2000

WEEK OF ~ei-&~~~

East Central Community College.. . Technology today and tomorrow Ti ere is a little demonstration mvolving an initial penny and the mathematical pro– East Central has plans over the coming months to implement a nearly completely online web–

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cess of cumulative doubling th.at amazes adults and children alike. Consider one penny on the first day ofany month - obviously the owner's initial accumulated wealth in this endeavor is 1 cent. Double it - that gives the owner 2 cents. On the second day of that month, again double the total - now the owner has 4 cents. Perform the same procedure on the third day - the owner is up to 8 cents, and so on. At first look, it does not appear that much is happening here. A great exercise to perform with a high school math class is to present this little game and ask the stu– dents if they would rather have $1 million now, or the total ofthe dou– bling process on the 30th day ofthe month. Some will likely immediately choose the $1 million. Some may begin working it out, note that there is only $327.68 accumulated on the 15th day, quit and take the $1 million. Those that follow the stream through to the end will see that the result on Day 30 is $10,737,418.24. This is a case where it pays to have patience and long-term vision. The point is this. In general, progress does not have to be linear. Sometimes progress is more expo– nential, or at least seems that way. This should come as no surprise. As knowledge and technology accu– mulate, there is more and more of a foundation for more improve– ments and innovations to be built upon, and in what at least may appear to be longer and more fre– quent leaps. Progress, managed correctly, can feed on itself- just as the dra– matic and attention-grabbing

based solution to student access to services: from admissions and class scheduling to personalized finan– cial aid and business office func– tions, all password-protected. This is the next challenge ofthe infor– mation superhighway - to move from simply providing static data on websites to offering interactive tools to make the lives ofpeople easier, more convenient and more mobile. Likewise, this will be the direc– tion East Central seeks to move in the coming months - increased attention to distance-learning offerings and methods, including participation in the Mississippi Virtual Community College (http://www.msvcc.org); increased ease ofaccess by students to stu– dent information; increased stu– dent access to the Internet and e– mail, including access in dormito– ries and other campus locations; and, of course, maintenance of cur– rent infrastructure and the contin– ual necessary upgrades ofhard– ware now in place. The challenge ofremaining a leader in campus technology in higher education is constant and never-ending - the goal line is never crossed and the ball is never change is increasing in rapidity. But, likewise, the benefits to facul– ty and students will be more and more eye-opening for those with the vision to look ahead and resist the ter..ptation to stop or settle. East Central Community Col– lege plans to be in that group. David M. Case is the Director for Technology at East Central Community College. spiked. These challenges are increasing in complexity and

impact ofthe C.o.....::l~ of :.he penny occurs in JUS: :.."-1€ hE:: :'Ew days of the month. East Cen:ral C -::u::::nlri:\' Col– lege is seeing ~ :;..:..c.-.c:::le~on play out in p~:::- <:run;....s tech– nology and par:icclarly tL plans for the future X a C:Ot.LJ; ~ ohenome– nal benefits of::.(, ~xmanon superhighwar· and~ :echnolo– gies have bee:::1 !iJ.'llm::):.eC for some time now. And no da:!:r:. V'\-er the past five years o: : :n.ere have been significa:::: ;:r ~"'":CEments in campus tech.'1o.~· The results ot ::-~;::::ogress include currer.: p!areme:::: of a Pentium-grade per50ra c:::mputer on almost e\-el'). iaruhy ~desk­ top; a campus wEb ::.c.,.....-er :o sup– port an interacm-e ~:., and student ser.~, rorepur.er power more thsn sn: :an.:-. dis– tance-learning fucili..tie.s employing the Communi~Yc~ Ne:work; 12 new compu~r lab: and multiple file servers su:pporung a mde vari– ety of in:.-·trucnonal di.scip~.s; and l high band\\o1dth e-mail and Inter– net access. East Cenn-a.lsta.nds ~ an insti– tution able to compete b today's demanding are:m of campus tech– nology in higher education. But, just as with the doubling of the penny, the most dramatic and exciting apphcanons are on the way, as the bar in technology is raised higher and more rapidly every year. ------------------ : (httpJ/w...>V.eccc.tt.mE m , the multiplicauon of arlmf...•m-atJve

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