Fr. Augustine, who handles matters such as disputed grades and withdrawal from the college, says, "I’ve had students leave my office, and moments later, before they’ve even had time to process what’s happened, I get a call from their parents. When their children call them, it’s very difficult for parents to step back."

Parents seem to appreciate the ability to stay on top of what their kids are doing (they’ve been dubbed ‘helicopter parents’ for their tendency to hover), but faculty and administrators believe students need to experience the decision-making process for themselves.

Ironically, the multiplicity of personal technology can also make communication more difficult: Duane Bruce, dean of freshmen says, "Students are in touch with everyone—except us. It’s much more difficult to get hold of a student now. They have more ways to be contacted, but they say they don’t read their campus e-mail or use their land lines, and we don’t have a list of their cell phone numbers and Yahoo addresses."

Information Age Mindset
"Millennials operate in sound bites, and higher education doesn’t know how to sound bite," according to Saint Anselm College sociology professor Michael Dupre. "The goal of liberal arts education is to teach people to think critically, problem solve, and communicate well—but technology discourages in-depth analysis, reflection, independent learning, and careful writing."

Millennials have been described as having short attention spans and craving quick results and feedback. They are accustomed to interactive, collaborative and experiential leaning; and they are used to getting information on demand in a variety of forms.

Higher education has had to adapt with courses that combine classic and high-tech elements. Some schools offer lectures as "podcasts." If students miss a lecture (or don’t choose to go), they can download it to their iPods and listen to it whenever they want, as often as they need to. Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, offers an entire course of video-recorded lectures through iTunes for playback on a variety of devices including cell phones.

The perfect blend is elusive. At some colleges, according to a Chicago Tribune/L.A. Times article, professors who regularly posted detailed lecture notes online found that so many students skipped lectures, they decided to discontinue the practice. Duke University provided free iPods to its entire freshman class for educational purposes and is now evaluating its effectiveness.

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