Re: Syquest vs CD-ROM?

[Paul David Marvel <marvel -at- STRAUSS -dot- UDEL -dot- EDU>]

Charles,

The choice isn't so much which technology to buy but what you want to
provide for your students. If you want them to be able to make a finished
product they can show potential employers, the CD is the way to go. If
you want them to have flexibility while learning new skills, you may want
to go with the syquest drives.

One of the biggest problems with working at university computing sites is
storing your work--you can't fit a multimedia presentation on a floppy and
leaving your work on the LAN is risky. Syquest drives are great for
storing huge files. They also solve a lot of problems. For example, if you
want to use a font that's not on the school's system, you can buy it
yourself, store it on the syquest, and use it in your presentations.

With a CD writer you can write to the CD only once, so it's not really a
tool for a work in progress because you can't edit. (They're working on
systems which can reuse the CDs but I don't think they're on the market
yet. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.) So, your students will be able
to make a CD of the finished product, but the CD writer won't help them
get their work done.

Many service bureaus can make a CD from a syquest tape, so another option
is to provide the syquests for developing the multimedia presentations
along with information about where to have CDs made. I think this would
provide the greatest value for your students.

Regards,

-paul

________________________________________
Paul D. Marvel    marvel -at- brahms -dot- udel -dot- edu