Having working in a campus environment for a good part of the last 4 years I can say that not everyone wants to learn something new, let alone spend the time to familiarize themselves with software packages they are unfamiliar with. Only students of Comp. Sci/Comp. Eng. are for the most part willing to do this, and even some of them are not.
While the article states that there would be the need for only a single *nix support position, and four Windows support positions, we must think of this: How many additional postitions would have to be created to train students (even rudimentary training) for an infrastructure they are not accustomed to? I would guess at least 10, but depending on the size of said campus, it could grow to an exorbant amount, overshadowing the cost of the initial startup costs.
The campus I am at now is a great example (Northern Illinois) and especially the labs I work in (art/music). There are plenty of Mac's here for people to use, but unless they are die-hard Mac-heads or it is required to use them for a class, 99% of the students stay away from them for the sole reason that it is unfamiliar territory. This made the campus cut down to a single Mac support position for the entire campus (which has over 200 macs), solely because of peoples inability to accept things that are different.
Look at the makeup of the world's computer market, 90+% Windows. People fear change and are afraid to learn. Even in academia.
Thinking of the institution you are involved with, many of them probably grew up playing/watching completely violent games being played. How many of them are actually going to want to play puzzle games, text based games or anything without a fancy little GUI to go along with it? Probably not too many, IMO.
Why not try to get them involved in actual games like chess or Risk, Axis and Allies, etc...all of these made it to PC/PS/Nintendo in one form or another, if you must stick to that route.
The question is, do you really want them to be involved with a medium that they are already familiar with or do you want them to concentrate on deeper thinking and problem solving, or possibly gaining an increased interest in a tech related field via the games?
As a planet we have not had data for much more than 100 years regarding temperature on a mass scale. Knowing this actual fact how can one say that we know anything for sure about how the planet is heating up? Look at the "circumstantial data":
species migration
CO2 levels (which have never been this high when looking at ice core readings)
tree rings (which are a reliable source or temperature)
You find this: the planet is warmer at the present then it has been.
Look at the world of real users, they *need* to upgrade because they don't know better. It may not be an automatic yes in their eyes, but when they go to the local chain store, not only will they be forced into the latest upgrade, but also not be informed of alternatives (Linux/BSD/etc) to the package they have signed into for their great rebates to afford their new toy.
To anyone who knows better they infact do not need the upgrade, to the people who actually do the work on the systems and get a comission, they do. It's not a case of precidence of time over money, it's the case of being uninformed and undereducated, with no need to be either for their purposes.
Yeah, nice suggestion for those of us who read/. but what about the average user? Those who come home to check the latest baseball scores and send an email to aunt ethyl in florida? They are the ones being taken for the proverbial ride by companies.
Do you honestly think that the average person is going to have the patience to set up a linux box?
Isn't that what laws are supposed to do? Protect the consumor from substandard products and price gouging? Protect industry from parasitic practices and competition offing?
Oh that's right, those rules don't apply, we're talking about MS.
Apparantly he and his assistants don't grade the papers all too closely if a sizeable percentage of the students are cheating, and have been for quite some time. If large chunks of the same material are being passed around from 5 seperate classes (essentially) then the probabability of more than one of them coming from the same section is rather large. Even if there are multiple people (TAs) grading the papers.
I don't see the need for this on a large scale if in fact they were doing their job correctly in the first place.
Having been in three different universities, and worked with two of their IT departments I would have something to say (obviously)
Many professors/staff utilize the toys only to the degree in which they are trained. If all they know is PP, then they will only use PP. If they know HTML, they will code pages for their classes. It works the other way too. The problem is that many institutions do not train their faculty/staff in the latest and greatest technologies, therefore they cannot use them to their fullest potential, thereby wasting the student's money.
To the topic of using technology as a way to avoid actual teaching, I have seen this done many many times. Most notably with PP presentations, it's the "see, it's there on the screen so I don't have to explain it" mentality. It seems that if they don't have to write it on a black/white board then it couldn't be worth actual discussion. IMO.
It seems that the usefulness of gear in the classroom comes down to how well people are trained in using it. But that costs more money, which could be better spent for that new stadium or fertilizer for the lawns.
