On Aug 21, 2013, at 15:56 , "Eric T. Barnett" <ebarn...@astate.edu> wrote: > > I was wondering just how useful computer labs are now/will be in the next two > years or so. Getting rid of most or all of those labs would cut down on costs > considerably. I've heard of some colleges dumping computer labs as they seem > to be needed less and less as users have more and more tech available > cheaply. What's your take?
We definitely have fewer computer labs on campus than we used to. Even for some applications that traditionally required high horsepower computers run fine on today's laptops. Generally labs now are not run by central IT so much as by individual schools and departments that have specialized needs. Sometimes the need for a lab is driven not by specialized hardware needs but by software licensing restrictions. -- Julian Y. Koh Acting Associate Director, Telecommunications and Network Services Northwestern University Information Technology (NUIT) 2001 Sheridan Road #G-166 Evanston, IL 60208 847-467-5780 NUIT Web Site: <http://www.it.northwestern.edu/> PGP Public Key:<http://bt.ittns.northwestern.edu/julian/pgppubkey.html> ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.