Recording lectures and making it available as MP3's might seem counterintuitive for a course that denies students the use of paper and pencil. The author speculated that online technology might help students get away from writing and allow them to think and learn in new (or perhaps older) ways. As with any other technological invention, it is difficult to divine how online learning will remake higher education, or whether new technologies will ultimately undermine the interests of some people who initially adopt them.