Grad School Tech

As I download articles from the Gelman library website for my Global Perspectives class, I'm struck by how much technology has advanced in just the 5 years since I finished my undergraduate program. We have an e-book for Global Perspectives. One of our professors maintains a leadership blog that we're encouraged to read and comment on. I've signed up for GW Alert, which means that in the case of an emergency on campus, I'll instantly get a text message about the situation. Announcements, syllabuses (syllabi?) and lecture notes are made available via BlackBoard, an electronic system for students available through myGW. I've joined multiple GW groups on Facebook and LinkedIn.

When I started undergrad in 1998, Facebook founder Matt Zuckerberg was 14 years old. Google was still in its infancy and had yet to become synonymous with "research". Writing a paper still meant climbing up and down the musty book stacks on the third floor of the MUN library. What a workout! Being vertically challenged, it sometimes felt like I spent half my time dragging around a ladder. Then I had to carry the heavy periodicals to a photocopier.... oh, the hardship ;-) Changes did occur during my time at MUN: By the end of my program, I was doing far more research online, as the library started subscribing to more and more databases. It also stripped out many of its bookshelves to make way for more (and better) computers. But still - none of my professors relied on the Internet to communicate with their classes. At best, they had a website and an email address.

What a difference 5 years makes. Granted, I'm at a different institution, but I wonder to what extent GW was using technology 5 years ago. I don't think I'm "old", yet the fact that I can recall a world without the Internet is starting to make me feel that way! During orientation, we had entire sessions devoted to how the GMBA program's electronic systems work. A technologically-challenged person would probably have left feeling quite intimidated. But the fact is that the mean age of our class is 26.6 - at 29, I'd guess I'm amongst the oldest 25% of the class. We're Generation Y or the Net Generation, or whatever you want to call us - and now we're aspiring business leaders. Of course they expect us (and rightfully so) to have a solid grasp of technology. And I can't help but wonder - what technologies will MBA students be using 10, 20 and 30 years from now?