Econometrics Lectures in a Computer Classroom

Abstract

Increasingly, economics professors are provided access to computer classrooms. Teaching in such classrooms is both exciting and daunting: exciting because the new technologies promise the possibility of better teaching; daunting because the technology and its promise pose new challenges and create new pitfalls for teachers of economics. I eagerly champion using computer classrooms to teach econometrics better, but I also warn that these classrooms are not a panacea. Teaching in a computer classroom is very costly in faculty time and institutional dollars; only marked improvements in students' learning can justify such expense. In this article, I describe how the computer classroom has transformed my teaching of econometrics. I share caveats I have learned teaching econometrics for 10 semesters in a computer classroom, caveats that would apply to any course taught in such a classroom. How such classrooms might comparably transform the teaching of other economics courses is the fundamental question I leave with readers.