With more than 8,000 students and several hundred faculty and staff using the computers, the colleges will be able to negotiate extremely favorable rates. Students not only will reap these large-quantity discounts, they'll receive more computer for the money than they could on an individual basis. Every 30 to 36 months the computers will be renewed, and students will have the option of purchasing the outgoing computers at greatly reduced prices. Clearly among the benefits to students are the flexibility and 24-hour availability afforded by the laptop computers. Laptops were chosen over desktop computers because of their flexibility and versatility.
Portability permits the students to use the laptops in class, in the library, or at home.
In each college, many classrooms are being renovated to accommodate the physical placement of the laptops. Classrooms and other public areas are being rewired to provide hundreds of network connections throughout the campuses. Faculty have some concerns that the laptops should be used for more than just word processing. Consequently, faculty committees are examining all courses to determine how they might benefit from the infusion of technology, what additional possibilities are offered, and how the teaching-learning process will be enhanced. It turns out this curriculum reexamination dovetails nicely with the reexamination required due to the colleges' moving from a quarter system to a semester system effective Fall 1998.