another bad move? - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Jun 20, 2005

another bad move?

Date: Jun 20, 2005

I hope they will have printed copies available. Obviously it's very expensive to print anything, so this move actually makes sense, as long as they remember that not everyone can use the CD version.

[Long ago and far away I worked for a govt agency where we relied heavily on a large set of manuals. They sat in a rack at your elbow, and became your friends -- tabbed, marked, annotated. A significant amount of time was spent updating them. Shortly after I left the decision was made to put the manual on-line and take away everyone's "books" -- the story went that people took their books out and hid them in the trunks of their cars. There's just something about paper and ink . . . ]

Date: Jun 20, 2005

LVN wrote:

I hope they will have printed copies available. Obviously it's very expensive to print anything, so this move actually makes sense, as long as they remember that not everyone can use the CD version. [Long ago and far away I worked for a govt agency where we relied heavily on a large set of manuals. They sat in a rack at your elbow, and became your friends -- tabbed, marked, annotated. A significant amount of time was spent updating them. Shortly after I left the decision was made to put the manual on-line and take away everyone's "books" -- the story went that people took their books out and hid them in the trunks of their cars. There's just something about paper and ink . . . ]

I think the student confusion with the Ad Astra experiment showed that computer access at USM is not very good.

Date: Jun 20, 2005

Actually, reliance on computers is a very good thing. It keeps computer-illiterate students out of USM.

Date: Jun 20, 2005

Blocker wrote:

Actually, reliance on computers is a very good thing. It keeps computer-illiterate students out of USM.

Computer-illiterate students are much easier to teach than are illiterate students.

Date: Jun 20, 2005

Blocker wrote:

Actually, reliance on computers is a very good thing. It keeps computer-illiterate students out of USM.

I've had highly computer-literate students use those skills to produce term papers filled with unsubstantiated garbage. I finally had to prohibit the use of websites as references. I require that they use the library and legitimate primary sources rather than take the lazy way out.

Date: Jun 20, 2005

Blocker wrote:

Actually, reliance on computers is a very good thing. It keeps computer-illiterate students out of USM.

That's right. We don't want any of them computer-illiterates around these parts. Their kind don't belong here in a wurl' class institution. We should just send 'em all over to Starkville with the cows and chickins.

Date: Jun 20, 2005

Keeper of the Gate wrote:

We don't want any of them computer-illiterates around these parts. Their kind don't belong here in a wurl' class institution. We should just send 'em all over to Starkville with the cows and chickins.

Schools like Mississippi State build computers. Schools like USM only purchase and use them.

Date: Jun 20, 2005

I'm not following the connection of the Ad-Astra mess with student access to computers and sending out catalogs in CD-rom format? If students who want the catalog on CD can request it, because they have their own computers and are comfortable with that medium, then what's the problem? It would only be an issue if it's an all-or-nothing situation. It's much, much cheaper to burn a CD than to print.

Date: Jun 20, 2005

bonehead wrote:

Copies of the 2005-2006 USM catalogue are being distributed. It's on CD-ROM this time. Is this a bad move? My gut says yes. Students/faculty need shelf access to a hard copy.

The same thing is true with regard to the Faculty Handbook. Accessing it online is not satisfactory. We should be able to have a hardcopy so we can take it to meetings.

Date: Jun 20, 2005

Vendor wrote:

Schools like Mississippi State build computers. Schools like USM only purchase and use them....

....to illegally monitor student and faculty communications, then unlawfully confiscate them, and employ them as instruments of fear and intimidation, all hallmarks of a wurl' class institution.

Date: Jun 20, 2005

Accessing it online is not satisfactory

I'm not defending the move to CD necessarily, but having something on a CD is not "online access." If you have the CD in your possession, you pop it into the CD-drive and read and print whatever you need. Think of a CD as a really skinny book that you need a computer to read. Just like a floppy disk.

But please, I'm all for paper copies for those who want them.

Date: Jun 20, 2005

Wonder how the cost of mass printing compares to the cost of individual printing. Guess it matters who is paying.

Date: Jun 20, 2005

LVN wrote:

It's much, much cheaper to burn a CD than to print.

I'm curious. How much cheaper?

Date: Jun 20, 2005

Doesn't the department have to pay for the copy machine? If so they are still paying for printing the material. Printed material plus the CD's.

