Professors Banning Laptops In the Lecture Hall 664
Pickens writes "The Washington Post reports that professors have banned laptops from their classrooms at George Washington University, American University, the College of William and Mary, and the University of Virginia, among many others, compelling students to take notes the way their parents did: on paper. A generation ago, academia embraced the laptop as the most welcome classroom innovation since the ballpoint pen, but during the past decade it has evolved into a powerful distraction as wireless Internet connections tempt students away from note-typing to e-mail, blogs, YouTube videos, sports scores, even online gaming. Even when used as glorified typewriters, laptops can turn students into witless stenographers, typing a lecture verbatim without listening or understanding. 'The breaking point for me was when I asked a student to comment on an issue, and he said, "Wait a minute, I want to open my computer,"' says David Goldfrank, a Georgetown history professor. 'And I told him, "I don't want to know what's in your computer. I want to know what's in your head."' Some students don't agree with the ban. A student wrote in the University of Denver's newspaper: 'The fact that some students misuse technology is no reason to ban it. After all, how many professors ban pens and notebooks after noticing students doodling in the margins?'"
False analogy. (Score:5, Insightful)
Doodling with pen and paper doesn't absorb the attention to the same degree as playing Facebook games and chatting with friends via IM.
Re:False analogy. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:False analogy. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:False analogy. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:False analogy. (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, he should have gone with a car analogy instead...
New hardware opportunity? (Score:2)
Re:False analogy. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:False analogy. (Score:5, Funny)
I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter (provided it includes drawings of monkeys and hunters, of course)
Re:False analogy. (Score:5, Insightful)
Frankly, it isn't my problem what you are or aren't learning in class. It's either your money, in which case it is your problem; or your parent's money, in which case they can always scream at you or cut you off. If you are going to be doing substantially distracting things in the same class where I am trying to learn, though, you've just made it my problem.
When you take a primate whose visual system has been shaped by millenia of evolution in an environment where every movement in the corner of your eye is either dinner or about to make you dinner, and put them a few rows back in a class full of screens showing moving images, their attention is going to suffer, whether they like it or not.
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Doodling with pen and paper doesn't absorb the attention to the same degree as playing Facebook games and chatting with friends via IM.
Making paper planes out of the notes and throwing them at the lecturer does absorb the attention a lot. But at least it made Analytical Chemistry fun!
Re:False analogy. (Score:5, Interesting)
Hell, when I was in college you could SMOKE in class, and they never banned slide rules. I never took notes myself; I can't scribble as fast as the professor can talk, can't read my own scribbling later, and taking notes took my attention away from what the teacher was saying.
If there were diagrams on the blackboard, I'd scribble those down after class, unless they were replicated in the textbook, and if the teacher said "write this down" then I'd write it down.
The instructor's role is to better explain what's in the textbook, and discuss things that weren't in the book. If I was in school today I might use a notebook as a speech recorder (lots of students then used tape), but a notebook ban wouldn't bother me, I can record on my phone as easily as on a notebook.
Do professors still party with their students at after school functions? In a lot of ways you guys have it better than I did, but in a lot of other was we had it better. College was some of the best times of my life. Especially the Mississippi River Festival. Maybe I'll journal about that, it was awesome.
Re:False analogy. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm guessing that when you were in college getting a somewhat less menial job that pays somewhat more than minimum wage didn't depend on having a college degree and the folks who did go to college were actually interested in learning (I don't know this for sure. I wasn't around then).
I think a lot of people today go to class just so they can attain that job-hunting license that offers the prospect of not flipping burgers and eating ramen noodles for 30 years.
Re:False analogy. (Score:4, Insightful)
When the person who does the assignments, understands the material, and does pretty good on the tests pulls a 105+% in the class, something is wrong.
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The current school generation does have a harder time maintaining focus upon a single subject. I have noticed that notebooks brought into lectures are not always used for taking notes and more often than note are used for, playing games, social networking, working on assignments for other subjects and, doing tutes (about 1 in ten are logged into the school network and have one window open on the lecture presentation notes, reference material mentioned and another window for notes) . The biggest note takers
Re:False analogy. (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm rather shocked to be back in Grad School, and to see that everyone is here (without fail) to change careers. The people in my curriculum have zero experience and zero prior study in the field, they just didn't like the job their undergraduate degree got them. The first year of graduate school feels like a condensed version of a real undergraduate degree, for those people who probably should have read a book on this stuff before deciding to jump on the hot career.
