Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/63913
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ONTHERIGHT The gods of technology have granted business schools a dazzling array of directions and possibilities. Without a map that clearly shows the way from the chalkboard to cyberspace, however, schools must indoctrinate, experiment, and embrace new approaches. ••••• TRACK T • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ILLUSTRATIONS BY GORDON STUDER During the 1980s, management educators had only begun to see what computers could do for their administrative and educational practices. The tried-and-true, tradition- al chalk-and-blackboard lec- ture had yet to meet its first "smart classroom," one wired for multimedia, data projections, and in ter activity. and you find B-school deans seeking out IT specialists, while WAPs, LANs, laptops, and e-learning have become commonplace for faculty members and students. The possibilities are endless, the Fast forward two decades scope for creative teaching exciting—and the prospect of keeping up with an ever- accelerating pace of techno- logical change overwhelming. "If you think about it, life was much easier when you could walk into a classroom with only a piece of chalk. All you had to do was make sure the chalkboard was there," says Anne Massey, associate professor of information sys- tems at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, Indianapolis. "When you have a fully wired classroom, all this technology at your fingertips, all these resources over the Internet, and all these stu- by Tricia Bisoux dents with laptops—suddenly, you have to be more creative in terms of capitalizing on those opportunities." The trends on today's business school campus re - flect a new era of learning, when technology changes significantly in short spans of time. Simply staying current can be a full-time occupation. But the future of tech in management education is absolute. The only questions still up for debate are what form it will take and to what extent it will affect the nature of its graduates. Whether business schools have adequate funding or the BizEd NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2001 25 TECH