Date: Jun 20, 2005

This is pretty much a pointless discussion.

Date: Jun 20, 2005

Dear useless info,

It seemed that a previous poster was confusing "online" with CD-available. Now someone is confusing "copy" cost with the cost of commercial printing. I think it's just one of those slow summer afternoon meandering worthless sorts of conversations. Start one of your own if you don't like this one.

Date: Jun 20, 2005

Why would anyone in their right mind depend on info in either the hard-copy of the schedule or the CD? Both are out of date when they are printed (copies). Use the CURRENT info in SOAR, and it doesn't cost anything to use.

Date: Jun 20, 2005

Actually, I don't think it is a useless discussion at all. University "costs" are, at a minimum, being transferred to student "costs" and likely to "departmental" costs because students, faculty, and staff are likely to all want paper copies in addition to the CD rom. I don't even think this is a bad thing just like to see it called what it is...a transfer of costs.

Date: Jun 20, 2005

LVN wrote:

Think of a CD as a really skinny book that you need a computer to read. Just like a floppy disk.

But carrying a computer around with you is like wearing a millstone around your neck. Conference rooms, park benches, home sofas, building corridors, and standing on the green in front of a building do not lend themselves to viewing a CD. And you can't underline material on a CD. CD's are good for many things, but for other things (like university catalogs, faculty handbooks, etc.) they are clumsy. Concerning computers, try copying and pasting something that requires Adobe Acrobat.

Date: Jun 20, 2005

Billy Bob Gates wrote:

Vendor wrote:

Schools like Mississippi State build computers. Schools like USM only purchase and use them....

....to illegally monitor student and faculty communications, then unlawfully confiscate them, and employ them as instruments of fear and intimidation, all hallmarks of a wurl' class institution.

Ah, but it's not illegal! If you read the USM policy that was in place before the Glamser/Stringer affair carefully, you'll see that USM can do anything it wants to at any time with regard to computers. USM owns 'em. It's not USM's problem if you don't back up your work to a CD or zip drive. The intellectual property may be yours, but the machine, the software, and the network belong to USM. Another baseless swipe at SFT.

Date: Jun 20, 2005

confused still,

are you talking about the class schedule or about the catalog?
__________________________

Hard Copy,
you make it sound like I advocated doing away with print based catalogs -- given the choice, I would take the printed one. I was only trying to explain to someone who seemed confused as to the difference between CD and online. This really is starting to get silly.

Date: Jun 20, 2005

LVN wrote:

Hard Copy, you make it sound like I advocated doing away with print based catalogs -- given the choice, I would take the printed one. I was only trying to explain to someone who seemed confused as to the difference between CD and online.

I intended to reply to another poster, LVN, not yours. This new format is not to my liking.

Date: Jun 20, 2005

LVN wrote:

I hope they will have printed copies available. Obviously it's very expensive to print anything, so this move actually makes sense, as long as they remember that not everyone can use the CD version.

[Long ago and far away I worked for a govt agency where we relied heavily on a large set of manuals. They sat in a rack at your elbow, and became your friends -- tabbed, marked, annotated. A significant amount of time was spent updating them. Shortly after I left the decision was made to put the manual on-line and take away everyone's "books" -- the story went that people took their books out and hid them in the trunks of their cars. There's just something about paper and ink . . . ]

While a CD-ROM edition will probably suffice for many students (who generally ignore catalogs anyway), it's awfully hard to submit a CD-ROM to the highlight pen & post-it note treatment. And a CD-ROM isn't always available, even in this day of wireless laptops. An exclusive "CD only" catalog is not a terrific idea.

That said, CD-ROMs may offer some cost savings, because (again) a lot of students don't really pay much attention to the catalog anyway ... until it's too late!

Date: Jun 20, 2005

http://www.usm.edu/registrar/publications/index.html Catalogs for 1998-99 through 2005-06 are available online. If I were a student, I would download my program plan and any other relevant pages and put them in a binder for easy retrieval (that way I could highlight and stick post-it notes to my heart's content ).

While I have no idea how much the university spends on publications like the catalog and the schedule guide, I think we can all agree they are obsolete by the time they roll off the press. If the savings realized result in preserving a clerical job (or two for that matter) when budget cuts are looming, then I think we should look at new, cost-efficient ways to deliver the information.