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At Virginia Tech, computers help solve a math class problem

There are no professors in Virginia Tech’s largest classroom, only a sea of computers and red plastic cups, the Washington Post reports. In the Math Emporium [1], the computer is king, and instructors are reduced to roving guides. Lessons are self-paced, and help is delivered “on demand” in a vast, windowless lab that is open 24 hours a day because computers never tire. A student in need of human aid plants a red cup atop a monitor. The Emporium is the Wal-Mart of higher education [2], a triumph in economy of scale and a glimpse at a possible future of computer-led learning [3]. Eight thousand students a year take introductory math in a space that once housed a discount department store. Four math instructors, none of them professors, lead seven courses with enrollments of 200 to 2,000. Students walk to class through a shopping mall, past a health club and a tanning salon, as ambient Muzak plays…

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