Has the Internet Changed College?

gosand asks: "When I began college in 1988, it was the first time I was able to interact with a large group of very different people. This helped me to see the world in different aspects, and helped to make me who I am today. During my college days I formed/reformed many of my opinions on things, although refining them has been a continual process. I often wonder how my experience might have been different if the internet, as it exists today, would have been around then. Sure, there was gopher, ftp, and BBSs, but only a relatively few people knew about them and used them. There wasn't online gaming to lure you away from your studies for hours at a time. If you wanted music, you went to the used CD store or joined Columbia House and BMG 5 times under different names. You had to actually communicate with people in person instead of email, and you had to go to the library and do your research from books. You only had a computer if you were in CS, and sometimes not even CS students had them. I am not suggesting that one way is better than the other, just noting the differences. Have computers and the internet made college life any easier in some respects? Have they made it harder? How has the internet affected your opinions on things during these formative years? These may seem like easy questions, but I have a feeling that there are a wide range of opinions out there."

Comments

pr0n

[Anonymous Coward]

You also forgot how it made porn much easier to get for the college student

Nobody knows

[RealityMogul]

It doesn't matter what people's opinions are on this subject. The people that didn't have the Internet in college can't offer any insight in to whether or not its any easier, or even any different because they only experienced it one way. Same thing with the people that did have the Internet available.

Just look at your own life and see how the Internet has changed things in your daily routines and there's the effect it has kids going to college right now.

All you're really going to get is people talking about piracy and porn when it comes to this topic on /.

Course Web Sites

[rlowe69]

One thing I can't believe people lived without were class web sites. On one page I can see:

- course syllabus
- assignment/lab report/essay due dates
- exams dates
- (sometimes) class notes
- marks
- how to contact the professor (email, phone, office hours, etc)

It has probably drastically cut down people going to see the prof during his office hours to ask silly little questions and also improves professor to class communication. Email does the same thing as well.

Of course it also makes students lazy. :)

Archived class web sites are also useful for research. I can't count the number of times I've found a useful bit of info on an old class web site from MIT or the like.

Oh, it's changed the students, but...

[Hollinger]

The faculty, in some cases, aren't evolving with it. I've had some faculty members that welcomed laptops in the classroom, for example. We have a wireless network, whihch makes it incredibly to take notes, and actually pay attention in class, rather than scribble furiously and pray that you can understand it later.

Some, on the other hand (primarily faculty in the Liberal Arts fields, from my experience), don't want anything to do with the net. We have a couple of online course management solutions that let students track grades, turn in assignents, etc. online. I've had classes where the professor use it to distribute 1 thing: the syllabus.

At OU, we've got a fairly progressive faculty (at least in the College of Engineering), I just feel sorry for those stuck in a place where everything's done by the book. literally.