I was expecting to find people who loved the subject. Instead, I find people unified in their hatred of whatever else they're doing.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
It's been 10 years since my undergraduate degree, and I've finally found what I love. But going into a graduate program, they won't teach me the basics of it. But I can't get a bachelor's degree, because I already have one from a decade ago, and a MA from 4 years ago. Most colleges refuse to accept you for a BS after you already have one. At the same time, most graduate programs will take you, even if your BS doesn't have to do with what you're getting a PhD in.
Re:False analogy. (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember, these are the same professors who don't understand that boredom is incredibly more powerful than it appears, and that uninspired students will find other ways to zone out of boring lectures.
Re:False analogy. (Score:4, Insightful)
No-one cares if "uninspired" students aren't interested in the lectures (although why they bother turning up in the first place is a bit of a mystery - do you get marks just for attending lectures in the US or something?).
It's when they interfere with the people who are interested that they become a problem.
Re:False analogy. (Score:5, Interesting)
But, if they felt it was more worthwhile spending that $Y and skipping the class, I told them that was fine - but don't ask me for a review of the lecture afterwards. I flat-out told them if they were out late the night before and fell asleep in the class, fine (as long as they didn't snore). It was their money they were spending (or someone was spending on them) and they could get value from it, or waste it, as they saw fit.
However, I made it quite clear that I wouldn't allow them the liberty to interfere with other student's spending of that $Y. So I was quite stern with students whose cell phones rang, and while laptops for taking notes were fine (and I didn't care about IM either, hell, I would give students a special IM account I setup to ask questions on homework as due dates crept up), movies, games, things that could easily attract eyes (because the eye is naturally drawn to motion, and bright colors can also be a distraction, it's the way we're wired) were out. Loud discussions were not acceptable - not because of me (after all, I'm paid for the students registered regardless of how many of them show up), but because other students are spending their $Y and they deserve the opportunity to use it to actually see and hear the class they're paying for. It was rarely an issue.
If you treat people like adults, most respond in kind. Furthermore, putting it in the perspective of the money being spent by each student made some students realize why I cared about distractions - it didn't distract me, nor did it affect the money I got, nor the time I spent, but it did affect other students who had spent time and money to be there.
Re:False analogy. (Score:5, Interesting)
"I pointed out to students that, given the cost of tuition, and the class being X units (depending on the class) it meant that each lecture was essentially costing them (or somebody), $Y. And that given it was their $Y to spend, I didn't really care how they spent it, but that as long as they were registered for the class, it was a sunk cost, so I recommended they pay attention..."
This is an enormously common line of thinking, but I've discovered it to be fundamentally not true (at least where I teach). I've been told that the majority of my students, for example, are on full financial aid (including health benefits & pocket money). So there's some loan they need to pay off arbitrarily far in the future, I guess (and it's safe to say that many can't rationally balance that abstract fact). And in fact they're pocketing cash on top of it, so in some sense mere attendance in my class is their current job. Changes the dynamic a lot.
All the time when I'm telling stories my friends say, "But they're paying for it!", and I sigh and launch into my "No, they're actually not..." routine.
Re:False analogy. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:False analogy. (Score:5, Interesting)
and does not take into account the different degrees with which different people are able to multitask and/or focus.
I think I heard that same argument in a discussion about people being able to drive and text at the same time. Sure they may get away with it indefinitely, but they're still likely to be in or cause a crash.
Same thing here. you might get away with playing Facebook games indefinitely, but you're more likely to or cause someone else to miss an import point
Back in my university days, not so long ago, this was a huge issue for me; I never brought my laptop to class. I found it very distracting when I was sitting behind someone playing WoW and had a very hard time focusing on what was going on. So I started getting to classes earlier so I could sit in the front row. It made seeing the overhead screens harder, but I was able to pay better attention. I feel vindicated because the people who thought they could multitask were always coming to me for notes and/or help, which I decided when and to whom I gave it to.
