ICS 131--F00--Lecture Six--12 October 2000
Reviewing Lecture Five
Readings
Schwartz, John. New Economy: Finding some middle ground in a world obsessed with the new and impatient with the old, NY Times, 9 Oct, C4. ®
Richtel, Matt. Signs of Market Saturation in PC World [Does almost everyone who wants a computer already own one?], NY Times, 9 Oct, C8. (o)
Morris, Bonnie Rothman. A day in the life of the wired school, NY Times, 5 Oct, D1, D8 ®
Hafner, Katie. Schools and computer: debate heats up, NY Times, 5 Oct, D8 ®
Brown, John Seely, and Duguid, Paul. The Social Life of Information.
Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2000. HM 851 .B76 2000 (o)
-----------------------. 1996b "The University in the Digital Age." Times higher Education Supplement, 10 May (multimedia supplement): iv-vi.
Available: http://www.parc.xerox.com/ops/members/brown/papers/university.html
[1999, July 21]. ®
1. Education
A. Elementary education
Morris, Bonnie Rothman. A day in the life of the wired school, NY Times, 5 Oct, D1, D8
Viola Elementary School, Suffern, NY
Some examples:
1. Fifth Grade Language Arts
2. Third graders
3. Sixth grade science students
Trap--Using computer just for sake of using it
Trick--How to use them creatively? What does it take to do it?
Great ways to use computers in elementary schools
and lots of way to do it poorly
B. Elementary Education
Hafner, Katie. Schools and computer: debate heats up, NY Times, 5 Oct, D8
Allianceforchildhood.org
Moratorium on introduction of computers into elementary schools
until their effect on your children is assessed more carefully.
C. Colleges and Universities
Brown, John Seely, and Duguid, Paul. The Social Life of Information.
Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2000. HM 851 .B76 2000
-----------------------. 1996b "The University in the Digital Age." Times higher Education Supplement, 10 May (multimedia supplement): iv-vi.
Available: http://www.parc.xerox.com/ops/members/brown/papers/university.html
[1999, July 21].
Schwartz, John. New Economy: Finding some middle ground in a world obsessed with the new and impatient with the old, NY Times, 9 Oct, C4.
[interview with JSB]
Chapter 8--Re-education
Basic theme: computers and the web are not going to eliminate the
world as we know it. best solution is to use them to augment and improve what we have.
On Colleges and Universities
1. Pressures for Change
a. Changes in Student Body
from one school for four years
from all 18-22 year olds
b. Changes in Competition for students
Open University in UK
University of Phoenix
Unplug and play
Changes in Competition on research
people and money
PARC, Microsoft
c. New Technologies
Do things differently
Do things more cheaply
2. The New Model
25 Courses make up half the curriculum in two-year schools
and one-third of the curriculum in four-year school--too much
centralization
The Hype problem--
IBM ad--Italian Senior doing grad work at Indiana
California Virtual University
Penn State
3. The Old Model
a. What is it?
b. What's important about it?
Degrees--Certification
Incidental learning
Peer Support
local impact, Davis-wine, UCLA-film, B-computers
4. What could be improved?
a. Open up college education to disenfranchised
b. External degree model
c. Access to information
d. More flexibility
Degree Granting Bodies
Univ of Chicago exams
Many schools
Choices
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Lecture Six--Comparisons
Productivity
Whalen, Charles J. High-Tech hustle sweeps the nation, BW, 16 Oct, 98, 100 ®
Commerce Department: "…productivity gains …
are far more widely spread than anyone would have expected."
Productivity rose 2-2.4% in every region of U.S.
Why? Hi-tech industries are everywhere
Ripple--
Finance in Northeast
Improved manufacturing productivity in Midwest
Even spread
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Uchitelle, Louis. In a productivity surge, no proof of a 'new economy', NY Times, 8 Oct, Bu 6
95-98--Burst of prosperity
Computer at heart, but not because it transformed the world
"Computers have indeed lifted the economy,
but mainly through the manufacture of the computers
themselves and the production of semiconductors,
communications equipment, software and other
computer-related devices."
Maybe affect other sectors later.
How will it affect other sectors?
Revolution--like biotech may revolutionize medicine
Evolution--small increments
Ripple effect--only 25% from 95-98
Not the kind of impact others (electric motor,
Internal combusiton engine) produced.
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Comparisons--G4 Cube
Mossberg. Apple's Design Delight: Cube is beautiful, silent, and powerful, WSJ, 28 Sep, B1
http://ptech.wsj.com ®Beautiful, with beautiful, spherical, transparent speakers
15" flat panel display in transparent housing
performed very well--ran all software I threw at it.
Surfed web, email, silent (no fan)
$1799 price is comparable to windows machine
with same spec's.
Downsides
Disk drives: no floppy, no CD-RW, only DVD
Price: For $1799, you should get 128 MB RAM, not 64
And >20 GB of hard disc
Goodies
Connectors and ports on bottom
Handle to lift guts, antennas for wireless networking
New keyboard, new mouse
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Wildstrom, Stephen. The Cube: Looks Aren't Everything,
BW, 16 Oct, 29 ®
Imac proves that style matters
G4 proves that style is far from everything
Cube is an object of real beauty.
No fan, but power supply in a brick
Big keyboard, nice mouse
but mouse doesn't have two buttons
but mouse doesn't have scroll wheel
Overpriced and underfeatured and no clear target audience
Overpriced for students, families, and schools
(a major Mac constituency)
At 1799 plus 500 or 1000 for a monitor
Underfeatured for creative professionals
Can't use dual monitors
Drive problem--missing CDRW or floppy
DVD drive not very useful
Hooking up outside drive ruins aesthetic
Dual processors, but software can't use them
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Logistics
Keep good parts
Make it better
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More
Week 2, topic, 5 points
Week 3, references, 5 points
Week 4, outline, 10 points (2 pp)
Week 5, problems, 5 points (at least one page)
Presentation, 15 points
Week 7, first draft, 20 points
Week 10, final draft, 40 points