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Intel Ranks Colleges with Best Wireless Access
newdamage writes "Intel recently released it's ranking of The Most Unwired College Campuses and I was happy to see my school, Purdue, up there at #2. I can personally attest that my laptop w/ wireless card can be used over almost all of the main campus, and there's always a few people in lecture using laptops to access notes and take extra notes. Granted all I've found is that internet access in class just gives me a better way to not pay attention. What are other peoples' experiences with wireless access on their campus? Is there widespread coverage, and if so, does it help you get more school related work done by having your laptop connected where ever you are on campus?"
Wonderful what kind of technology they are teaching there? Obviously not wireless computers :P
The most UNWIRED? The wording almost makes that sound like a bad thing. Intel should have gone with CowboyNeal's headline.
Rapidly approaching the Zener knee...
is that now they can choose schools based on those that are willing to offer them their porn how they want it, where they want it. And they want it.
Are the Most Unwired Airports and Most Unwired Cities lists.
Also, do these lists just count wireless access points that Centrino supports? It almost sounds like some sort of propaganda...
EVERYDAY IS CATURDAY
Funny, I never would have thought Indiana would have the top two spots.
Sure, we're number 97, but at least we made the list. Take that number 98!
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you kids these days have it all.
back in my day, if you wanted to download porn, you had to wait until your roommate left for class, and then search for it on usenet. and if you got a single download that wasn't corrupt, you'd consider yourself lucky! nowadays with bittorrent and kazaa, life is so easy. if i had wireless access campus-wide, i might have spent alot more time in the classroom (my apartment had the four of us on a single dialup connection).
I'm a bit puzzled as where they came up with these numbers. I'm a grad student at William & Mary, which they placed in the top 50, and I find that wireless coverage is pretty spotty here. Meanwhile, at my undergrad alma mater U. Tenn, Knoxville, wireless access even covers a bunch of the *agriculture* campus, yet it doesn't make the list at all.
No surprise -- makers of lists like these don't usually attempt to apply any scientific methodology.
I have found that in class, all a laptop does is distract the students. Sure, we're supposed to follow along with the notes on our screens, but the prof can't see them. 90% of the time, everyone is surfing the web, talking on IM, checking their email, playing CS, basically everything but paying attention.
Further, most classes don't even require/use a laptop (it's pretty tough to take linear algebra notes on a computer). I estimate that maybe only 20% of classes or less use laptops actually IN class.
Most of the time when your laptop is required for class, it is just a pain to drag it to class, set it up, not use it for anything but to click through powerpoint slides. However, for the few professors who actually design the class with the use of the student's laptops in mind, it can be a great learning tool. It's nice doing in-class activities where you collect data and display it on your computer changing parameters to see the effect; or running simulations were you get to mess with the settings/initial conditions.
On the whole, I wished I could have saved a grand or so and purchased a desktop that could do the same as my laptop (after all, it spends all but 4 hours a week just sitting on my desk). For the, mmm, maybe 2 classes that the professor has actually incorperated the use of laptop into his lecture (same professor for both classes), it was a very powerful tool. Unfortunately, professors who know how to lecture well, especially incorperating a personal computer, are few and far between. An Unwired (or Wired) classroom can either be a great benefit, or a waste of time.