So many publications discuss various aspects of computer usage but few if any, discuss the use of computer hardware and software as a system. The purpose of this text is to provide a discussion of computer hardware and software as more than just a collection of unrelated parts. Once you see these separate parts as a system, you can become much more efficient with the use of your time while also improving the quality of your work. Graduate school or any other serious endeavor requires a tremendous investment of time, effort, and money in order to maximize its value to you. However, it does not always require grinding through stacks of paper documents, loss of sleep and possibly health, or sacrifice of some aspect of social life. Much of the image of the bookworm buried in the library stacks until the wee hours of the morning is being erased by more efficient and skilled use of the precious hours in each day. In this book are many concepts, illustrated by hardware and software, that improve the ways of doing things as a graduate student. While it will require some investment of time and money, an electronic system as described here pays large dividends to the one willing to commit to it. As with everything else, in the end, it is your decision to make. You will feel much better about your choices if they are informed and accurate ones. While the title of the book focuses on those in "graduate education," interpreted as seeking a master's degree and/or a doctoral degree, most of the ideas presented are applicable to anyone seeking to be successful.
About the Author: I began working with computers as a public school teacher when the first personal computers became available. My first computer was a Commodore VIC 20, followed closely by a Commodore 64. Software consisted of any code that I could create using BASIC language or that I could type from a magazine. One of my earliest uses of these computers was to write a math tutoring program for my daughter, who hates math to this day. I could see the potential that computers had in education and so I continued to learn. I did software evaluations for the region service center where I worked and also taught the first computer literacy course at the school, for both students and for members of the community. I still remember the roomful of adults and school age kids sitting 3 to a computer, the kids eager to learn and the adults afraid to touch the keyboard! After leaving that school and going into private business for a while, I moved into higher education working with students pursuing degrees in medical fields. During that time, I completed a PhD in Education. Much of my academic success can be attributed to having a strong knowledge of computers and how to make them do what I wanted--needed--them to do. I currently work online with students completing their dissertations in education, business, and psychology.