Score: Computer Science Degree for me, MacDonald's for multitaskers
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It seems to me that instructors could improve the way they deliver their lectures. Why not provide prepackaged lecture notes in advance of the class, so that students can review in advance and be ready to participate in a class discussion?
The question of laptops in class is a red herring. More likely is that poor teachers with ego issues don't like to be reminded that their lectures are boring.
I had the same problem with pen and paper, I was too busy trying to write down what was being said rather than paying attention. With a computer at least I can write quite fast, so I could spend more time listening to the words and less frantically trying to write quickly but legibly. I stopped taking notes after my first year of University, when I didn't even use any of my notes to revise. I revised using lecture notes, and very occasionally I'd use a textbook.
Witless stenographers? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Witless stenographers? (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder how long it will be before someone challenges this as discrimination.
Re:Witless stenographers? (Score:5, Informative)
I think it will never fly as discrimination.
If you are dyslexic, you can claim that you have a disability, and require special accommodations. This can be verified by a qualified third party, and you can then apply for an exemption to the rule (which I assume the school will grant automatically).
Re:Witless stenographers? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know about you, but myself and a few of my friends found that even though it seemed like both ways of taking notes would trigger the witless stenographer, writing by hand actually locked the information in, while computer note-taking meant you remembered little or none of it. Maybe it's just the time lag involved; in order to keep up while taking notes by hand, you have to buffer the information, reformat it to be shorter or faster to write, then commit it to paper (yes, I was a CS major, and it infects my description of non-CS related things). If you can type at the same speed the professor is providing the information, you're not forced to look for shortcuts, so you don't do any interpretation.
Of course, the other problem is the incessant keyboard clacking. They may simply be trying to reduce the "auditory clutter" in the room. If not for loud keyboards, I couldn't care less if other students are using a computer to take notes; if I'm right and the computer is a less effective tool, that hurts them, not me.
Re:Witless stenographers? (Score:5, Interesting)
My fiancee found that (with her profs permission, of course) having an audio recorder up close to the guy while he was going through his lecture really helped her. She would write down the general idea of what he was talking about, then later that night listen to the recording and type out more complete notes, using her written notes from class as reference. Doing it twice and hearing it twice helped her retain more.
Granted, this won't work for everyone, but it certainly worked for her.
Re:Witless stenographers? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Agree, for any HARD class. E.g., upper-level undergrad and grad-level theoretic courses in your (engineering)department/major. You scribble every last greek character in every equation from the board, in a desperate attempt to try to get down every jot of information (also verbal explanations).
I always just sat there and paid attention, without being distracted from what the lecturer was saying by furiously writing it all down. Any decent professor (i.e., one whose ego isn't wrapped up in being the sole font of information needed to learn the class material) will have chosen a textbook that has the same general content as their lecture.
I found it more useful to treat the lecture as a general introduction to the material, and then go and figure out the details by reading the text and doing sample
This is College (Score:5, Insightful)
Seeing how this is college, I'm dumbfounded by the "nannying" going on here.
The way I see it, unless laptops as a whole are distracting to _other_ students then they are nothing more than another medium to take notes on. On the other hand, if I happen to have a laptop that makes a lot of noise (intended or not) and it is distracting the professor or other students, then I see a problem.
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Re:This is College (Score:4, Interesting)
You're suggesting it's wrong for a teacher to care about his students and their education?
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Re:This is College (Score:5, Insightful)
As long as they aren't distracting other students...
I think that the point here is that in many cases, they are in fact distracting other students. This doesn't mean that other students are going to make a public complaint.
I offer this analogy: "People should be able to drive as fat as they want, wherever they want, so long as they don't endanger others." OK? But sometimes simply driving fast creates the danger. And sometimes, the driver fails to notice this. For example, I think that I don't endanger anyone when I drive 60mph through university parking lots at 9AM...
So the university (or city or whatever) could wait for complaints or deaths, or they can regulate speeds. I concede that over-regulation occurs, but is the regulation itself unjustified?
Re:This is College (Score:5, Informative)
Unless you are in the back row, your WoW or YouTube or Facebook (or Slashdot) are a visual distraction to _others_ even with ear buds or if muted. The "nannying" happens because you (or a meaningful number of your classmates) can't keep themselves from providing this distraction. You (they?) simply can't stop. Even now.
