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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 4, 1995)
14,1 ®fliesciay • April 4, 1995 The Battalion • Page 3 rofessors, students glimpse future with e-mail assignments tov^By Nikki Hopkins ^merkiJnE Battalion s, onii_ ome college courses might echo with an audible groan from stu dents on the first day of class as e professor announces that every |tudent will be assigned an e-mail ad- ess and all homework will be turned through computers. The use of computers as an educa tional tool has gone beyond word pro cessing at Texas A&M and has become a means of communication between stu dents and professors. I Dr. Richard Schaefer, an associate professor of journalism, said he teaches one class where he has attempted com puterized homework. Schaefer has his students send [heir assignments as well as any questions or comments about the pass to him by e-mail. “It is an incredible headache some- es,” he said. “But in the long run it ally helps my students.” Schaefer said he spends up to four hours a day replying to students over The Internet. Schaefer said he doesn’t like his stu dents to turn in homework on discs be- ause of the risk of computer viruses. “I call it safe communication,” he Said. Using the computer as a communi matic i the el eels 1 tube, linati cation tool between professors and stu dents is becoming a trend for many de partments on campus. Visiting Professor Tom Parker in the architecture department said his de partment is installing 20 new comput ers this year that will enable students with an access identification to log on the system and communicate with their professors faster through e-mail. Parker said using computers and discs instead of conventional hard copy assignments have advantages and dis advantages. Parker said an advantage of comput erized teaching is that professors can drop any information they want stu dents to have on the server at any time, without the restrictions of office hours or class time. “The disadvantage is that I can’t take a drawing and write on it or make cor rections.” Parker said. “The images are so much smaller on the computer screen than on a large piece of drawing paper.” Dr. Douglas Starr, a journalism professor, said he edits papers on a computer because ink corrections made on his student’s papers are a source of complaint. “Red ink is more than they can emo tionally handle,” Starr said. “Once stu dents get the hang of a computerized system they tend to like it better.” Starr said students are given a sys tem disc that allows them to access the department fileserver, or hard drive. By using icons on the Macintosh screen, students can transfer a docu ment into Starr’s reserved file. Starr said he saves all the student files on one disc and takes them home to grade. “I can write more on what I want to tell the student,” Starr said. “The beau ty of this is no matter how many papers I have to grade, the last paper is always as legible as the first.” Starr said the days of writing out an assignment first, then typing it and turning it in are long gone. “Professionally, time is your greatest enemy,” Starr said. “On the computer you can almost type fast enough to keep up with your brain.” The next step in college computer teaching may be computer notebooks that students can take to class, carry in the car or use at home. Today’s college students may not use this technology in school, but col lege students five or 10 years from now might. Paper and pencil may not be re placed, but the computer is definitely making an entrance into education that will change methods of learning and communication. Brett Summers is a student con sultant at the Remote Computing Center help desk. «. “A lot of professors want comput erized homework but they don’t give students good instructions,” Sum mers said. “If the professors want students to use the technology, they need to get down here and use the systems themselves.” Summers said a lot of businesses say they use on the Internet because they want to be known as companies on the cutting edge of technology. “In reality, they probably have one guy who knows how to use e-mail,” he said. “So any student who has Internet skills is going to be very hireable.” Dr. David Paradice, associate profes sor of business analysis and research, said more e-mail addresses are appear ing on business cards. “A few years ago it was novel to see a fax number on a business card,” Paradice said. “Now everybody has one.” Paradice said he thinks computeri zation is going to continue to grow in education without replacing the classroom. “It’s better for students to see a pro fessor work out problems on the chalk board than to simply see an answer materialize out of nowhere,” Paradice said. “We want to use technology where it makes sense, not just for the sake of using technology.” Stew Milne / The Battalion Dr. El-Shinnaway uses e-mail and a portable laptop for teaching her BANA 439 class. ourners crowd late Tejano singer’s funeral following Friday’s murder i area testirj tcted if hope:: 1 rate, irmai :alth Ef Be. .341. CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — With a 2- foot-high stack of white roses atop her casket, Tejano music queen Selena was remembered Monday for her laughter and inspiration to fel low Mexican-American musicians. I “She would want everyone to go on, including her fans,” said Don Shelton, backup vocalists in her band, Selena y Los Dinos. “She would want leveryone to treat every day like a new day and hold their heads up.” I As services took place, prosecutors prepared formal murder charges against Yolanda Sal divar, a 32-year-old nurse from San Antonio who founded the Selena Fan Club and became a per sonal assistant to the emerging star. Police accuse Saldivar of shooting the 23-year- old Grammy-winning singer minutes before Sal divar was about to be fired Friday amid embez zlement accusations. Selena Quintanilla Perez’s burial drew about 600 relatives, friends and music industry people to a grave beside a freshly planted mesquite tree in a new section of Seaside Memorial Park & Fu neral Home. Without words, Selena’s brother, bassist and award-winning songwriter Abraham Quintanilla III, embraced her guitarist husband, Chris Perez, before the brief prayer service began. Afterward, beginning with Selena’s mother, Marcella Quintanilla, the mourners each placed a white rose on her casket until it was stacked more than 2 feet high. “We’ve really appreciated that at a time like this everybody is ...,” said one of Selena’s uncles, Eddie Quintanilla, before pausing to switch into Spanish. “Dar su apoyo,” he finished, meaning “Giving their support.” More than 30,000 fans from across Texas streamed past Selena’s casket during a public visi tation Sunday, many of whom had journeyed from all across Texas upon hearing the news of Selena’s slaying at a budget hotel where she had gone alone to meet Saldivar. Accordion player Candyman Tovar, now with the Texas Latino group, remembered that two years ago he was nervous before a performance at the Tejano Music Awards by his former group “Culturas.” Selena arrived to soothe his jitters, he said. “She said: ‘We’re here together, brothers and sisters, and we’ll take care of each other,”’ Tovar said. “We feel like we’ve had our hearts ripped out. There’s so much emptiness now,” said Jimmy A. Gonzalez, the marketing director at Selena’s Cor pus Christi recording studio. “There’ll never be another Selena, I tell you that. She had everything in one package,” he said, adding that one of her most memorable qualities was her laughter. “That’s all she was about — laughter. She never said anything derogatory about anybody,” he said. Tejano music — a blend of traditional Mexi can styles with German polka — has been in Texas for decades, called “La Onda” (The Wave) and Tex-Mex at various times. In recent years it became known as Tejano — meaning Texan. 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