Amazon Kindle

Over the summer Oprah Winfrey received a gift that 'changed her life.' The device is an electronic reader, specifically Amazon's Kindle. Before Oprah's big discovery, I had heard of Amazon's Kindle, I had a good idea what it could do, and I have even seen one in the hands of a faculty member in my building. But I wanted to explore it more.

Amazon boasts that it offers more than 190,000 magazine, book, newspaper and blog titles. To learn about the pros of owning a Kindle, go to Amazon's website. Some of the pros (from Gadgetsnoop.com) include:

• Amazon and books are peas in a pod, the user experience seems carefully crafter to lead to smooth downloading and reading workflow



• The form factor is interesting, the screen similar in size to a book and the e-ink technology looks like it offers a grayscale rendering, and it’s light



• The eBooks are less expensive is some cases, than buying and shipping the paper counterpart - there’s a definite “Green” notion to this.



• The battery is user-replaceable (cough - Apple, get a clue)



• No subscriptions or additional fees, beyond the cost of the device, for wireless access, 1yr warranty



• Promised >1 min. downloads



• USB 2.0 connectivity for PC and Mac, but does not require a computer



• Email documents and images to the device, read blogs and newspapers

David Fowler, a blogger, touches on the downside of a Kindle:

• Poor visual appeal: Black text on a dingy grey background instead of white; brief screen blackout for each page turn; device looks like old technology.



• Clunky scroll wheel for navigating; Kindle would benefit from touch-screen technology such as used by Apple.



• Lack of real page numbers limits use for students needing to provide footnotes for quotes.



• Frequent page turns are tiring; difficult to “pre-read” a chapter or know how many pages to go in a chapter; not a great device for reading long books.
  

Academic Freedom OR An Insult

Should tenured faculty members be allowed to post controversial viewpoints on public college websites? Even if their viewpoint denies The Holocaust? Northwestern University faculty member Arthur Butz thinks so, and has been spreading the word about his unpopular beliefs since the 1970s on the web and in his book. Read article:

Chronicle of Higher Education

Now, because he has the right to express his beliefs under the First Amendment does not mean he is correct. Personally, it is upseting to hear that people disregard such a horrific global event. More 17 million people suffered and died during The Holocaust - how do you discount that?

I had the opportunity to visit the Drancy Internment Camp outside of Paris, France over the summer. It was quite an eye-opening experience for me, one that I won't ever forget.
Drancy Deportation Camp
After visiting this location along with other notable WWII landmarks, it's hard to understand how man can deny that The Holocaust ever happened. It sickens me.

Requiring laptops for all incoming college freshmen

Laptop Distribution Day at SJU

This week's assignment pondered this question. Should colleges and universities a "one laptop for one student" policy? I decided to research two schools, Grove City College in Pennsylvania and St. John's University in Queens, New York.

Both are private, liberal arts schools, however GCC has an enrollment size of 2,500 students while SJU boasts an enrollment size of more than 15,000 students. My findings conclude that laptop programs are beneficial to students.

Summary and conclusion excerpt from my paper...

First, both schools provide students with the same laptop model so that technical support can anticipate and easily handle updates, virus protection and computer issues as they arise. Secondly, because it is imperative to provide everyone with the same model, the laptops are paid for through student tuition. Thirdly, both schools provide on-site repairs and ‘how to’ laptop training to faculty and students. And lastly, because these schools do not provide computers to part-time status students, it is necessary to accommodate this student population by providing on-campus computer labs.

Overall, requiring laptops for freshmen did increase the level of technology on campus, it did promote the concept of anytime/anywhere learning with its wireless Internet access across campus and it did increase the institution’s marketing advantage since both schools heavily promote the laptop program on its respective websites. However, both schools fail to mention if it did reduce university costs overtime. Further investigation would be necessary to accurately answer this question.

For a listing of higher education schools across the United States with required laptop programs, go to http://www2.westminster-mo.edu/wc_users/homepages/staff/brownr/NoteBookList.html