Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/63913
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • new opportunities for experiential, real- time learning, but also a more stream- lined system of communications. An integrated computer system has had a tremendous impact at Fox, accord- ing to DeAngelo. "We're considered to be one of the largest Windows-based installations of Blackboard in the nation," he says. "We use the tool to communicate with cohorts of individuals." The capacity for administrators to post information on scholarships, classes, deadlines, and other subjects in a centralized online location that all students can access is an invaluable resource, empha- sizes DeAngelo. "I can't tell you how thrilled our director of communications is that he now has an efficient way to communicate information that he used to hand out in print over and over again to people walking into his office. Or, often he couldn't communicate the information to students because he didn't know how to reach them. With this community, he has a vehicle to distribute information that students need and value." Such ease of connection to all the information a university has to offer students results in a stronger sense of community, says Robert May, dean of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, which started its laptop program three years ago. At first, students were reluctant about the laptop requirement; today, they view the computers as essential. In a survey of students conducted after the program was He notes that many believe the theoretical models now are being lost in the push toward real-world learning. "In the '90s, there was a shift toward more integration, and technology has enabled that," he says. It is up to educators, he emphasizes, to keep theory in balance with experiential learn- ing. "You need the abstract concepts and the concrete experi- ence and reflective observation as a continuous cycle. I think what we may be suffering from is the lack of time to reflect on what we're learning in the classroom, internship, or co-op experience. "I think technology does have the capability to enable us to implemented, 96 percent of students noted that the laptops were an important part of the culture and school environment, says May. "We've got faculty at the undergraduate level who are developing a portal that creates a kind of learning community. This binds the program together in a common environment and enriches the culture of the program." More Tech to Come There is no question that the world's business schools are in for a whirlwind of change in the coming decade. Not only must they keep up with new advances in IT, they also must keep pace with business at large. In the next few years, the number of online courses, the prevalence of students "connected" to each other through wireless means, and the amount of information available to students and corporations via university-sponsored informa- tion portals are expected to increase significantly. Whether or not all these changes are for the better is still a debatable point in some quarters. As schools experiment with technology, some methods will succeed and others will invari- ably cause controversy. But, as Mason of Florida State University make the best use of time," he concludes. "But I don't know that we've developed the technology that enables us to be more effective in our reflective time." Finding ways to strike this balance, says Altendorff of much more hands-on. Then, the Carnegie Report sug- gested that business management education needed to have a more theoretical base. Much of this report was embraced, and most business schools went to a new dis- ciplinary structure and developed new theoretical models. It became much more like the sciences, with its disci- plines very compartmentalized." With the technological boom, the pendu- lum is swinging back again, Mason suggests. ness schools teach has existed since the mid-20th century. "Let's give it a little different perspective," he says. "Before the 1950s or 1960s, management education was points out, controversy surrounding how and what busi- London Business School, is the challenge that business schools must now work to address. Schools are working "to move from ambition to actuality," he says, "and the rate of change is accel- erating. Universities are still trying to learn the extent to which technology is critical, or whether or not it's simply 'in vogue.' I think there is still a long way to go for universities to under- stand the real value of some of these technologies." Whether or not universities are ready for the change, stu- dents are demanding a shift from traditional to technological information delivery. As a result, the typical business student's educational experience will be transformed by the influx of computer-related tools in the classroom and campus environ- ment. Even more important, as business school administrators and faculty move from the chalkboard to the keyboard, their experience also is changing. No longer will they be simply com- municators of information, but rather, educational collabora- tors, more inextricably involved with their students' educations than ever before. s z BizEd NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2001 29