What They Are Up to at My Fine Institution
Interpersonal Computing and Technology
From: e...@uc1.ucsu.edu (Eileen H. Kramer)
I submitted the following memo to my boss this evening. He
is returning from days off just as I am taking mine. Mine is not the
kind of office where I get in trouble for speaking my mind in writing,
and it is often the only way I can get the director's ear. I have also
given copies of it to my colleagues.
Utica College with a small and overtaxed Computer User Services
Office is planning to give students access to their e-mail via the
World Wide Web (Netscape). The memo speaks for itself....Has any one
out there faced the same situation? What have you done? What would
you do if you were my boss?
Information and Planning Resources, Computer User Services'
parent office, is notoriously uncommunicative with either faculty or
staff which is probably a large reason for this memo's existence.
Well here it comes. Enjoy....
To: Dave Harralson
>From: Eileen H. Kramer
About: Student internet access
Date: July 10, 1996
Computer User Services' decision to grant email access via
the World Wide Web and to make the WEB the center of all internet
access, raises many unanswered questions as well as deep
philosophical and technical concerns.
Use of the WEB for e-mail is unnecessary. E-mail is text
based, and the WEB's graphic power is wasted for this
application.
The WEB is slow. One might say that this does not matter to
new users who will accept any kind of delay and who will have
pentiums at their disposal, but there will be a limited number of
pentiums in the labs and these will be available only when there
is no class using them. In a comparatively short period of time,
there will be hundreds of students competing for these few seats
at the bar. When lines form, speed matters. Also, students like
most new users, will not always conscientiously empty their
inboxes. Slow mail means that students' inboxes will overflow.
The system Computer Services is creating is also inherently
unfriendly to commuters. A Computer User Services pamphlet on
internet access instructs users with their own machines to "get
an outside provider." This is the academic equivalent for "take a
hike," the wrong words to tell students at a school where half of
them live off campus and where many travel great distances over
icy roads in winter.
Yet, even if there were enough modem lines to satisfy off
campus and dormitory users, Computer User Services has made the
cost of entry into its supported e-mail application, ownership of
a pentium. Many home users, myself included, and many faculty and
staff have 486's, 386's and even older machines, which reel or
falter under the weight of a graphical interface. Moreover, many
of the phone lines in the city of Utica are still analog, which
means that graphical access is slow, noisy, and probably
unworkable.
Furthermore, Computer User Services may be setting up an
internet access system that is missing a crucial components, a
system that fails to fulfill the library's and college's mission.
If WEB access is the sole method of internet contact for
students, each machine downstairs MUST have a telnet utility
installed on it or a text based alternative through which telnet
is available.
TELNET IS A VITAL SERVICE! It provides access to databases
that make the net an important ACADEMIC RESOURCE rather than a
grudgingly provided frill. Telnet allows students to enter CARL
Uncover to obtain free, reliable, and current references to
articles and to access major library consortia to obtain free and
reliable references to books. Full text files from the National
Institute of Justice and internship information for occupational
and physical therapy students are also available via telnet
and/or gopher
Other important components for any full fledged WEB based
system include a complete Usenet feed, real audio, WEBchat, and
Palace clients as well as the ability for students to construct
their own WEB pages. Without access to telnet, and other
interactive utilities, use of the net becomes as passive as
watching television or talking on the phone. This is not the
dream that the internet revolution promised.
What sets the internet apart as a communication medium is
that users, including Utica College students, can create and
share their own entertainment with others all around the globe.
Maybe because I am a Development Wizard on a MUCK (AIDEN MUCK at
gentle.ydea.com 1660), I am no doubt highly sensitized to this
issue, but common sense dictates that students receive a better
educational experience when building or programming on a multi-
user world or when creating their own WEB pages, than they
receive when they merely browse the World Wide WEB's endless
parade of advertisements and write e-mail to their friends.
Because we have volunteered to teach the internet, we will
receive the blame for an inadequate system and may find ourselves
in the awkward position of promoting services that rest on a
philosophy with which we disagree. I hope that you can prevent
this from happening. As a start, we need more information. Please
find out if students will have the capability to telnet. As
discussed above, some form of telnet is a minimal requirement for
a viable academically-oriented internet system. I would also like
to know Computer User Services' plans to provide for commuters
and those not lucky enough to have pentiums. A text based
alternative to the WEB would make me far more comfortable in my
role as internet instructor.
Finally, if the internet system that Computer User Services
creates is inadequate, we need to do something other than just
follow orders. Please use your influence as an Associate Dean.
Professionals do more than say "I just work here."
* * * Eileen H. Kramer
* * * e...@uc1.ucsu.edu
* * * Reference Librarian
* * * * * * * * * Frank E. Gannett Mem. Library
* * * Utica College
* * * Burrstone Rd.
* * * Utica, NY 13502