Comment Re:Acadia Advantage (Score 1) 231
I recently graduated from Acadia and am old enough to remember before and after AA (make up your own joke, i've had a long weekend -- Dave Lettermen) was started. As i see it, this isn't about the fact that they brought in AA, but about its relevence. Physics, Math and CS students could certainly benefit from the program (and they do, immensely). The problem i see with it is that students from all disciplines are forced to rent a laptop that some find little or no use for in class. My girlfriend is a history major at Acadia and she doesn't bother to bring the thing to class as it is never used and is not required. Certainly, she finds sources for her research on the net, but her professors tend to discourage Internet sources in her papers, as they are liable to change or be removed without notice. On top of that, the money they pay to rent the bloody things in four years could buy two very nifty laptops per student. Don't get me wrong, i'm a geek, and i love gadgets, but i'm frugal, and this seems like a waste of money for quite a few of the students there. Application is as important as the technology.
As for the network, they did do upgrades to the pipe and infrastructure the first year of implementation of the program, but it has proven quite insufficient. This year, in what appears to be a continuing round of ineptitude on the part of the network admins, Acadia has erected a firewall, and has limited access to the network to certain users at certain times of the day (i don't know enough about the restrictions they've placed on students this year, as i'm not there, so please forgive if i'm slightly off here). On top of that, the university has failed to upgrade dialin lines in all the years i've been around. The best they could offer is a reduced rate with a public dialup internet service. Students off campus (about half of the student body) are forced to pay even more for alternate net access if they wish to use their laptops on the internet, AND they don't get access to Acadia's novell network on which professors prefer to place help materials for their students.
Overall, i'd say acadia has done a good job considering governments in this region have cut funding to universities drastically. Acadia, in turn has raised tuition and is among the most expensive post-secondary institution in Canada, but that's a topic for another day.
Moral: you can't please everybody all of the time, but you sure can please the geeks.
Alt. Moral: Make sure that the technology fits the application or you could end up screwing the non-geeks.
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As for the network, they did do upgrades to the pipe and infrastructure the first year of implementation of the program, but it has proven quite insufficient. This year, in what appears to be a continuing round of ineptitude on the part of the network admins, Acadia has erected a firewall, and has limited access to the network to certain users at certain times of the day (i don't know enough about the restrictions they've placed on students this year, as i'm not there, so please forgive if i'm slightly off here). On top of that, the university has failed to upgrade dialin lines in all the years i've been around. The best they could offer is a reduced rate with a public dialup internet service. Students off campus (about half of the student body) are forced to pay even more for alternate net access if they wish to use their laptops on the internet, AND they don't get access to Acadia's novell network on which professors prefer to place help materials for their students.
Overall, i'd say acadia has done a good job considering governments in this region have cut funding to universities drastically. Acadia, in turn has raised tuition and is among the most expensive post-secondary institution in Canada, but that's a topic for another day.
Moral: you can't please everybody all of the time, but you sure can please the geeks.
Alt. Moral: Make sure that the technology fits the application or you could end up screwing the non-geeks.
--------
If you wish to email me, please remove the anti-spam thingie.
