Slashdot Mirror
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!
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
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!
Just remember not to loan out your Readers License to a classmate. Don't want to flunk *and* goto jail...
"We were half way to Rivendell when the drugs began to take hold."
-- Hunter S. Tolkien
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
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.
Thanks but no thanks. I would only do this if the book was mine FOREVER.
---rhad
Slashdot needs to interview Natalie Portman.
... piece of shit IPAQ
Infuriate left and right
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
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
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.
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 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
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!
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.
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.
the college in question is a community college
Chris Rock on community colleges:
Will I retire or break 10K?