I’m struck by how much the ubiquitousness of laptops has changed the college experience from the aspect of getting work done. – when I was in school ending in 2000 (up hill both ways…) laptops were still pretty rare. People got work that required a computer done in their rooms or computer labs – and as a Computer Science and Engineering major, for me that meant a whole lot of time in my room. Now that I’m back in school part time four years after getting my BS, I’m struck by the fact that I’ve spent more time in the library in the course of a semester than I did in my entire undergraduate education. Why is that? Well apart from the fact that I have better study habits than back then, its simply because I can – I’m no longer chained to a desktop computer. This is all pretty obvious, but now people can get their work done anywhere, and do. Walking through the Tufts library, half the people are tapping away on laptops, and most everyone is jacked into an iPod. I can only imagine how different my college career would be like now – and we’re only talking technology enablement, not “if only I knew then what I know now”.