The University of Minnesota, Crookston (UMC) has been featured in a national journal in an article focusing on the college’s technological innovation. The article appeared in "Education in Practice" Issue 4, 1998 of the American Productivity and Quality Center of Houston, Texas.

Known as the original "ThinkPad U," UMC, in 1993, became the first college in the nation to provide every one of its full-time students with notebook computers. The bold move came in response to employers and business leaders telling the University that the computer literacy skills they required job candidates to possess were lacking in university graduates, according to the magazine.

The magazine states, "If you travel about 300 miles north of the university’s main Twin Cities Campus, you’ll find one of the most technologically advanced institutions of higher learning in the nation: the University of Minnesota, Crookston (UMC).

"We make sure the students have the most important tool with them whether they’re at home, in an apartment downtown, in residential life on campus, or in a job," says Chancellor Donald Sargeant. "We’ve seen the teaching and learning environment changing."

Classrooms on the campus have been reconfigured over the past five years to accommodate technology-based instruction. More that 65 percent of the rooms feature state-of-the art-faculty workstations with overhead projection cameras for still, video and computer display. Internet connections and electric power are available at every student seat. All classrooms, labs, residence halls and the library are wired to the campus local area network, the magazine continues.

The active learning environment fosters student participation – which "makes a huge difference in learning," according to Sargeant – and involves paperless courses, internet and CD-ROM instruction, and a significant amount of self-learning.

The 2,000-student institution, recently ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the best public regional universities in the Midwest, is making sure its students aren’t left behind in the rapidly evolving Information Age.

"We’re not trying to produce computer scientists, but we are trying to produce people who know how to use the technology in their field," Sargeant says.

For more information about UMC’s technology-driven programs, e-mail: UMCinfo@umn.edu, or check our UMC’s website at: http://www.umcrookston.edu, or call UMC toll-free at 1-800-UMC-MINN.

Posted 01/27/98 by Andrew Svec
Author and Contact: Barbara Weiler, 218-281-8435