In the era of smartphones, social media, and personal webcams it’s sometimes hard to remember that only 50 years ago colleges and universities clattered with the sound of typewriters, and “personalized learning” meant getting to know your students’ hobbies and interests. Computer companies and some educators in the vanguard predicted that the silicon chip would bring about revolutions in higher education, but many in academe hesitated to enter the computer age — or didn’t have the resources. Today campuses continue to feel their way as they experiment with technology in the classroom and the library, navigate the ethics of Facebook, and try to assess digital projects for tenure and promotion cases.
May 6, 1968
Computer Prints Ph.D. Thesis
A 160-page doctoral dissertation, printed, revised, edited, footnoted, page-numbered, and printed again by computer, has been accepted by the University of Michigan graduate school. … Stephen H. Spurr, dean of the graduate school, noted that computer printing could prevent some Ph.D. candidates from dropping out.
“Too many students drop out because of the rigorous demands of dissertation writing. We’ve been taking highly trained men and tying them up as typists and desk clerks,” Mr. Spurr said.
October 30, 1978
Computer Teaching Systems: Little Impact on Achievement
Although the study found some shortcomings in the educational results of both systems, it concluded that the demonstrations of PLATO and TICCIT had been successful and offered to commercial computer companies “renewed hope in the potential of a computer market in education.” ... Each of the systems, in a distinct way, provides individualized instruction through two-way communication between student and computer.
February 1, 1984
Apple’s New Macintosh Computer: A Mouse, Icons, and Windows
... The mouse is a unit the size of a cigarette packet that is attached by a cable to the computer. Moving the mouse on a desktop ... moves the cursor, the blinking symbol on the screen.
September 9, 1991
Researchers Get Direct Access to Huge Data Base
By early next year, users will be able to obtain journal articles through the mail or over facsimile machine.
February 23, 1994
High Network Costs and Low Interest Keep Many Off the Internet
There can be no doubt that the Internet is hot. … Most of the attention is driven by the burgeoning interest in the Internet among people in business, who constitute the fastest-growing group of users. Many of them have been drawn to the global web of networks in hopes of preparing their companies for the futuristic “data highway"… But in higher education — where the Internet got its start as a research network 25 years ago — many are still wondering what all the fuss is about.
This special issue of The Chronicle offers some of the best and most representative journalism of our first 50 years — from the turbulence of the 1960s to the present moment of financial constraint and accountability. And it’s all yours, free for downloading. Download The Chronicle’s 50th-Anniversary Anthology.
While some institutions ... boast of widespread access to the Internet through computers in every dormitory room and faculty office, hundreds of community colleges, small liberal-arts colleges, and urban universities remain without connections.
August 1, 1997
UCLA’s Requirement of a Web Page for Every Class Spurs Debate
... Not everyone thinks it’s a great idea. Some students complain that the Web sites aren’t worth the fees, which will amount to more than $100 a year for most students. Some professors fear that maintaining their Web pages will take too much time, and that students might find so much information on- line that they won’t bother coming to class.
April 31, 2000
David Noble’s Battle to Defend the ‘Sacred Space’ of the Classroom
David F. Noble says distance education is fool’s gold, and he’s eager to point out who the fools are. In his view, distance education is the latest episode in a troubling saga of the corporatization of American higher education.
May 28, 2004
Have You ‘Facebooked’ Him?
The student-run service puts a digital spin on the illustrated address books that many colleges pass out to students early in the academic year. Like those booklets, known as “facebooks,” the Web site helps students put names with faces. “A lot of my friends send messages to other people who they saw on Thefacebook,” he says. “I mainly use it to waste time.”
August 29, 2010
Online, Bigger Classes May Be Better Classes
... When a colleague suggested they co-teach an online class in learning theory at the University of Manitoba, in 2008, [Stephen] Downes welcomed the chance to expand that privileged club. The idea: Why not invite the rest of world to join the 25 students who were taking the course for credit?
Over 2,300 people showed up.
They didn’t get credit, but they didn’t get a bill, either. In an experiment that could point to a more open future for e-learning, Mr. Downes and George Siemens attracted about 1,200 noncredit participants last year. … The classes have even spawned a new name: Massive Open Online Course, or MOOC.
February 26, 2012
A Digital Humanist Puts New Tools in the Hands of Scholars
When Daniel J. Cohen went to work at George Mason University in 2001, its Center for History and New Media boasted a name and little else. … Today the center is a well-oiled machine with more than 100 Web projects, which reach 16 million people. … And Mr. Cohen’s specialty of digital humanities — thinking about how technology can advance scholarship in fields like history — is ascendant, with popular-press write-ups and a growing presence at major academic conferences.
