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...or at the very least, for caution in doing business with Gateway...
Dakota State University just announced that "manufacturing delays" have prevented the timely delivery of 500 Gateway Tablet PCs to freshmen and seniors at the beginning of this school year. DSU got its order in on time, and Gateway assured the university the computers would be delivered by August 10. The expected arrival date is now September 4, the first day of classes at DSU. The university expects it will take seven days to set up and distribute all of the computers.
"Maunfacturing delays" -- right. Gateway probably shipped the computers to Connecticut first.
Readers may imagine for themselves the inconvenience Gateway's snafu will cause students and faculty in the most integrated computing environment in the state's higher education system. Would someone tell me again (1) why we get these computers on a three-year lease program, requiring students to shell out for a second computer their senior year (and thus subjecting the seniors to this foul-up), and (2) why the State of South Dakota keeps doing business with Gateway? 500 Tablet PCs -- a $650,000 order from a regular customer, and Gateway delivers four weeks late? Time to open the bidding process!
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3 days ago
Why can't school districts just strike up a deal with Best Buy? They sell lap tops for $400-500 each.
ReplyDeleteDoes DELL or any other manufacturer offer the Tablet technology with the tilt/swivel writable bed? I'm not sure, but I think schools like Chester use simple laptops, but DSU and Madison High School are using the Tablets, which are more interactive and provide better integration in the classroom. Maybe that's why the order continue to Gateway?
ReplyDeleteI think, and correct me if I am wrong, the basic premise to this whole thing is to make computers available to every student in the school system. Why do they have to be tablet PCs or top of the line? I have my $600 Toshiba wide screen laptop computer with CD-Writer/DVD and wireless internet. It treats me just fine. Call me conservative..
ReplyDelete1. I believe Chester is using the Tablet PC just like Madison and DSU. Rutland on the other hand has integrated laptops into the high school and they are using a macintosh brand laptop.
ReplyDelete2. I believe the premise behind requiring everyone to use the same technology is so everyone has the same technology available and there isn't a question of whether the computer student A purchased isn't capable of supporting the same programs student B purchase.
(1) why we get these computers on a three-year lease program, requiring students to shell out for a second computer their senior year (and thus subjecting the seniors to this foul-up)
ReplyDeleteA couple reasons. The technology field is ever changing. DSU needs to stay on the edge of technology and it would be simply irresponsible of DSU to send its students out into the field when learning from obsolete technology. For example, take my M-275 Gateway tablet that was issued to me when DSU’s WMCI program came into place 2004. It comes with Windows XP, Office 2000, 256 MB, Pentium Processor, two 2.0 USB ports, and a battery life somewhere between 2-4 hours. Sure, that’s fine for surfing the internet and posting on blogs, but when it comes to my field (Information Systems), that simply too old, too slow, and too out of date. The M-275 Tablet hardly has the memory or graphics to run Windows Vista. DSU Professor Tom Farrell said that Vista doesn’t run on the 275’s, it walks. (Of note, the current plan for DSU is to convert over to Windows Vista next fall). In fact, my Microsoft Visual Studio software (a popular programming software) is 2 versions ahead of what I started in 2004. So a four-year lease program simply wouldn’t fit the technology needs of the students or the program.
An alternative could possibility be a two-year lease program. That would allow all students to have a new tablet twice in their DSU career. However, that would of course increase the price since the cost of the tablet would be spread out over 2 years rather than 3.
(2) why the State of South Dakota keeps doing business with Gateway?
Tablet technology is a big reason why DSU's WMCI is aligned with Gateway. The tablet/slate PC's with digital ink and touch screen technology have been huge in education. To my knowledge, Gateway is unmatched in it's Tablet program.
Also, Gateway has proven strong and reliable with very few problems. This delay is by far the biggest problem DSU has had thus far.
As far as I can see, entire tablet pc program has been bungled. I attended SDSM&T, which also has the tablet PC program. Now perhaps it is because the program is newer out there than at DSU, but there was little, if any, integration of this technology into the classrooms. The ‘digital ink’ part of the tablet is nearly useless unless you have perfect handwriting (it couldn’t recognize my handwriting). Sure, you could type out your notes, but lugging around a 7 pound laptop gets wearing; by my second semester, I had started taking notes by hand (pencil and paper) again. If anything, the laptops were distracting. I once looked around during a chemistry class; about 90% of the students (myself included) were on Facebook (and thus not paying attention). It is hard to pay attention to the (boring) lecture when internet games and online socializing are so easily accessible.
ReplyDeleteIf the schools want to ensure that everyone has a computer available to them, why not cut tuition by a few hundred dollars a year so they can afford one. After all, as much as these laptops are toted as being "free", $350 bucks a semester isn't free. In fact, at the end of the three year lease, SDSM&T students could by the laptop for another 200 bucks; if you are keeping track, that's $2300. For a $1600, three year old laptop. Real cutting edge. This is especially nice for those of us who already own a desktop (about 50% of the students at SDSM&T).
And why do kids need the cutting edge, anyway? I'm about as big a nerd as one can be and I'm running three year old technology. No, my computer can't run Vista (at least not as well), but from my experience with the new operating system, that is no loss. But it can still run Visual Studio pretty well. Microsoft offers free versions of its newer Visual Studio releases, and any decent employer would offer a professional version to graduates if it were needed (and probably a new computer, too).
Working with older technology is no detriment to students. They will always be required to get used to faster and better computers with newer and more powerful applications. Why should college be any different?
I personally would never ever buy Gateway computers, but in their defense Gateway did not assure anything by August 10th. That was the date that their automated order software picked as the possible delivery date for the 500 computers. That date can change depending on availability of parts, shipping\customs delays, etc. The laptops had to be remanufactured (in China) and the date was pushed up because of a defect in the glass in the screen.
