Computers & Writing 2001: "First, that 'except special technical commuications support' thing is a HUGE except, and really, it's the only thing I've *ever* really used computer labs for. I would agree, the need to have 25 or so students meet three times a week in a computer lab so they can MOO each other is kinda over, and in my experience, classes that are assigned in computer labs for every meeting (even my own classes) rarely make use of the computers every day. But I also think that a few labs (including laptop labs) can go a long, long way in terms of training students certain skills (my teaching folks to make web pages, plus it's a hell of a lot easier to teach fy comp students how to critically evaluate their web research or how to work the library's computer set-up in a lab than it is over something like WebCT), to collaborate, to do peer review, to provide some higher-end functions (things like PageMaker or hardware things like CD Burners), and so forth. Anyone who says we don't need labs to do these things has never had the discomfort of having no access to a lab.

But I would agree with Fred that the solution of putting in more labs to 'get them on the Internet' is not much of a solution either. I think we still need campus supported labs, but I think we need them for different functions than we did even five years ago. I doubt computer services people do this, but it would be interesting to survey students at a place like EMU or wherever and try to figure out how students use the big university supported labs we have. I'll bet 5 years ago, 50% of the students in there were doing word processing. Now I'll bet that number is like 25% or less, with the rest of the students doing things like browsing the web, checking their email (the campus labs still have a lot quicker connection than home), *printing* papers, etc."