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Internet Curfew for College Students?
140Mandak262Jamuna writes "IIT Bombay, one of the top Indian engineering schools, is restricting internet access to its students. The restriction is simply to cut off all internet access at night from the dorms. The school claims the 24/7/365 internet access is hampering academic performance, personality development and extra curricular activities. Though these are the 'official' reasons, it appears there are other reasons too. Mr Prakash Gopalan, the Dean of Student Affairs, says, 'one only had to look at the hard drive of any of the students' computers to see that bad content dominated over good.'"
It'll just pose a challenge to their CS and EE students. Just wait until they start rigging up wireless links to outside connections. I welcome our new Indian hackers.
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How about have been? For more than a decade? I'm not saying it was the factor in the school I chose, but the ethernet port per person in the dorm rooms sure made me a lot happier with my decision, and that was in 1996.
But realize that we are talking about college students -- adults, not children. Providing them with unlimited internet access is an excellent idea -- it ensures that the lazy slackers wash out of college.
For my sophomore year, I had a freshman roommate who used the campus internet to play WoW all night long. Literally -- I went to bed at 2 after finishing engineering homework, was up by 8, and he hadn't moved. Because of that he slept in all day, only to wake up later and play more WoW. Went to classes once a week at best. Guess who dropped out with a GPA below 2.0? Guess who wasn't ready for the real world, and wouldn't be able to hold a job for ten minutes with that approach to life?
An American high-school education is highly devalued from where it was years ago. Social promotions and strict rulesets are eliminating the gap that previously existed between the achieving students and the ones who would fail out. If you narrow that same gap in college, you end up doing the same thing -- churning out students who cannot manage time or priorities, students who stand no chance of surviving in the buisiness world.
I agree... During part of my spring break I came back early and the net was down, so I read a book, watched TV, played video games, and played guitar... Lack of internet connection does not stop me from having fun while avoiding that paper that is due... Plus the fact that I will be up till two or three in the morning with or with out an internet connection so it still does not make me go to sleep earlier to get up for class earlier.
hello
Theres this thing called the interweb which is kinda integral to studying, my final year presentation is coming up and I want things perfect one of the best resources for my project is actually online (www.8052.com) so smart alecs like you kill my access at 10pm and suddenly when I hit a problem what do I do. Oh and BTW I'm currently working on this thing from 9am to 2am and have been for two weeks (project from hell, when something can go wrong it has) by your logic I'm a whiney uni boy instead of a nearly burnt out from working on this project student. My university provides free unlimited access but blocks ports associated with filesharing, this solution kills most online games and yet allows students to work from 9am to 2am.
Oh and the thing is college and university student are adults, if you treat them like children how are they going to cope in the real world? A university policy of asking students not to engage in illegal activites or do things which could be offensive to others (while detailing how said offended person should react) is more than enough, more than likely Bombay doesn't like its bandwidth bills and so it cutting back
Now, if they filtered slashdot, I would spend way more time learning...
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To me, telling them to go elsewhere doesn't seem like a very adequate solution. I don't know about you, but I know I and most of the people I know when we have a large task at hand which requires concentration prefer to be on our own in the quiet able to get on with it and focus, as opposed to being in a room with lots of other students, distractions and noise. Plus, if the internet is cut off in dorms, I am willing to bet a lot of people that go to the libraries and departments afterwards are not going to be going there to do work, thus even more noise, distracctions and perhaps difficulty of getting a computer. Not an ideal environment or solution for working, which is one of the primary focuses of university.
A primary focus, and not the only focus either. When applying to universities, at least in the UK, they make it very clear and important that you are not just going there to study. You are going to be spending a good few years of your life there, and there is more to that than just working. That is why there are clubs, societies, social events and such. If people work hard all day, attend their lectures, do well in their tests, complete their work, why shouldn't they be able to relax a little at the end of it, read up on the news, send an email to their family, talk to their friends not at the same university, play some online games, or even work-related leisure (eg. A CS student working on a project in their free time with relevance to their studies).
Thus, I don't think this is a positive move at all, and will only harm the students, not benefit them.
As long as you add: 6) No student may be compelled to subscribe to university internet access, or any internet access. 7) The university shall not penalize students in any fashion for observing 6). 8) The university shall provide no unreasonable barriers to private service to their students. I will happily join your "coalition". As a fellow taxpayer, I feel the same way. If students want to waste time, I say let them do it on their own dime. You with me?
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This is nothing new. I go to a college-prep boarding high school. Every night at midnight, our internet shuts off. An hour later, the computers themselves shutdown and won't turn on until 6:00 in the morning. You just get used to the fact that there is a limit to how late you can work.
Bravo!
... then they graduate with honors. Having completed their fixed task, they get to socialize, which INCLUDES Net access. If you have to work out a high-bandwidth fee, figure it out.
You pegged it perfectly. It's the GRADES that matter. If someone is bright and gets their work done,
As someone else pointed out, students were lazing about in drunken stupors in the days before net access. I don't care about how someone washes out. Self control is PART of the unstated education of college, where you don't need Bathroom Passes.
As a much larger issue, in the 21st century, Content Lockdown mentalities are OBSOLETE. Yes, this terrifies many Powers-That-Be. Deal. The Information Age is here forever, and it's only going to get MORE intense.
Universities are ridiculously expensive anyway. They can afford the loss-leader (excepting lawsuits) of a Net connection.
This is just another instance of PowerLust disguised as Think of the Children.
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