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Hardware & Software :: Laptop Programs

No Digital Divide

1/1/2008

By Rama Ramaswami

Strengthening Authentication

Universities partner with vendors to offer creative instruction, close IT gaps.

Hardware & Software AS LAPTOPS AND TABLET PCs become ubiquitous in universities across the country, the connections between colleges and hardware/software vendors are growing in depth and complexity. For manufacturers, these alliances offer a chance to share technical expertise and gain useful feedback for product development; for universities, they are becoming a matchless way to gain access to state-of-the-art technology, provide valuable learning experiences for both students and faculty, and advance technology research.

A Three-Way Partnership

At Winona State University (MN), a public institution with 8,000-plus students, the relationship between the college and its tablet PC program partner, Gateway, is "very close," according to Ken Graetz, WSU's director of eLearning. "We're not interested in just being a customer," he says. "We want to be a partner, to learn more about one-to-one computing. Working with vendors to do that has been very beneficial."

Since 2005, WSU has required all full-time students to have university-issued laptops. The school partners with both Gateway and Apple, and students can choose either a Mac or PC platform. The tablet models offered are Gateway's M275E and M285E. Each tablet comes with a standard software suite that includes Microsoft Office, e-mail, web browsers, and antivirus applications. Full-time students can lease the machines for a minimum of one year, at a cost of $500 per semester ($1,000 for the academic year). And a two-year refresh cycle ensures that students have access to the most up-to-date devices.

Graetz notes that one-to-one computing requires specific modifications to the equipment, to enable students to use it more effectively in a particular discipline. For example, the functionality of a tablet model may need to be tweaked for a technical course such as engineering. Gateway has been willing to work with WSU to make those changes, he says, and in turn has incorporated those features into subsequent models. "Gateway listens to us in terms of developing new products, and has made changes to its products based on our feedback," explains Graetz. "It's a three-way partnership between educators, students, and the technology vendor."

Sharing Knowledge

Another institution with an equally close vendor-school relationship is Grove City College (PA). The tech-savvy, private four-year institution mandates the use of tablet PCs by both its students and faculty, and has invested in mobile technology since 1994, when it partnered with Compaq, then an independent manufacturer, to provide students with laptops (the computers are given to all incoming freshmen). About four years ago, the school switched to tablet PCs from