Some University professors see the Student Senate’s Mobile Computing Initiative as beneficial to the University.
The Mobile Computing Initiative, which was passed last week, calls for the University to research the possibility of enacting a program that will require incoming students to have “mobile computing devices” by the 2005-06 academic year.
Dorothy Prowel, a conservation biology professor, said she would worry if the initiative were implemented without a way to supplement it.
“It’s a good idea unless there [is not] some sort of program to supplement the cost for people who come in and can’t afford it,” Prowel said.
The Mobile Computing Initiative can be effective by giving students access to computers, she said.
At least five to ten percent of her students have problems finding available computers to work at, Prowel said. The initiative could provide them with better access.
Bruce Sharky, a landscape architecture professor, said computers will make interface between students and faculty, the Semester Book application on PAWS and Blackboard much more effective.
Sharky said if the computers are properly used, they will increase communication between students and faculty members.
He said using computers in landscape architecture allows him to be much more productive in a creative way. Computers make it easier for him to try new ideas and make changes to them.
Sharky said when ideas are just put on paper with ink, it is not as easy to change them.
He said implementing the Mobile Computer Initiative is the one thing the University can do to be equal with all the top universities in the country.
“If we can’t be the top 10 university, we can at least look like it,” Sharky said.
He said being in a building with a wireless Internet connection and being in a classroom with computer access has enabled him to take his students anywhere in the world. Sharky said he can search the Internet and give his students answers and examples when they have questions.
He said students would be limiting their insight by making money the issue as to why the Mobile Computing Initiative should not be implemented at the University.
Sharky said some students can afford to buy MP3 players, expensive jeans and shoes. These students have made these items priorities.
“I am not bashing the students, but I do know that when they want something — the money is there,” he said. “It has to do with priorities. I think this is a priority.”
Sharky said we are in a “computer age” in which computers are going to be the main tool people use to work.
The sooner students can get started using them, the better off they will be for their careers, he said.
Chung Song, a civil engineering professor, said he also thinks the Mobile Computing Initiative can be beneficial to students.
“I think eventually we will vote for that direction, because the top schools in the U.S. already have those programs,” Chung said.
He said some schools in other countries, such as Korea and Japan, already have set up similar systems at their campuses.
Chung said the civil engineering department has one classroom in which professors can ask students questions and the students can input their answers in a computer. Professors can get instant feedback and see which students have the correct answer.
Chung said the technology is not new, but it is expensive.
He said he does not understand how students and the University can financially support the initiative throughout the campus. But having computer companies subsidize the “mobile computing devices” and the proposed financial aide program makes sense to him.