Transformational Education > New technologies
Warren McFarlan on mandatory "luggables"
Transcript
The arrival of the personal computer and spreadsheet analysis changed all of that. And that in 1982, I think it was, that I was asked by John McArthur to head up the first year. And now I had not taught in the first year since 1967, so it was something other than my firsthand knowledge of the first year curriculum. A week later he called me and said, "One of the things I hope as you do the first year is you really think about how you can use computer technology to really enhance the learning experience." And so I went back, and people suggested to me we should have pods of fifty computers here, and fifty computers there. And John called me in another week later and said, "Warren, I hope you'll think about spending a lot of money. Not a little money, but I want you to really be ambitious."
And this is where the idea came that every student should acquire their own computer. And so the following fall, every student was strongly urged to acquire an IBM [luggable] computer. And that a number of those computers are still around today as anchors for boats, you know, in lakes, and things of that nature. I run into alumni who say, "Warren, so you were the one that stuck me for three thousand dollars over and above." But what it did is it changed the nature of the debate. The previous year the students were feeling, "Harvard is out of touch with what's going on." The next year it was, "Harvard is certainly doing this. Why am I doing it?"
The following year Dave Mullins, then chairman of the first year course, and went on to be Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve system, announced that students would, in fact, have to use, or be able to use computers in their Finance final exams. This led to a firestorm of protest from the students who said that basically that they were technologically ignorant, and that this was an unfair act. Dave said, "This is utter nonsense that you can pretend to be ignorant on the Finance exam on May 31st of computer technology, but you're expected to have full firsthand knowledge of spreadsheet analysis when you show up at Goldman Sachs on June 1st for your summer internship."
And that more or less ended the debate at that time. And we have just simply gone steadily up the use of the personal computers.