ReplyDeleteI’m not sure on your source for the part about a September 4th arrival or seven days to set them up either, but those numbers are a little inaccurate. The first 450 of the 500 laptops had already arrived by the time you posted this blog entry. By Friday they were already set up and ready to distribute to students on Tuesday.
As far as the price... the 500 computers cost more like $750,000 because the tablets themselves cost around $1500 (http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529666093.php) plus leasing fees, interest and other purchasing\shipping costs. The final cost is probably closer to $1600 each by the time the lease runs out, so if you do the math for a four year student at two semesters worth of $320 fees per year you get each student paying $2560 (if they stick around for four years, by the way – many students don’t). So you would think there is a $960 discrepancy between $2560 and $1600, right? Well, not really because you aren’t quite getting the facts straight. The students are paying a $320 technology fee. The fee pays for the entire laptop program on campus, not the just the laptops themselves. Students aren’t leasing, buying, or renting the laptops and they in no way own it or imply any ownership (ask one if they ever signed a lease, rental, or purchase agreement when they came to DSU or picked up their laptop). The cost of the laptop is included in the fee but DSU is leasing the laptop and DSU owns it (well technically the leasing company probably “owns” it). So, depending on the lease agreement that DSU has with the leasing company, the students may not even get an opportunity to buy it out at the end (before you complain, do the research and you will realize this is the way most laptop campuses do it – the other way is to just have the students buy an approved laptop before school starts with their own money but this never works out and they can’t get support from the campus to fix the machines and the students generally are unhappy with the technology integration of campuses that do that). The technology fee pays for the technical support on the tablets (DSU does their own tech work as an authorized service provider for Gateway – it’s a lot faster getting repairs done that way), the servers and networking equipment to support the extra burden of 1600 laptops on the network, network security equipment and software, the wireless access points and wireless management software, the help desk itself (tools, furniture, testing equipment, spare parts, extra power adapters and batteries, etc.), and most importantly the software. Thanks to the software giants like Microsoft the software on each laptop at DSU costs a bundle to license and it is no small expense. In all, the cost to run the help desk, maintain the network security and infrastructure, buy the software, and buy the laptop itself actually exceeds the technology fee the students pay by a long shot. More than that even. DSU eats the extra cost of the program in order to try to reach for technological superiority over other schools in the hopes of attracting more students.
Whether this works or not is beyond my ken and why they keep doing business with Gateway is beyond my ken, but one of your other commentators probably hit it closely when they stated that Gateway has tablets and DSU wants tablets so it is a match – other vendors either don’t do tablets (Dell), don’t do tablets well (HP), or have great tablets that are way too expensive (Lenovo). Surprisingly, as bad as Gateway is at making other computers they are pretty good at tablets, but that has more to do with the vendor in China that they buy them from than anything.
It might be interesting to note that although it may have been an inconvenience for the students if the tablets had not arrived on time, other campuses with laptop programs actually purposely do not distribute their laptops until the second or third week of school. This gives the students time to get oriented with campus life, meet their teachers, get into a groove with their schedules, and socialize with their peers BEFORE they get the laptops and turn into zombies hiding in corners seeking the wireless signals that give their undead bodies the internet life everlasting.
Speaking of zombies: Four girls I knew out at SDSM&T would sit in their quad and instant message each other rather than talking. Strange.
ReplyDeleteBack to the point: I don't think that the $960 that the students pay on top of the actual price of the laptop is justified for a couple reasons.
One: the laptops don't really enhance the educational experience that much. If you want to take notes when a stylus, then use an ol' fashioned pen and paper.
Two: the notion that students must have a standardized computer for tech support to be effective is flat out wrong. Yes, it may be easier, but my friend works as a Techfellow at SDSU. He and his fellows provide free help for anyone on campus. And as for replacing the computer if it breaks (or is run over), well, that's why God created extended warranty.
This topic is sliding down, and I'm forgetting to check it. First, on SDSMT. A good friend of mine attends school out there. When he came back from Christmas break last year, I talked to him about Tablet technology in the classroom. I was amazed at the difference in how SDSMT handled their Tablet program as compared to DSU. It seems SDSMT simply handed computers to all staff and students and said, "Here, use them." While DSU spent much time re-working class curriculum to include the Tablets. Students were required to take a course which centered on ways to use the Tablet PC in the classroom. As far as I can tell, none of these is being done at schools such as SDSMT. As for the Tablets being distracting, I don't think that's as much of a problem with the program than it is the students. If the students aren't responsible enough to actually pay attention in class and drift away into something else, I think that student needs to re-focus on why he or she are taking college classes.
ReplyDeleteNow the Tablet fee may seem like a lot, but as was stated earlier, this all helps pay for the wireless structure itself. Access points through out the campus, printers, and staff to maintain all of the operations. I'm sure the Tech fellows at DSU have the knowledge to work with other types of computers, but all students having the same computer makes it easy for DSU to make sure they all have the proper software to log onto the network. They all have virus protection that helps keep the network virus free (this is huge). If I have warrenty issues with my computer, I can go to the Library rather than Sioux Falls. Instructors know that all students have the same programs. DSU is now working on Office 2007. An instructor can create a document in 2007 and not have to worry if all students will be able to read it.
And, back to the orginal concern, I was issued a new Tablet by the end of the day Wednesday (the first day of classes). Tablet handouts continued Thursday. The Tech guys at DSU worked around the clock over the weekend to get all the Tablets ready to go and what we thought to be a huge problem turned out to be a very small one.