Technology and Higher Education

"College, except for the parties, needs to be less placed-based." 

- Bill Gates

Should institutions of higher education place more of an emphasis on incorporating technology into the daily lives of their students?  Last week, my Professor announced that, due to popular demand, he would email out his lecture slides to the class as a study tool.  The catch?  The slides are in a locked pdf file, with a black background and white text, making them functionally unprintable.  It is not uncommon for students to print lecture slides to take notes on during class.  In fact, some professors sell bound-copies of their lecture slides (called readers) to students for this very purpose.  If so many professors encourage students to use printed copies of their lecture slides as a study tool, why would my new biology professor, not only discourage, but also make it nearly impossible for students to print?  

Professor Alan Shabel (UC Berkeley) argues that we are on the cusp of a technological revolution and it is time to let go of dated habits like note-taking with pen and paper.  He says this revolution will replace textbooks with kindles and readers/notebooks with tablets.  Are we really on the brink of such a revolution? 

Bill Gates recently gave a speech focusing on the benefits of making college "less place-based."  Gates argued that enhancing and encouraging online courses could lower tuition costs from 50 grand a year to $2,000.  Christopher Edley, a dean at UC Berkeley, has been pushing Berkeley to offer full bachelor degree programs online.  Other faculty members fear that a cyber UC would "deflate the university's five-star education into a fast-food equivalent, cheapening the brand."   

Academic institutions are pushing for new tools like online courses and full degree programs to make higher education accessible to more people by offering, less expensive, online courses, and solving overcrowding problems in the classroom.  In addition to these efforts, many companies have started developing new products geared toward a paperless college education. 

Products like the Kno make the idea of switching to a paperless world seem pretty cool.  The Kno is a double sided tablet that allows the user to watch videos, read, highlight, take notes, write etc.  Of course, the Kno has internet access, HD graphics, and tons of applications all geared towards enhancing the college experience.  The product should be available late fall on this year, the price has not been released yet.  It will be interesting to see how the Kno will affect the college community.  Professors will need to adapt their teaching styles to this new digital world and students will need to adjust their study habits while learning to use new resources.        

The company has a huge panel of students and teachers involved in the development of the product.  The developers have put a lot of time into researching the ways that students study to figure out what features this new product should have. 

Stanford is issuing all incoming medical students iPads.  Administrators at Stanford say that incorporating technology into the learning process could help students and doctor handle the overwhelming amount of information they are required to know.  

UC Irvine and vairous other schools are also starting iPad/tablet pilot programs using their medical school students.  People involved say that it is unclear how students will use them and that only time will tell.  Schools implementing these pilot programs are hoping to change the way medical students are taught.  


Doctors and medical students are mobile.  They spend time going from one clinic to the next as well as from class to class.  The use of the iPad could significantly cut down the amount of stuff that doctors and students need to carry (textbooks, reference books, notebooks etc.).

Cool new gadgets, promises of lower tuition and book fees and educational revolution all sound pretty cool and I am interested to see how things play out in the next few years.