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In the last two decades, educational technology has evolved dramatically. Little research has been conducted, however, to assess the impact of such technologies on the process of problem-based learning. At Harvard Medical School, computers with 50-inch wall-mounted plasma screens and broadband internet access have been installed in all small group tutorial rooms. Kerrfoot et al. (Medical Education, 2005, 39, 380–387) describe a study of how the introduction of this educational technology impacted on the problembased learning tutorial. Both students and tutors reported that the introduction of computers and wall-mounted plasma screens had a positive impact on tutorials. Several important pedagogical issues were identified in the study. The ready access to information on the Internet, information which was traditionally gathered outside the tutorial, now became a major activity within the tutorial itself. A question is whether this interrupts the flow of tutorial discussion and undermines the stimulus for student-directed learning outside the tutorial meeting. In the Harvard experience, students tended to want to obtain ‘‘answers’’ to the case scenarios through immediate Internet searches. Concerns were also raised as to the reliability and validity of the information accessed on the Internet. One conclusion was that ‘‘information literacy’’ as it relates to web-based content may need to be an explicit part of the curriculum. The empowerment of learners during small group sessions to perform searches for the best medical evidence on the Internet using hand-held computer resources was the topic of a paper by Silk and colleagues (Academic Medicine, 2006, 81, 239–244).