Students Want More Tech Most of All

At higher-education conferences, speakers often talk about student demands for technology, but students themselves are rarely there to give their own views. A group of five students from several colleges gave a candid assessment of their technology wish list today during a session at the Higher Education Leadership Forum, a two-day event sponsored by The Chronicle and Gartner, a technology-consulting firm.

Overall, the students called for more technology on campus -- more wireless access, more virus protection, and more technical support, among other things. But technology can also be a distraction, some said. "A company wouldn't throw all this technology at their employees and not train them," he said, but that's exactly what many colleges do.