Word: drexel
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Drexel was not the first college to make personal computers mandatory; in 1982 Stevens Institute required its science students to buy their own PCs, and in 1983 Clarkson and Dallas Baptist extended the idea to include all incoming freshmen. Now computers are required or strongly recommended at more than a dozen schools, including Carnegie-Mellon, Colby, Dartmouth, Drew, Franklin and Marshall, Lehigh, LeTourneau and Sweet Briar. But none of these schools has integrated the machines into its curriculum as thoroughly as Drexel has. And none has been as dramatically transformed by computers as the Philadelphia school...
When the first 2,400 Macs arrived at Drexel in February 1984 and were distributed to freshmen and faculty, university officials noticed an immediate, if unanticipated, result: rather than studying for their upcoming exams, many of Drexel's 13,000 students were "Mac-ing around." Says Steve Weintraut, president of the campus computer users' group: "Everybody just barely made it through finals...
...from planning diets to balancing equations. But it was the school's effective use of a $2.8 million grant from the Pew Memorial Trust for faculty computer training that really made the difference. "We knew that if anything was going to make this program succeed, it would be the Drexel faculty," says Bernard Sagik, vice president for academic affairs. His innovative solution: invite teachers to become their own software developers. Faculty members with good ideas for educational computer programs were paired off with crack student and professional programmers. Their joint efforts resulted in a library of nearly 100 original programs...
...most enthusiastic fans of Drexel's computerization, however, come from the humanities, not the sciences. English Professor Valarie Arms, who has developed software to coax better writing out of fledgling scientists, reports that students in every subject are expressing themselves with more clarity and coherence. Psychologist Doug Chute uses the Mac to replace polygraph machines and other behavioral lab paraphernalia. No longer dependent on limited laboratory space and equipment, he can now assign individual research projects to 1,200 introductory-psych students a year. History Professor Eric Brose discovered that by displaying on a Mac the political boundaries and disarmament...
...overall, reports Joan McCord, a sociologist, "the impact on morale has been tremendous." McCord is conducting a five-year study of the effects of Drexel's computerization by measuring such intangibles as self-confidence and optimism about the future. Her samples show sharp increases for both students and faculty. "We're trying to be cool-headed about this," says Banu Onaral. "But in the hands of a professor who really believes, it seems the computer can do miracles...