Mathematica is a great lecture and course tool. I prefer it to PowerPoint or Excel. I use computer slide shows in most of my professional talks, and I use the Web to get data. These activities in research create positive external economies for my teaching. This has drawn me into using computer technology in the classroom and tying course instruction to web tools. (Faculty training courses are ineffective.) Those who use computer technology do so on their own initiative. You should try to divide up the sample by geography and student income demographics. Most commuting students here don't have on-line access from their homes or workplaces. The focus of this survey is somewhat misguided. Teaching is having a conversation with students. Except for work requiring computers (say econometrics) computers are pretty much irrelevant. Being facile with computers might help in research. It has allowed me fewer trips to the library for journal articles, for example. I speak as someone quite familiar with computers. (I've programmed in assembler for the old mainframe, for example.) I think of all I've read on related subjects Clifford Stoll's book "Silicon Snake Oil, Second Thoughts on the Information Highway" is the only thing I've read that comes close to framing the issues properly. We would do much better diverting money from profit-making expenditures on the Web to schools and giving the bandwidth to the public, not unaccountable corporate power. xxxHow is "chalk and talk" different from "conversation." You should have specified alternatives. As framed the choice seems a) boring/monotonous lecture (i.e. chalk and talk) or b) innovative alternatives using computers. I'm surprised by the email questions - it is incredibly easy to use, and I can't imagine it being something for which training is needed. And it's so much better than having students call or stop by with trivial questions about where the exam is, etc. Better yet , the information is posted on my web page. Setting up a course related web site adds more time to my teaching. If I post notes, student class attendance falls. It does reduce questions about "what did I miss," since I post all handouts and assignments. I do not rely exclusively on any one technology in class. I have used PowerPoint in the past, but I find it restrictive. I currently use transparencies, chalkboard, and a computer with projector, often all in one class. I have developed PowerPoint and/or Persuasion slides for all courses that I teach. Preparation of the slides has helped me to better organize the course material. I have found that in the past five years of using PowerPoint or Persuasion that I have the best results with an 80% slide, 20% blackboard and chalk mix. I have also found that timing in presentation is critical. It is often too easy to advance slides before students have had the opportunity to copy all of the notes. One thing I don't think the survey picked up much was the synergy between research and teaching when using email and web tools. I was drawn into using email and the web primarily for research reasons--sharing work-in-progress with coauthors (email) and obtaining data (the Web). I also have gone to using PowerPoint for professional presentations because you can deliver more information in a constrained time period with slides and in formal formats the infrastructure is usually there. But these research-driven innovations have economies of scale in the classroom. Students can get data too off the Web and the Web can be used to tell them how and what to do with it. However, student skills with spreadsheet and econometric packages is very uneven at the undergraduate level and that is a key barrier. Also, I can transport some of my professional presentations into the classroom. That saves time and draws research and teaching closer together. xxx Three years ago I taught health economics because our health economist was on sabbatical. Because I do not know the subject well and the class was large, I used PowerPoint and generated hundreds of slides. PowerPoint helped organize what I had to say and imbedded more information into my lectures. But it is also a stilted technology for two reasons. First, it stands in the way of impromptu digressions that can be very creative. Second, you have to lower the lights in the room! This stifles class participation. Old fashioned transparencies are better for class participation because they have higher luminosity so you don't have to darken the room. xxxA good example of the research professional presentation teaching synergy just happened. A colleague at the University of XXX just sent me about five government web sites where new data on compensation has been published. These include wage surveys in construction for XXX and XXX. Tonight I am going to XXX to give a talk to the XXX Association--a group of unionized plumbing contractors. I will use this new data in that talk in a PowerPoint slide show. Next semester, I will teach labor economics and collective bargaining. I will use what I do tonight in my lectures in class. To complete the circle, I will have students go to these government web sites and get the data themselves and analyze it. The major constraint in this is student skills with spreadsheet programs. My problem with an overhead projector or PowerPoint display is that they tend to generate a disconnect between the speaker and the audience that I find annoying as an audience member and would also find annoying as a speaker if forced to use them. The big advantage of "chalk and talk" is that it maintains the connection. My main concern about technology in teaching is that, while it may make the lecture slicker, it doesn't change how students take notes. Often they can't keep up with the overheads, much less PowerPoint presentations. Students need to see how you draw the graph, not just the completed graph. Chalk and talk works well for that. Regarding the questions on PowerPoint, I feel that software to provide graphs and mathematical equations for presentations is woefully inadequate. This has been a major impediment to myself and colleagues. We all tried PowerPoint and gave up in disgust. Ultimately, software has to be as easy as chalk to use in order to have mass appeal to economists. I have just started using a laptop PC and projector in Money and Banking. I use the CD ROM with the Mishkin text. Also, I project my lecture notes using Word Perfect 6.1. xxxStudents use the Web to get New York Times articles twice a week. Most prefer this to newsprint copy. I download the article and project the web version at the beginning of each class. xxxMy university has just started using Blackboard, which I would like to use for my classes. It would create a listserve for the class, a grade book, chat resources, and many other things for the class. I have come back to teaching after being away for about 15 years - years during which the computer based information systems developed. I would like to have a web page - the generic supplied here for posting announcements and assignments is very limited. xxxI teach micro principles, and I have not been able to figure out how to avoid erasable chalk when a student asks: "But what if ...." We seem to be convinced attendance is not necessary for learning. There will be more convenience lent to students who do not attend, who want credit hours, and really do not come about education. As universities and colleges compete more, and do more marketing - quality will decline even more. We really need outside assessment. I am hesitant to make technology a large part of my courses since there are always access and compatibility problems. Within each class some students will: 1. Not have computers. 2. Not know how to use hardware or software. 3. Have work schedules making use of campus labs difficult. 4. Have computers but with incompatible systems or software. 5. Poor modems producing unacceptably long download times. 6. Have email but do not check for messages. The problems with using technology are: 1. Lack of interest by the faculty and administration to change. 2. Lack of time saving programs for the faculty. 3. Lack of interest on the part of students to do well on their own (motivation). 4. Cost of CDs - Some textbooks such as Adventures in Statistics and Macroeconomics by Miller have CDs that cost over $40.00 extra. This is too much for students to pay. 5. No incentives to invest in developing technology based courses. To clarify on "chalk and talk," I use PowerPoint for any notes I have, but I draw graphs on the chalkboard as well as put any impromptu notes on the chalkboard. I do not see PowerPoint as a replacement for the chalkboard, but it is instead a more efficient (and less messy) way for me to give the students notes. Email is great for communication, with colleagues and students. xxxThe Web is a great source of information for student research, but too time consuming to upload assignments and supplementary materials on personal sites. xxxPowerPoint is of very limited value - like structured presentations at a conference (or very large - too large - classes). It discourages interaction. Students must use the Web to access our library. All of my assignments require some work in the library - hence student access to the web in my courses. I am a new professor, and have made significant strides toward a more technological classroom in my short time in teaching. I have found that experiments and web related learning requires a great deal of technology use. I anticipate I will use it more in coming years, and I am very excited by the idea. In coming semesters I am going to require an Internet based text supplement, which should increase the use of technology in my classroom. I still prefer multicolored and multilayered transparencies on the overhead projector to either chalk or CD-ROMs: much brighter, easier to find, and easier to customize.