In one Harvard class, the professor doesn't have to wonder if the class is following the lecture.

In McKay Professor of Applied Physics Eric Mazur's Physics 11 classroom, students work problems at their desks during lecture like in any other physics class.

But instead of simply continuing with the lecture when a problem is done, Mazur asks students to key in their answers on hand-held consoles at their seats. If there is a wide range in the answers, he asks them to consult among themselves and try again. After a few minutes, the responses tend to zero in on the right answer.

Mazur is not the only professor who is finding innovative ways to use technology in teaching. Throughout the University, from the Design School to the Business School, information technology is helping professors better teach their students.

Harvard President Neil L. Rudenstine has publically committed to encouraging the innovative use of technology for scholarship. While he admits that Harvard is not likely to be the nation's leader in developing new technology, he has repeatedly said he hopes Harvard will be the driving force in finding academic applications for the technologies others develop.

In fact, Rudenstine dedicated his Commencement address this year to his vision for the impact the Internet will have on teaching, comparing its development to the creation of the large research libraries that have been the hallmark of University scholarship for the last century.

True to Harvard's decentralized nature, the University did not wait for Rudenstine to speak out on the potential of technology. Instead of the centralized effort now underway to revolutionize Harvard's administrative uses of information technology (Project ADAPT), advances in academic information technology at Harvard have come about from the bottom up within the schools.

Increasingly, professors are finding that the Internet and the World World Wide Web provide previously unimagined opportunities to facilitate research, discussion and feedback within their classes.

Business On-Line

One of the leaders in information technology applications is the Harvard Business School (HBS). Buoyed by impressive financial support from the school's administration, HBS computer labs display a dazzling array of cutting-edge technology.

An article in last month's HBS Alumni Magazine highlights many of the applications HBS professors have created for new multi-media technology. Professors there utilize the Web, e-mail and CD-ROMs to give MBA students a better taste of what the business world will be like.

Case studies in their paper form, long the stand-by of the HBS curriculum, have been a way to give students the opportunity to simulate real-world problems through reading and class discussion. Recently, these case studies have been put on-line or on CD-ROMs making the simulation far more real by requiring increased interaction and participation by the student.

According to Dean of the Business School Kim B. Clark '74, the new technology is not only a better way to provide MBA students with traditional skills but is necessary to enable them to operate in an increasingly technological business world.

"Today's general manager is operating in an information-inundated world," said Clark, quoted in the Alumni Magazine article. "We need to prepare our students to meet that challenge. We also need to take full advantage of cutting-edge technologies that allow us to bring our students face-to-face with realistic business situations right in the classroom."

Computers have long been important in the HBS curriculum, but they are now almost indispensable. Nearly all exams are taken on computers and e-mail has become universal. Plans are even underway to extend permanent e-mail addresses to all HBS alums.

Over the last several years, the HBS has upgraded its computer labs. Its older computers have been replaced with new models capable of handling increased demands such as displaying digital video.