Department of Communication

College of Charleston

General Computing Recommendations

 

 

The College of Charleston and the Department of Communication do not require students to purchase a computer or any specific computer platform.  However, the Department of Communication strongly encourages communication majors and minors to purchase and bring their own personal computers to campus.

 

Microsoft Office is the institutional and departmental standard for course work.  Communication majors or minors should know (or are expected to learn, on their own time) the basic features of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

 

To answer the questions we regularly receive on this topic, the great majority of communication majors choose to purchase and use PCs.  Most of the campus computers available for communication student use are PCs.  All computer laboratories and smart classrooms used for Department of Communication courses are equipped with PCs.  Almost all Department of Communication faculty members have PCs as their primary computers.  However, some students do purchase and use computers based on the Macintosh platform.

 

A Firewire (1394) interface is recommended for any new computer purchase made by a communication major or minor, as is a DVD-RW drive.  In general, students with photojournalism, documentary photography, and video production interests should purchase the best computers they can afford, with large hard drives and higher-end processors. 

 

PC vs. Mac.  A few schools and departments of communication and journalism continue to recommend the Macintosh platform.  Others, including our own department, leave the decision to the student.  Both platforms can and do support the needs of converging media in the communication industries, so buy the one you like best.

 

Laptop Computers.  To take full advantage of the College of Charleston’s award-winning campus wireless network, new students should consider the purchase of a laptop computer. 

 

Flash Drives.  For use in making classroom presentations and in moving large files from one computer to another, new students are strongly encouraged to purchase a USB flash drive with at least 1GB of memory.  A USB flash drive of 2GB or higher is recommended.  Common brand names for USB flash drives include Lexar, Memorex, PNY Technologies, and SanDisk.

 

Other Computer Hardware and Software.  Additional hardware and software recommendations for photojournalism, documentary photography, video production, and digital media courses may be available on the Course Offering page of the Department of Communication Web site.  For example, photojournalism and documentary photography students have been asked since 2006 to purchase or secure access to a personal computer with Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Photoshop Elements installed.  As another example, the purchase of a USB portable hard drive sometimes is recommended for video production courses. 

 

Student Computing Support at CofC.  Minimum recommendations for computer purchase, information about software, guidelines to the College of Charleston’s discount program for computer purchases, and a great deal of institutional information about computing are available at the Student Computing Support Web page at http://www.cofc.edu/it/helpdesk/students/purchasing.html.  Support is available at the Helpdesk on the first floor of the Addlestone Library.

 

In particular, please see this page for the latest information regarding Windows Vista.  Because of ongoing problems with hardware and software integration, the College of Charleston currently recommends that students use Windows XP, rather than upgrading to Windows Vista or purchasing a new computer running Windows Vista.  As of May 2007, other colleges and universities (e.g., Stanford University), have made similar recommendations. 

 

This recommendations document is updated from time to time.  If you have questions, please contact the department chair.