New technology is changing the face of DU classrooms, the material that professors teach and the way that students interact, according to many professors.

As many students see basic academic tools like Blackboard, textbooks and even notebooks become more advanced, materials for courses are becoming increasingly accessible.

Mead Map, for example, an online mapping tool released by Mead, a company known for brands like Five Star and Trapper Keeper, has digitalized basic note taking.

“We always will work to provide those benefits to our users, whether they are using our paper-based products or their laptops. Mead Map is a natural extension for us because it rounds out our product portfolio,” said James Coch, a business development marketing manager for Mead.

The online tool, employing what Mead calls “the first mind mapping system designed specifically for college students,” allows students to organize class notes in a digital format.

Notes can be designated under headings within different subsections to make the material visual and easy to find, and since the tool exists on the Web rather than in a download, the notes can be accessed from any computer and by several members of a group.

The Mead Map looks and works like a Word document and can be controlled using the keypad.

Updates are made in real time and up to 20 users can have simultaneous access to a map. This allows for group collaboration, according to Mead.

A subscription will run students $25 a year.

Online textbooks are another growing trend at DU.

New technology allows paperless textbooks to be downloaded to a laptop in PDF format or to a Sony E-reader, according to Don McCubbrey, professor at the Daniels College of Business.

The E-reader, which can run students anywhere from $300-$400, holds the information from 160 textbooks in a small, lightweight portable device. By downloading books on to the e-reader for free, that price could potentially cover the cost of textbooks for a student’s college career, according to McCubbrey.

“Students can have all the books they would need for their four-year college education on one little e-reader,” McCubbrey said. Sony recently donated a set of e-readers to Daniels for an experimental run with the new technology, said McCubbrey.

Blackboard, an online tool that has been around for more than 10 years and is now in use by many universities nationwide, is also undergoing constant updates and advancement.

“Through Blackboard students are connected to their classmates 24 hours a day,” said Patrick Orr, director of educational technology at Daniels.

Recently, Blackboard has seen a number of enhancements and updates including the implementation of the new programs Wimba, an online resource for audio conferencing, Wiki, which allows students and professors to collaboratively build knowledge by adding analysis and opinions and linking to external Web sites, and the new DU Visual Arts Gallery (DUVAGA).

“DUVAGA enables us to put thousands of video, audio and graphic content on a secure server,” Orr said of the new system.

However, in addition to redefining the way students study and interact with one another, new media and digital technology is also changing the ways that professors in all departments can deliver information to students.

At Daniels, improved technology is allowing professors to network and collaborate with educators around the world, broadening both their research and teaching resources.

Using multimedia podcasts students can experience a lecture given by a professor anywhere in the world, and with the use of collaboration technology can partner with students from all over the world for group projects, said McCubbrey.

“There are thousands and thousands of podcasts out there. You can now have students search for a podcast on a particular subject, for example the Indian perspective on why they’re against Todam motors building a factory in their town,” McCubbrey said.

McCubbrey, and other professors like him, are also now using podcast technology to make their class material more accessible to students.

“In the last year or so, I’ve used video podcasts with this idea of tapping an entire class putting it online and students could go online and view it afterward,” said Richard Scudder, chairman of the Information Technology and Electronic Commerce Department.

Some members of the DU faculty are also beginning to explore the idea of using cell phones and mobile devices to deliver academic content to students.

“Forty to 60 percent of what you can do on a laptop, you can now do on a mobile device,” Scudder said, and the new iPhone is kind of a game changer in the way that things can be presented because it has a screen clear enough that you can actually see the online content clearly.

“I think that we’ll see the mobile technology revolution hitting us over the next couple years with professors trying to figure out how they can use something that small to interact with their students more effectively.”