The Deseret Morning News has an article that explores the various impacts that incorporating technology into college courses can have for different professors and different students -- from stifling attendance to enhancing student engagement:

With tests online, video discussions posted on the Internet and, most recently, class lectures via iPods, professors are grappling to counter the boredom of chalkboard lectures while also encouraging students to come to class. . . . But both Wight and Reynolds agree there is a place for technology in the modern university classroom -- there just have to be limits.

For Wight, pulling his lectures from the Internet upped his class attendance. But he continues to post quizzes online and requires students to post entries in an online discussion board. Most homework assignments and handouts also are online. . . .

Cutting-edge technology is also making mundane classes more attractive to students, Duclos said, like a Spanish class that is leading WSU instructional technology. After noticing the iPod earphones hanging around the necks of almost all of his students, professor Tony Spanos decided to use the popular MP3 player to get students listening to Spanish as they walk, exercise and drive.

As the article notes, it’s tough to know what technologies ultimately result in more engagement between professors and students and which ones do the exact opposite and further isolate the two parties. Another factor that complicates the picture further is that the fact that technology is constantly changing, sometimes rather quickly.

A few years ago, PowerPoint slide presentations were all the rage but nowadays, I’m already starting to hear that students are growing bored with them. And finally, we can’t ignore how ubiquitous technologies like wireless Internet access and mobile phones can quickly serve as a point of distraction for students and professors when used inappropriately in class.

In this context, I suppose that we academics will continue to examine the use of technology in our courses the same way we do our research -- through fact-gathering, reliance on established work, and simple trial-and-error.