometimes more expensive to live in the city than in the suburbs.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
There are more important things in life, than getting laid as many times as you can before you die lol.
I actually want a serious relationship, with a girl I love and who loves me.
You can have your sluts and one night stands.You can even marry a girl whos really good in bed, but hey if she justs wants whats in your wallet, blame yourself for being so shallow.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
What forests are you talking about? We're a plains state, there's never been forests here in U.S. history...
:)
And those corn cobs are sweet corn, it's good, you should try some