Re:This is College (Score:5, Funny)
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If you can see the screen, it is a distraction. The human eye is drawn to motion. Even in a best case scenario, your brain will have to check on your neighbor's WoW progress from time to time even if only to classify it as unimportant.
You may do a great job mentally managing these distractions. Others may be less efficient in doing this.
Just because it does not distract you does not mean that it does not distract _others_. You may not be the best person or in the best position to evaluate the distractio
Prof's need feedback (Score:5, Insightful)
I could be totally off base here, but I'm guessing that the prof's need feedback too. If they see every face in the classroom looking emotionless at their laptops, the prof's have no idea if anyone is listening at all. Obviously it's the students' money to burn etc. etc. But it would probably make it hell to teach a class to essentially nobody.
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Just an FYI, lecture halls usually have 100+ students (easily) and don't go beyond some human up front talking for the _whole_ period only stopping to take a breath from time to time.
It's not a classroom setting, it's a lecture.
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From my experience as an instructor in the Navy, you've pretty much hit the nail on the head here. You watch the students, and their body language as well as their facial expressions, to see whether they are "getting it" or not. Teaching, especially good teaching, is an interactive process.
Re:This is College (Score:4, Funny)
It's madness, I know. The idea that teachers might want to think about the best way to ensure that the information they are trying to impart is absorbed and retained by their students.
When I was a student, I found the best way to enjoy lectures was with my eyes closed, listening to my Walkman. I didn't disturb anyone, so I have no idea why the lecturer took exception to my stance.
Re:This is College (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been going back to school to get a Master's at night. It's pretty annoying that the classroom is full of kids watching TV or movies on their laptops. While I do what I can to sit near the front so that I don't have any video playing on a screen in front of me, it's not always possible. I have to leave work to get to class, so I can't just show up early enough to get in front of the TV watching idiots.
From a purely anecdotal perspective, I'd say 60-70% of laptops in the college classroom are being used for entertainment, not note taking. At the very least, I'd like to see them confined to the back few rows of the room.
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I'm a college librarian - I teach research classes and am always out in the computer lab section of our library. I'd venture to say that 90% of ALL computers at a college or university are being used for: Facebook and YouTube. I have students who can't get a computer to type out an essay because the computer lab is full (and I'm not even exaggerating) of students checking their facebook. (We can't ban facebook because they might need it for "educational purposes"). We get a report here that tells us essent
Bring the noise (Score:3, Informative)
Well... (Score:5, Funny)
good move (Score:4, Insightful)
I am a TA and I attended a math tutorial class as an observer earlier today. I was sitting in the last row. I saw one or two guys with laptop open, playing first-person shooting games.
When I attended university as a freshmen 8 years ago, laptops are still clunky and not easy to carry around like netbooks. So somewhat we were forced to take down notes by hand.
In practical lab classes like signal processing, in my day we had to manually copy the signal traces on analogue oscilloscope to the lab notebook. But now, with camera phones, its a matter of taking a snap.
I am not against new technology. But technology that hinders the education.. should be kept outside classroom!
Not your dime... (Score:2)
Whose education are those kids who are playing games during class, hurting?
Yours?
Another students?
Who is paying for those kids to sit in the classroom?
You?
The professor?
It's his money and his time. If he isn't being a distraction and hindering the education of the other students, then you really have no say, at all.
Would he get a better education if he wasn't playing games in class? Debatable. He could just as easily waste time doodling, texting on his cell, sleeping, or just plain bunking the class to d
Re:good move (Score:5, Insightful)
I completely agree. So far the comments here are very much what I would expect. 'Let everyone learn in their own style,' 'The Professor is an egotistical twit,' 'It's the teacher's fault for not being enthralling enough,' etc.
When it comes down to it, this isn't high school anymore and many of the topics you learn in college are NOT FUN TO LEARN. They are boring as hell, but incredibly useful. That coupled with the fact that most of the time you are half asleep and would die for something else to do and allowing a distraction like a laptop or even a cell phone becomes a really horrible idea.
Given the option of learning about international trade routes during the 18th century or playing Unreal with my slacker friends back in the dorm and it would have been an easy choice. The kicker here is that I *loved* the class, but hated that part, regardless of how important it was to the overall class.
