Although some MIMS students live within driving distance of UTD, others live out of state and a few, overseas, including one in Turkey and another in Algeria. UTD graduate student Betsy Rooks, a manager of network services in North America for IBM, travels extensively and lives in Colorado. Ms. Bonavita and Ms. McReynolds expect to graduate in May 1998, and Mr. Chen hopes to get his degree in December. Brave New Classroom MIMS students trade traditional classroom accoutrements for the most sophisticated tools of communications technology available. Each student gets a pocket-sized ListenUp device that plugs into a computer and allows the student to download and later play audio files of professors' lectures stored on an Internet site.
Students also gain access to slide presentations and text files that likewise reside on that site.
Faculty and students interact over the Internet through groupware called FirstClass. Classmates and professors also often exchange E-mail. And familiarity with cutting-edge tools improves their marketability, some students say. I don't know of any position in the 1990s where you don't need to know these kinds of skills. Gadgetry, however, doesn't do the coursework for you, as Ms. Rooks, who studies ninety minutes every day beginning at 5 a.m., can confirm.