Technology and Higher Ed

"That's what happens to the majority of undergraduate projects in the humanities. Heroic research is undertaken, and the student suffers mightily during the writing process. But after being submitted for a grade, the results of all that work are filed away, never to be read again. (Of course, the same could be said of most dissertations and many academic monographs.) It's as if we've entered the print revolution while most of us are still illuminating manuscripts. What are we doing all this work for-one might ask-if not to make some kind of impact on the world? And why should anyone continue to pay for it?"

"In Eastern cultures, Stigler says, it's just assumed that struggle is a predictable part of the learning process. Everyone is expected to struggle in the process of learning, and so struggling becomes a chance to show that you, the student, have what it takes emotionally to resolve the problem by persisting through that struggle."

"tools for creating, publishing, and distributing digital content have been come more and more user-friendly, allowing instructors to create their own textbooks, should they have time and inclination to do so, tailoring the content to their particular course."

"All technology was not created equal for access by these students, and their proficiency is often predicated by the amount of patience and determination required to complete a given task. What this facility with technology in digital natives belies is an ability to approach new classroom learning tools with the same tenacity that they put towards more gratifying technological pursuits."