Allowing me the option to fully tune out would have been a mistake, regardless of how much of a blessing it would have been at the time.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
When it comes down to it, this isn't high school anymore and many of the topics you learn in college are NOT FUN TO LEARN. They are boring as hell, but incredibly useful. That coupled with the fact that most of the time you are half asleep and would die for something else to do and allowing a distraction like a laptop or even a cell phone becomes a really horrible idea.
Speak for yourself! In high school I sat there bored because I was forced to learn about subjects that had neither practical nor any interest at all, I came to university and chose a subject that I found interesting. Calculus may have been dry and mechanics may have been (still is) difficult but they're both still interesting. If anything, the only part so far that has bored me has been the 'Professional Development' BS that businesses want us to learn: seems like everyone has to have the same "we're all sp
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Tools are amoral. The have no character, no conscience.
I kind of like this worldview; the belief in personal responsibility I think improves behavior. But one thing I find interesting is the amount of research indicating that we might not be as "in control" as we like to think we are; psychologists of a certain school call this the "fundamental attribution error." The basic conclusion is that the situation plays a much, much larger role in determining people's actions than who the people themselves are. Applied to the laptop issue, this would mean that perha
A novel idea: be a better teacher (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's a thought: Instead of banning distractions, be the distraction yourself. For centuries, teachers have been competing with distractions, including daydreamers and sleepers. Laptops and the Internet are just more things to compete with. Instead, make your lectures interesting. Vary the tone of your voice, provide practical examples, and stay away from the temptation to just stand there and talk. Yes, you're a professor. Yes, students are paying to hear your ideas. No, they are not paying to just hear your voice.
Re:A novel idea: be a better teacher (Score:5, Insightful)
College students are not kindergarten kids. Professors are not teachers.
College learning isn't fun and games, before a five minute nap and a carton of OJ. If the students are so attention-deficit that they have difficult maintaining concentration on anything that isn't presented like a shopping channel, then perhaps they should go play and leave the college learning to the grown-ups.
Re:A novel idea: be a better teacher (Score:4, Insightful)
It'd be nice if maturity worked that way, but it doesn't. Humans in general are easily distracted, no matter how mature they are or what kind of media you're working in. Everything is a competition for attention. Whether it's a sales pitch, a lecture, or a political debate, the presenter with the most substance AND the most interesting delivery will come out the victor. Sure, it's possible for a student to force himself to pay attention, but that will just make the class seem like a hostile environment, no less than draconian rules and bullying do the same for elementary school.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Professors are not teachers.
I don't understand this mentality. Professors ARE teachers. They may not be kindergarten teachers, but the idea is the same - their job is to get ideas into your head. If that means they have to try to make things more interesting, that shouldn't be a problem. Yes, students should be paying attention. However, if professors and lecturers truly want their students to be paying attention, they need to be giving them a reason to pay attention.
Laptop notes (Score:4, Insightful)
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I actually have in the past with individual professors, and I always came out the victor because there is simply no sane justification for such a policy
Consider yourself lucky that the lack of sane justification is sufficient to stop such nonsense wherever you go to school. In my experience that's rarely in the case.
I could handle blocking wi-fi in lecture theatres.. that helps just a bit.
For what it's worth, I've found internet access to be quite helpful in class. It's not unusual that I've forgotten something the professor assumes you've remembered. This hits me particularly hard in the autumn after a summer away from academia. When I can simply Google "taylor series" for a quick reminder and actually understand what's goi
None of there Buisness (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
I can tell from the way you write that your education was remarkably effective.
Other students (Score:2, Insightful)
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It's probably for the best (Score:5, Interesting)
It's probably for the best. I sort of slagged off in my 4th semester of Latin and would just look up translations of Cicero online and have it ready if I got called on. Caesar I'd just do, but technology enabled me to be even lazier in the second semester of my Senior year than I otherwise would have been. Not that Cicero is much relevant to my actual career, although the BOFH motto seems to be 'Auc Caesar, Auc Nihil' (and if it's not, it really should be).
