Colloquium IT in higher education: why is it so hard and why there is still hope after all? Uri Leron and Orit Hazzan Department of Education in Technology and Science, Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 320000, Israel. Tel: +972 4 829 3113; fax: +972 4 832 5445; email: Uril@techunix.technion.ac.il In thinking about the “information revolution”, it is disconcerting to note that in the one area which deals most intensively with information and knowledge—Higher Education—computers as yet haven’t managed to make a significant impact. We think that the reasons for this state of affairs are not primarily technological, nor are they purely educational. Rather they are rooted in a complex web of psychological, socio- logical and cultural factors that influence the structure of higher education and its evolution, as well as the conception of teaching by the faculty. In particular, we at Project IT 3 (Information Technologies in Technion Teaching) have identified several points, which in our experience are largely responsible for the difficulties of integrating information technologies in higher education. These points are representative of the sort of objections that keep coming up in discussions and presentations with faculty members. Thus, they are presented here as Question and Answers to a skeptical faculty member. The answers of course can only be given here in a very abbreviated form, which doesn’t do full justice to the complexity of the issues involved. For a fuller document see http://edu.technion.ac.il/ittt/Doc&Pres/ittt_paper.htm Q. Why IT? IT doesn’t really help teaching and may even harm it. A. There is plenty of discussion of this issue, and we cannot really do it any justice in the space provided. Cf. e.g., The TLT Group discussions and forums at http://www.tltgroup.org/. Q. Let’s be practical: How can IT help me in teaching Linear Algebra, Astro- physics or design courses in engineering? A. We can only give a few headlines here, each of which could be expanded to a whole article. Computers are being used, for example in teaching mathematics and physics, to build interactive learning environments, which create an experiential, intuitive basis for the more formal learning that follows. They are being used for learning through simulations and investigations and for working on projects collaboratively. And of course there are the many possibilities that the Internet and asynchronous com- munication have opened. British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 31 No 3 2000 243–245 ©British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, 2000. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JF, UKand 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.