Another pedagogical function computers seem to have served quite effectively is to help students gain experience and fluency using an essential tool of the trade. Hence, most faculty in these fields find it impossible to imagine how they would prepare their students adequately without allowing them an opportunity to acquire those computer-based skills. Ultimately, however, the best uses our respondents described were those that closed the psychological distance between teacher and student. E-mail, for example, provides greater opportunity for students to raise questions while allowing them more flexibility to do so. Multimedia demonstrations decrease distance by bringing clarity to concepts that are essential to understanding and appreciating the material.
Professional literacy leads students to join faculty as members of the discipline.
As students and teacher come closer together, communication moves more smoothly. However, many faculty reported that sometimes technology can unintentionally increase the gap between student and teacher. For example, some were dismayed that their beautifully prepared computer presentations had resulted in students sitting passively in the dark with no real opportunity to interact with the teacher. Computers may be a new frontier, but they are not an educational panacea. In the end, most advised that it is best to start with a real and vexing pedagogical problem.