That said, I didn't have a laptop at all when I was in high school, let a lone bring one to class. The first couple of years at college, I had eRacks setups in my dorm room and convinced IT to delegate me static IPs, so I could shell to my machine from anywhere else on campus, or get back in through the tunnel set up by the Comp Sci department on the Linux cluster if I were at home. I paid more attention in class back then.
I totally get the point of the ban, and frankly in a lecture hall setting there probably isn't a real need for the laptop as opposed to a seminar or lab setting. If I were to go back to school for another degree, chances are I wouldn't bring the laptop with me to class, however if I were told I couldn't, hell yeah I'd be pissed off.
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I'm going back to school for a masters and I cant STAND the students taking notes on paper. The teacher has to repeat an important definition 5 times while they slowly scribble it down and I've typed it word for word on the first go.
People will pay attention if they want and preventing me from being able to quickly take notes so that I can spend time actually thinking about what the teacher has to say isn't going to make my learning experience better.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Auc Caesar, Auc Nihil --- In the founding of the city Ceasar, in the founding of the city nothing?
Thinking maybe you meant to type "AUT Ceasar, AUT Nihil" which is more along the lines of "Either Ceasar or nothing" or more likely "All or nothing" roughly translated.
Lecturers should not be overzealous nannys (Score:3, Insightful)
Student who want to use laptops legitimately should not be punished by those who don't. And as others have pointed out, students traditionally doodled or read books or slept so why should this be any different. I think some of the older lecturers are stuck in old ways which are inevitably counter productive. Laptops do more good than harm. Besides its up to the student to pass the exams and it is not the lecturers job to 'nanny' students.
How about training the kids to use the PCs better? (Score:2, Interesting)
Seems rather extreme & lacking in imagination. Maybe just cut the wifi in the lecture halls?
However, the interesting point for me is this one:
"I don't want to know what's in your computer. I want to know what's in your head."
In both business and teaching situations, I've found PCs can be incredibly helpful, or the reverse.
If everyone's 'head's down' doing their emails (typical business meeting) or facebook, (typical kids scenario) then of course there's no real communication or interaction.
But if you u
talk about counter productive! (Score:2)
Wait a second... when you're wearing your hand out scrambling to get hastily spoken lecture comments and uber complex differential equations on paper, you're spending exactly how many brain cycles actually listening or understanding?
I did a hell of a lot better getting my master's by having my tablet RECORD what s/he was saying, while watching and compre
i agree (Score:4, Interesting)
Most of my faculty lately have said, "You can bring a laptop if you ask me explicit permission and you vet your notes past me for a few weeks'." AKA, he wants to make sure they're actually using it for that purpose for the first couple weeks.
Classes I've been in with open-laptops policy have been terrible -- I can't pay attention to the lecture because (a) all the clicking/keying around me but, more importantly, seeing (and sometimes even hearing) what they're doing. It certainly is NOT related to the class in any way. I'd see maybe one out of a dozen actually using the laptop in a decent way.
How about typewriters? Would this guy be banned? (Score:2)
My favorite is the "ding" at the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L29BCQFfqVo [youtube.com]
Jumping to solutions (Score:2)
This sounds like another case of "jumping to solutions" and not identifying the actual problem. (You would think lecturers who were actually concerned about this problem would know better.)
What problem are they trying to solve? Is the use of a laptop necessary and sufficient to cause a student's wandering attention? Are pencils and paper better for some reason? (And, Hey!, there may be a neurological support for that reason.) Pencil and paper notes take a different type of organizing skill; does it make sen
Hey you in the second row ... (Score:2)
Yeah, you with the red shirt. Stop reading slashdot and pay attention to the lecture.
another way to attack this (Score:5, Interesting)
If students are able to not pay attention, and still do well (enough) in classes, then make the classes more difficult.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If students are able to not pay attention, and still do well (enough) in classes, then make the classes more difficult.
Two words: grade inflation.
Pen and paper? (Score:4, Interesting)
I can't write with pen or pencil at a decent speed, if I want to be able to read it afterwards. My handwriting is awful, always was, and no matter how much I tried to improve it always remained awful and slow. On the other hand, I am a decent, fast typist. That is why I bring my notebook to all meetings, or to any course I attend (did you think you'd stop studying after leaving college?). I can imagine what would be if I was suddenly forced to use a inferior solution just because someone abused the efficient one.
In which century are these teachers living, btw?
