By Kathleen Gray and Robin Erb, USA TODAY
Abilene Christian University freshmen receive more than the usual campus map and lists of required books when they enter the Texas university.
For the past two years, they've also received an iPhone or iPod Touch from the university before they begin classes.
At Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, a select group of freshmen received Kindles, an online book reader, instead of the textbooks.
And at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, a new $50 million education building has 75 miles of Internet networking cable and 11 miles of phone cable, allowing out-of-town students to link with the classroom.
Today's college classrooms are high-tech marvels, with overhead projectors and grease pencils replaced by document cameras, handheld clickers and interactive white boards.
"A lot of this is us catching up with the students and what they're bringing to us," says Michael Reuter, 42, director of technology operations at Central Michigan.
Faculty, for the most part, see technology as a way to better connect to students in their interactive, multitasking, apps-ready world.
"A lot of people my age see technology as a tool to check e-mail and do grades. But for kids, the technology is just the environment that they know," says Howard Pitler, senior director of curriculum and instruction at McREL, an education research non-profit in Denver. "When I was a middle school principal eight years ago, I taught a class in multimedia and was supposed to be the expert, but every day, kids were teaching me stuff I didn't know. Teachers need to see that everybody in the class is a teacher."
'Wild experimentation' for some
At Abilene Christian, where students and faculty get the Apple devices for free but are responsible for monthly charges, about 2,800 students and 70% of the 250 professors use the Apple technology for instructional purposes. An art teacher has students use an application that allows them to do a draft sketch and send it to the teacher and other students for advice before starting the real art pieces. A drama teacher takes video of the lead dancer in a production and sends that along to other students for rehearsal.
"We're seeing some wild experimentation with these devices," says William Rankin, director of educational innovation and an associate professor of English at Abilene Christian. "We see it as a new platform for learning."
Mike Kenney, a chemistry professor at Case Western, says he has about 350 pounds' worth of books in his Kindle, a wireless reading device from Amazon. The 40 students in his introductory chemistry class chosen for the pilot program traded an eight-pound chemistry book for the two-pound e-reader.
A handful of other universities across the nation — Pace in New York, Princeton in New Jersey, Reed in Oregon, the Darden School at the University of Virginia, and Arizona State — also are participating in the pilot program.
"It is possible to have an entire academic career with you at all times," Kenney says.
There are economic benefits, too. A book on Kindle costs about half as much as the paper textbook, Kenney says.
At the University of Texas-San Antonio, professors are using a $375,000 grant to come up with a curriculum that will transform three-day-a-week classes to allow students to independently connect to lessons online and then have one day for discussion and debate in the classroom.
'Teach naked' (no computers) for others
Jose Bowen, a dean at the Dallas-based Southern Methodist University, recently stripped computers from lecture halls. He challenged staff instead to "teach naked" — without computers in the classroom.
Bowen says his critics dismissed it as "anti-technology." But it's quite the opposite, he argues. Bowen says he uses video games to help teach his jazz history students, and he encourages his classes to explore online research for better understanding of topics.
But technology has its place, he says, and today's faculty should offer podcasted lectures, hyperlinks and online study sessions to prep the students with materials before class — leaving classroom time for discussion and debate.
Worries about cheating and distracted students using Facebook, Twitter or instant messaging instead of listening to lessons, however, may be overblown.
"When I was in school, it was just called writing notes to your friends. The rule is you need an engaging teacher," Rankin says. "This technology gives us the opportunity to have discussions with students about ethical behavior."
Kathleen Gray and Robin Erb report for the Detroit Free Press
