In 1993, the faculty, students and administrators of Wake Forest University developed a blueprint to enrich the quality of undergraduate education at the institution, already nationally recognized as one of the finest private liberal arts universities in the country. Implemented in the fall 1996, the plan's academic, residential, and technological components are dramatically increasing educational benefits while jointly engaging students, faculty, and administration in the institution's cultural life. All first-year students receive IBM Thinkpads, powerful notebook computers that travel with them from classroom, to library, to residence hall and beyond, into the lab or out into the field. Student computers are upgraded every two years, and students take the machines with them upon graduation. As the campus becomes a neworked community of learning, personal computers ensure that everyone has access to the extensive resources available both on-site and through the Internet and World Wide Web.
Students communicate with professors, participate in in-class work and access worldwide databases.
Both faculty and students spend less time gathering information and more time together analyzing and discussing its implications.