Paul Escott, dean of the college and Reynolds professor of history, said it's OK for professors to resist. But in some disciplines it has changed the whole way they teach. One business professor has abandoned lecturing altogether. E-mail is an important part of teaching now. He estimates he receives 175 e-mails a week from students.
Online discussions mean students are intellectually engaged before they walk into the classroom.
He expects more from them now, and they deliver, he said. So the man who years ago drafted that original letter against the computer plan now wouldn't have it any other way. We know we're teaching better than we did before,'' he said. For the first time in our lives, we have fundamentally rethought the way we were teaching.