The Digital Student

some things about student life at Cal haven’t changed all that much over the years. The Big Game, Forestry summer Camp, cramming for finals.... But depending on when you graduated, other aspects of today’s undergraduate life might seem positively foreign. We asked current CNR students what technology they can’t do without.

If you think e-mail is high tech, you are so twentieth century. Today’s college kids zip out text messages on their cell phones faster than you can log onto Hotmail.

You probably got to know your college social scene in dorms and classes. Today, there’s Facebook—a website that’s part chat room, part photo album, and part diary for a demographic that’s been called the “tell-all generation.” Users can find out almost anything about their friends, and their friends’ friends.

According to Facebook, 85 percent of eligible college students maintain a page, and 60 percent of them log in every single day.

Investigating prospective classes has never been easier than it is with fellow students rating their profs on sites like www.RateMyProfessor.com students rate their teachers’ helpfulness, clarity, and yes, you read it right: “hotness.”

Oversleeping never felt so good as it does when you can catch your class as a rerun on the Internet. Check out a video webcast of Introduction to Human Nutrition or an audio podcast of Wildlife Ecology.

The Daily Californian ( dailycal.org ) is still alive and kicking—but the real scoop about Berkeley can be found on innumerable blogs, from the popular Cal stuff to CNR’s blogs for freshmen, peer advisors, Moorea research students, and more

The cult of the iPod is certainly not limited to the Cal campus or to college students, but the ubiquity of those famous white headphones on sproul Plaza can make you worry for the future of those other venerable Berkeley institutions, Rasputin Music and Amoeba Records.

Remember passing notes during class? Cal’s wireless network, AirBears, covers much of the campus, including most classrooms. Those students tapping away during lecture are just as likely to be instantmessaging their friends as they are to be typing up notes on plant biology.

Win tickets to the Big Game!

What was “high tech” when you went to Cal?

Stephanie Tran

Send your answer on the enclosed postcard along with your Class notes submission. We’ll reward the most colorful response with two tickets to the Big Game on december 2, 2006.