September 24, 2008

If you're a freshman, you use a laptop

For years, Beloit College in Wisconsin has published a “Mindset List” designed to help acquaint faculty and staff with the concepts they take for granted which are foreign to incoming first-years. (Example from this year’s list: for these students, “Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.”)

This year, the College’s IT director, Peter Schilling, produced an “IT Index” for the incoming Amherst College class of 2012, and it highlights a much more rapid change in technology. “Systems and technology that is essential to the incoming students and the class of 2012 wasn’t even on the radar of our seniors,” Schilling told The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Two examples stick out: one, only 14 members of the class of 2012 brought desktop computers (as opposed to—or perhaps in addition to—laptops or hand-held devices) to campus. And two, the classes of 2011 and 2012 are more likely to own Macintosh computers than PC-compatible systems, but the classes of 2009 and 2010 are more likely to own PCs.

Also boding well for Apple stock, the class of 2012 apparently doubled the number of iPhones and iPod Touch handhelds on campus.

On a more depressing note, Schilling points out that 94% of email arriving on campus is spam, and that the storage space required for email in 2007 was equal to that of 2002-2006, inclusive.

Parker Morse '96 | September 24, 2008 09:22 PM | Campus

Comments

Dave Nardolillo '98 | September 24, 2008 09:53 PM:

I had a Mac desktop while at Amherst, as I think most of us '98s did. But I never had an e-mail address until I got to Amherst. Cell phones were non existent, cable TV was available in only a handful of common rooms and I took notes in a Mead composition notebook.

In addition to technology trends, I think it might be interesting to compare fashion trends. I recall several flannel shirts and baseball caps in my wardrobe. I suspect flannel is less common, but I'd bet that the athletic department issue sweatshirt is still a common Amherst wardrobe item.

Parker Morse '96 | September 24, 2008 10:07 PM:

I got my Mac through Amherst, and I've been using them ever since - exactly what Apple had in mind, I think. I didn't get a cell phone until mid-'00, and I'm still resisting texting (but at least I know how.)

Dave, I still have several flannel shirts in my wardrobe. Some of them may even be the same ones I had when I was at Amherst. And yes, from what I've seen around campus and around town, the issue sweatshirt is still de la mode, though the screened design has changed slightly since our day.

Jeff | September 24, 2008 11:08 PM:

In the late 70's, Amherst had a single user IBM 1130 with a card reader, and two IBM Selectric terminals to dial-up the Umass time-sharing academic mainframe.

Within a few years, a Digital VAX/VMS 11/780 mini computer with DEC VT100 terminals were installed in place of the IBM 1130 in the basement of Converse. PCs arrived in the mid to late 80s.

Dave Nardolillo '98 | September 25, 2008 02:29 AM:

You should be thankful that your flannel shirts still fit. Mine, sadly, would be more than a little snug on me these days.

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