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Students spend more time on things they don't understand and less time on things they have already mastered.

Students get assistance when they encounter problems.

Students are required to do math.

Lord Kelvin once made the observation, “If you can measure that of which you speak and express it in numbers, you know something about your subject; but if you cannot measure it, your knowledge is of a very meager and unsatisfactory kind.” If he is correct, then our knowledge about how, and to what extent, the use of information technology in teaching and learning affects outcomes—both learning and cost—is meager indeed.

Hispanic students who were part of the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) historically had been unsuccessful in math courses. During the fall 2002 semester, however, students in the redesigned Intermediate Algebra course had an unprecedented 80 percent pass rate, compared to a prior 70 percent rate

SIX MODELS FOR COURSE REDESIGNSupplemental: Add to the current structure and/or change the contentReplacement: Blend face-to-face with online activitiesEmporium: Move all classes to a lab settingFully Online: Conduct all (or most) learning activities onlineBuffet: Mix and match according to student preferencesLinked Workshop: Replace developmental courses with just-in-time workshops http://www.theNCAT.org/PlanRes/R2R_ModCrsRed.htm

FIVE PRINCIPLES OF SUCCESSFUL COURSE REDESIGNRedesign the whole course.Encourage active learning.Provide students with individualized assistance.Build in ongoing assessment and prompt (automated) feedback.Ensure sufficient time on task and monitor student progress. http://www.theNCAT.org/PlanRes/R2R_PrinCR.htm

At Alabama, the success rate (grades of C– or better) for African-American freshmen in the redesigned course was substantially higher than for white freshmen, despite the fact that the African-American students were less prepared when they entered the course (on a math placement exam, 20 percent of Caucasian freshmen scored less than 200, versus 41 percent of African Americans). In fall 2000, 71.4 percent of African-American freshmen were successful, versus 51.8 percent of Caucasian freshmen; in fall 2001, it was 70 percent versus 65.3 percent.

Students learn math by doing math, not by listening to someone talk about doing math.

Tests are less relevant to concrete life and work skills than the ability to write a coherent essay, which requires being able to identify a problem, break it down to its constituent parts, analyze it from multiple angles and assemble a solution in a succinct manner to communicate across cultures and time.

Mr. McAllister, the student blogger at Trinity, uses his iPhone's camera as a document scanner, with an app called JotNot Pro. After he takes a picture of a page of text, the app (which costs 99 cents), can turn it into a PDF file for easy review later.

A company named Inkling creates textbooks made for iPads, with interactive features and videos—things that paper volumes cannot do.

Brainstorming for classroom talks has gone high-tech with "mind mapping" software that encourages arranging thoughts and ideas in nonlinear diagrams. These programs have been available for years on laptops and desktop computers, but some professors say the touch-screen interface of smartphones or tablet computers enhances the process, letting scholars toss around ideas with a flick of the finger. Gerald C. Gannod, director of mobile learning at Miami University, in Ohio, recommends Thinking Space for Android devices, MindBlowing for the iPhone, and Popplet for the iPad. Mr. Delwiche, of Trinity University, likes MindJet.