The last time I set foot in a classroom (as a student!) was in 1992. We had looseleaf paper and binders and maybe some yellow legal pads. We sat in a lecture center or some form of a classroom and took out our paper, pens, textbooks, etc. All hard copy.
My experience last night as a graduate student at C.W. Post was remarkably different. Set atop each "desk" or individual "table" was a 22" iMac. Yes, an iMac. I immediately texted my 11 year-old son (who I knew would be equally impressed) and told him. He wrote back, "Can I come?"
I was so excited to be in a classroom again. I hung on to every word the professor uttered. And it's a good thing I was paying attention. She introduced "Blackboard" - a program that will be our lifeline to assignments, our syllabus, various other weekly notations and tools, and -- to our professor.
A young woman next to me, probably in her early 20s was zipping through Blackboard the way I zip through the Sunday comics. She was so adept at it, I felt a little silly. But no matter, there were two other "mature" students in the class who seemed equally challenged by the new (at least to us) software.
Gotta go, I have homework to do!
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Oliver