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Luddites in Our Midst?

10/19/2005

This sounds like a great bunch of students. “There’re a lot of big open spaces where we can fit 10 carts of computers in a little circular area,” one of the students said. “We’ll roll out our lab to the math mezzanine … and be like, ‘Hey, do you want to practice using this software?’” she said. “Just kind of dink around if they have 15 minutes before class. They can see what it’s all about.”

They’re being supported by the administration which specifically notes its value for third- and fourth-year transfer students who may have not gotten the equivalent of the university’s own group computer projects, which are required in freshman and sophomore years. As well, PSU has an emphasis on learning by helping others.

For me, the icing on the cake was that the labs they are creating will include salvaged computers, from long-term storage, which the students are refurbishing. And they’re using a lot of open source, especially Linux, which will give the students they train a boost if they end up at a company which has moved in that direction.

Congratulations to the students of STAG, and to Portland State University for supporting their mission to do good things for other students. May they meet someone they helped at a reunion in ten years and get some effusive thanks!


About the author: Terry Calhoun is Director of Communications and Publications for the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP). You can contact him through CT's IT Trends forum by clicking here. View more articles by Terry Calhoun.

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Terry Calhoun, "Luddites in Our Midst? ," Campus Technology, 10/19/2005, http://www.campustechnology.com/article.aspx?aid=40555

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