IT training for all students has been suggested, and new taster courses in various popular computing applications are now being offered. There is general acceptance among staff of the benefit of the change, both educationally and in logistical terms. Widespread production of word-processed course work makes marking easier. There is acknowledgement that word processing helps to develop a range of useful IT skills. Internet, web page and email provision is a selling point to new students.
Staff are aware of difficulties due to the popularity of the network and strain on resources.
There is a feeling that word processing has been encouraged without provision of enough PCs. When staff have booked computer rooms for classes, removing non-class students from the PCs at the beginning of the session eats into teaching time and can be embarrassing. The staff tend to divide into two camps according to their discipline's access to IT before the change to Computer Accounts For Everyone. Those whose students had access to IT facilities before the change may feel they have lost out. Students who run general purpose applications on these machines do so at the expense of students who cannot use other machines, and the staff concerned naturally feel this should not be allowed to happen.