avin narasimhan

Given that I went to Indiana, it is very difficult for me to give Purdue credit for anything. That said, now that I'm not actually in school anymore, I guess I can force myself to step back and recognize innovation when I see it.

The school just launched Hotseat, a new approach to engaging students in classroom discussions by embracing real-time interaction through twitter, facebook, and texting. Academia has for one reason or another been pretty slow at times to embrace technology and new ways of interaction and connecting that the social web allows, so it's pretty uplifting to see a true step towards changing the way teaching and the educational system work, and how they may evolve to better fit into the 21st century.

It's a pilot program for now, but if it takes off and is successful with students (and, importantly, faculty are able to adjust to getting not-always-positive feedback in real time), then I hope it's something that would eventually spread to other schools in some form or another.

Anyone know of any other universities (or even high schools for that matter) trying out something similar?