When I was looking at and applying to colleges, the laptop program at RPI seemed rather exciting. The way it was described, everyone on campus would have a computer and thus group projects and the like could be made much easier. After almost three years at RPI, however, I have a different view. The laptop program has been in place for six years now, and it’s about time for RPI to rethink the value of this initiative.
The stated goal of the laptop program is to make sure that each student has a computer available to them at all times, ensuring that classes can be run more efficiently and more smoothly. This is simply not the case. When laptops are used in class, primarily at the freshman level, they are used merely to teach rudimentary computer skills such as how to use Maple, which means supplanting real material to pretend the laptop program matters.
In classes where computers are needed the most, such as a computer science course, students find themselves pushing a computer out of the way to fit the laptop onto a desk. In lab classes such as physics or chemistry, when computers are at times necessary to take measurements, workstations sit cold right next to where students are using their laptops. This is the ultimate irony of the laptop program: the materials it intends to replace are still widely available to students, and are not going anywhere. Students should be able to use equipment already available in the classrooms instead of being required to purchase replacements.
The availability of these computers also means that many students do not even use their laptop. Some students find the program a hassle and the available laptop hardware lacking for their needs. Many laptops are used as mere $2,300 paperweights while students use desktop computers that were either bought to replace the laptop or brought from home when they came to RPI. When a laptop is actually needed in class, many rely on other students to have brought a laptop, and sometimes when no computer is available, have to borrow from another lab group. This situation would be no different if the laptop program did not exist.
Another main justification for the laptop program is that most of the software a student will need for their classes here will already be installed on a computer, ready for their use as soon as they arrive. Through either poor communication or poor implementation, however, I have found that much of the software I have needed for my classes I have had to install myself, either from the Help Desk in the VCC or from the Internet. Again, this is just the same as if there were no laptop program and I had bought my own computer for school.
On top of all that lies the sheer cost of the program. The current package from RPI costs a student $2,300, and a comparable desktop costs far less than half of that. Families already struggling to pay tuition are forced to raise additional money for a computer that is not even necessary.
There is little reason to actually require students to own a laptop at RPI. There is no educational benefit, and the social benefit is non-existent. The students who enjoy the program would likely have purchased a laptop anyway, and those who hate the program and prefer an alternative computer would be happier without having to spend $2,300 on something they do not use.
