The relationship between discourse conventions and members' thought process is illustrated by the emerging trend of several colleges and universities to require that incoming first year students bring or purchase laptop computers.
One can only imagine the impact of a classroom of tapping keyboards on the production of discourse at these institutions. More importantly, this trend serves as evidence that a new generation of scholars will accept technology as more than an accessory to the thought process; the graduate students and professors of the next century are being taught that computer mediated learning is integral to their success.