Re: computerdisc-l: Laptops, Upgrades, Money, Money, Money

["Patti S. Abraham" <psa1@ra.msstate.edu>]

Carol, I have PC Anywhere at home and it is nice.  Another option would be
ftp software.  If I work on a PowerPoint presentation at home and it is
too big for a disk, I ftp it to my email account.  The next day I ftp it
from my email account to my harddrive on my computer in the office.  FTP
software can be downloaded free from TUCOWS.  You will have to have a
modem at home though.  Let me know if I can help.

Dr. Patti S. Abraham psa1@ra.msstate.ed
Professor, Department of Technology and Education
Mississippi State University
Voice: 601-325-2280	FAX: 601-325-7599	Internet: psa1@ra.msstate.edu

On Sun, 21 Feb 1999, Carol Broadus wrote:

> I am a B site and I am very disappointed that I will not have the
> opportunity to purchase a laptop when I upgrade.  I find myself at school
> every day until 4:00 and some days until 5:00 preparing handouts and
> lessons, grading, and posting to my computerized gradebook.  I have a
> solution.......Ever heard of PC Anywhere?  It's a program which can be
> installed on your machine at home and you can dial up your classroom
> machine and access all your files from your home workstation.  Now if I can
> just get a modem installed in my classroom and purchase the PC Anywhere
> program, I won't gripe about not having a laptop.  I understand the PC
> Anywhere software is about $125, modems run around $150.  This would be
> feasible in leiu of the laptop as long as you already have the PC at home
> with the modem installed.  You would have to leave your machine running in
> the classroom so that you could access the files but I don't see any
> problems with this as long as it is password protected.  And I would have
> access to ALL my files.  I could just select what I wanted to print and
> send it to the printer for a handout the next day and it would be ready
> when I got to my classroom.  Maybe it won't be so bad after all.....
> 
> I am not looking forward to the lab upgrades for B sites.  My lab was one
> that was not set up properly by the original vendor (Thank goodness I was
> not there because the vendor would still be having nightmares about what
> all this lady wanted) and I need quite a bit of work.  I am afraid I am
> looking more at figure around $60,000 which is probably nowhere near what
> will be allocated since so many labs are B sites.  Is the state just
> allocating an equal figure for upgrades each year without considering the
> number of sites which were included in the upgrade?  If so, I want to
> change from a B site.......not near as many A sites as there are B.
> 
> What can we as B sites do to enlighten the "powers that be" that hold the
> purse-strings on funding for upgrades that our labs are no longer going to
> be considered technology of the future without the money to move from the
> dark ages to the current technology?  Without moving to the future, my lab
> will soon be considered the "Keyboarding Classroom."  It's sad that we now
> have a Chapter lab in our school which has far surpassed the technology of
> our Computer Discovery lab.
> 
> Carol Broadus
> Seminary High School
>