QuickTake: Technology For More Productive Learning

From this week's Chronicle of Higher Education comes this insight:

Students have long had the ability to work almost anywhere. As Cynthia C. Froggatt observes in her book Work Naked: Eight Essential Principles for Peak Performance in the Virtual Workplace (Jossey-Bass, 2001), students study in their dorm rooms, the library, the student union, and other places around the campus, depending on their work style.
Those who study in their rooms tend to blur their work and personal lives, while those who study in the library like to keep the two separate. Students who work in the student union generally prefer to be around other people, using the background noise to help them focus. Ubiquitous laptop computers, data connections, and wireless networks have encouraged such idiosyncratic work habits, enabling students to be more productive in whatever setting appeals to them.