Colleges face tough questions about using technology to teach more students.
At Southern Methodist University in Dallas last semester, Professor H. Charles Baker was leading what may well be a classroom of the future. They watched television monitors carrying the class live, and interrupted Professor Baker to ask questions by speakerphone. The course, appropriately enough, was Introduction to Telecommunications. The six students are enrolled in National Technological University of Fort Collins, Colo., and can earn master's degrees by taking video courses from Southern Methodist University and 45 other universities. Theirs is a virtual classroom, for they travel from campus to campus without ever leaving town.