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Mennonite College of Nursing

Home of two Illinois State Presidential Scholars

MCN TechLINE Phone Number

309.438.5800

ISU COMPUTER Help Desk Phone Number

309.438.HELP (4357)

Technology Requirements

Last Updated - April 18, 2008

Technology requirements are regularly updated as technology advances. The current requirements were last reviewed in April 2008. Students entering the Mennonite College of Nursing in Fall of 2008 must have a computer that meets the requirements listed below. Laptops with wireless capability are not required but are suggested for convenience.

If you want to utilize or purchase a PC make certain it meets the following criteria:

  • Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD (Phenom or Opteron) dual core processor
  • 60GB Hard Drive
  • 1GB RAM for Windows XP, 2GB strongly recommended for Windows Vista
  • Windows XP or Windows Vista (can be purchased through the Techzone)
  • MS OFFICE 2007 (can be purchased through the Techzone)

If you want to utilize or purchase a Mac OSX computer it must meet the following criteria

  • Intel Core 2 Duo dual core processor
  • 60GB Hard Drive
  • 2GB RAM
  • Mac OSX 10.4 or later
  • Windows XP or Windows Vista (can be purchased through the Techzone)
  • Bootcamp or Parallels (both recommended, can be purchased through the Techzone)
  • MAC OFFICE 2008 (can be purchased through the Techzone)
  • Flip for Mac (free download)

If you desire to purchase a new computer (Mac or PC) please contact the Techzone to compare software and hardware pricing. Techzone offers significant discounts on computers from Apple, Dell, and IBM. Also, numerous software titles like Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, and Parallels are available at academic discounts. RAM and Operating system upgrades can also be purchases through Techzone if your computer should require updating to meet the specifications listed above..

Before purchasing a security suite or security software package that contains antivirus and/or firewall and spam filtering, please be aware that Illinois State University offers these tools to students and employees free of charge via the Help Desk and has very specific requirements about which security packages are supported and approved for use on campus.

Nursing courses require you to have the most recent version of Microsoft Office (MS Office 2007), which includes PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Access, Outlook and Publisher. The entire Office package can be purchased at a student rate at TechZone, 205 Bone Student Center, with a student or employee ID card. If you are not familiar with PowerPoint or Word, you should develop some familiarity with these tools, as they are expectations for various nursing courses and can further assist you in your professional endeavors.