Slashdot Mirror
Having working in a campus environment for a good part of the last 4 years I can say that not everyone wants to learn something new, let alone spend the time to familiarize themselves with software packages they are unfamiliar with. Only students of Comp. Sci/Comp. Eng. are for the most part willing to do this, and even some of them are not.
While the article states that there would be the need for only a single *nix support position, and four Windows support positions, we must think of this: How many additional postitions would have to be created to train students (even rudimentary training) for an infrastructure they are not accustomed to? I would guess at least 10, but depending on the size of said campus, it could grow to an exorbant amount, overshadowing the cost of the initial startup costs.
The campus I am at now is a great example (Northern Illinois) and especially the labs I work in (art/music). There are plenty of Mac's here for people to use, but unless they are die-hard Mac-heads or it is required to use them for a class, 99% of the students stay away from them for the sole reason that it is unfamiliar territory. This made the campus cut down to a single Mac support position for the entire campus (which has over 200 macs), solely because of peoples inability to accept things that are different.
Look at the makeup of the world's computer market, 90+% Windows. People fear change and are afraid to learn. Even in academia.
Later
Josh
Thinking of the institution you are involved with, many of them probably grew up playing/watching completely violent games being played. How many of them are actually going to want to play puzzle games, text based games or anything without a fancy little GUI to go along with it? Probably not too many, IMO.
Why not try to get them involved in actual games like chess or Risk, Axis and Allies, etc...all of these made it to PC/PS/Nintendo in one form or another, if you must stick to that route.
The question is, do you really want them to be involved with a medium that they are already familiar with or do you want them to concentrate on deeper thinking and problem solving, or possibly gaining an increased interest in a tech related field via the games?
As a planet we have not had data for much more than 100 years regarding temperature on a mass scale. Knowing this actual fact how can one say that we know anything for sure about how the planet is heating up? Look at the "circumstantial data":
species migration
CO2 levels (which have never been this high when looking at ice core readings)
tree rings (which are a reliable source or temperature)
You find this: the planet is warmer at the present then it has been.
All it takes is some reading.
Look at the world of real users, they *need* to upgrade because they don't know better. It may not be an automatic yes in their eyes, but when they go to the local chain store, not only will they be forced into the latest upgrade, but also not be informed of alternatives (Linux/BSD/etc) to the package they have signed into for their great rebates to afford their new toy.
To anyone who knows better they infact do not need the upgrade, to the people who actually do the work on the systems and get a comission, they do. It's not a case of precidence of time over money, it's the case of being uninformed and undereducated, with no need to be either for their purposes.
Yeah, nice suggestion for those of us who read /. but what about the average user? Those who come home to check the latest baseball scores and send an email to aunt ethyl in florida? They are the ones being taken for the proverbial ride by companies.
Do you honestly think that the average person is going to have the patience to set up a linux box?
Isn't that what laws are supposed to do? Protect the consumor from substandard products and price gouging? Protect industry from parasitic practices and competition offing?
Oh that's right, those rules don't apply, we're talking about MS.
Apparantly he and his assistants don't grade the papers all too closely if a sizeable percentage of the students are cheating, and have been for quite some time. If large chunks of the same material are being passed around from 5 seperate classes (essentially) then the probabability of more than one of them coming from the same section is rather large. Even if there are multiple people (TAs) grading the papers.
I don't see the need for this on a large scale if in fact they were doing their job correctly in the first place.
Having been in three different universities, and worked with two of their IT departments I would have something to say (obviously)
Many professors/staff utilize the toys only to the degree in which they are trained. If all they know is PP, then they will only use PP. If they know HTML, they will code pages for their classes. It works the other way too. The problem is that many institutions do not train their faculty/staff in the latest and greatest technologies, therefore they cannot use them to their fullest potential, thereby wasting the student's money.
To the topic of using technology as a way to avoid actual teaching, I have seen this done many many times. Most notably with PP presentations, it's the "see, it's there on the screen so I don't have to explain it" mentality. It seems that if they don't have to write it on a black/white board then it couldn't be worth actual discussion. IMO.
It seems that the usefulness of gear in the classroom comes down to how well people are trained in using it. But that costs more money, which could be better spent for that new stadium or fertilizer for the lawns.
Would this be some sort of ethanol hybrid engine?
How much does Kompgas cost to produce? If it is cheaper than ethanol to manufacture?