I agree (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm older and going back to school with a laptop taking notes in class was not working for me, I was easily distracted by either the program I was using, some technical issue, or fighting for the one power socket in the room and in the end I found I had poor recall and reviewing notes on the computer was, frankly, a drag.
Switching to paper kept me engaged, no technical issues, easy on my eyes to review, and the information stayed with me longer.
Not sure how it is for younger folks but paper note taking works best for me.
Speaking as an old coot... (Score:4, Insightful)
I went back to school 20 years later to get another degree, Tried taking notes on a laptop and went back to simple handwritten notes. Here's why: I found that I retained much more when I went back over my handwritten notes, then reorganized them on my laptop. Yes, it was more time-consuming, but I was effectively going over all the information twice and reinforcing what was taught. I was also keeping up my handwriting skills, something I believe is sorely lacking in today's youth.
I wonder how many students today just enter their notes on a laptop and forget about them until finals.
Note taking isn't stenography (Score:5, Insightful)
The point of taking notes is to compress the information into a salient outline structure and then insert only the most important information. Just copying, verbatim, what a professor says isn't, in any real sense, "note taking". Note taking implies that you're selectively recording the parts of what the professor is saying that are most important. Just copying down everything is something else entirely, and is dreadfully inefficient, first because you can easily get the jist of what someone says without recording their exact wording, and second because it makes reviewing the notes mostly a waste of time.
They are right (Score:3, Insightful)
Taking notes on paper in real-time was the most valuable learning method during my studies. It forces you to understand what the lecturer is explaining, because you are typically to slow to copy verbatim, you you have to accurately summarize. Yes, it is stressful, but it is effort well spent.
Learn by intraction (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem or problems with laptops is that they are distracting. Even if someone is truely typing notes and doing it in a way that summarizes the lecture, for other people sitting near, seeing a display screen or hearing clicking can be vastly distracting.
While it is true, people learn in different ways, people need to be able to learn with out a monitor in their face. I fear one reason that students are opposed to this is simply because they don't know how to write using pen and paper. It has been stated in past Slashdot articles that the art of writing is dying. The thing about writing that people don't get today is that because we write slower than we listen, we force ourselves to remember what the professors said. If we miss what was stated, we asked for the statement to be revistied or repeated, thus adding to the natural way people learn and comprehend.
Some other posted suggested that the professor give the students the notes, well I almost spit my coffee out when I read that. Does not every class have a book that goes with it? I know I had a book for each class I took in college. Students are already expected to read before coming to class, and I suspect the majority of students rarely crack the books before the lessons, but rather only to cram for the exams.
College isn't about making your life easy. It is a place for higher education. It is a place for one to challenge themselves to learn and take in all this wonderful new information. Classroom discussions with professors are the ones students most remember and are very informative when people get involved. The purpose these professors have in mind is for students to interact more. Teaching isn't about spewing out a bunch of notest to students it is about exciting them and teaching them and prompting them to think outside of the box and explore the subject matter at hand.
Close those notebooks and listen. You'll be amazed at how much more you'll comprehend and take in, I promise....
Ban laptops or jam the Wi-Fi (Score:5, Insightful)
Fast forward to now... Economy crash, writers' strike, production slow down... so I decide use that as an opportunity to return to college to finally finish a bachelor's degree in Visual Effects.
The classes are held in computer labs and because the systems are used for many different kinds of classes including web design and as generic open labs, they are connected to the internet.
There is nothing as annoying and distracting as someone sitting there working on their Farmville while the instructor is lecturing or while we are supposedly critiquing each others work. It leads to the instructor having to go over simple concepts multiple times due to students not paying attention which really pisses me off as it's wasting my time & money... Mommy & daddy aren't paying for my college classes... I am. We have a limited amount of time as it is... I want to get my money's worth by getting in as many concepts as possible--nott going over the same thing over and over and over because some idiot was tending to his crops.
Now chances are, these idiots who aren't paying attention in class would've found ways to not pay attention in class back in the pre-WiFi internet days, but for the most part, they would've been less distracting to other students who did want to pay attention. (They'd be doodling in a notebook or just sleeping.) If they were doing something that was distracting to other students, it would be much easier for an instructor to monitor and deal with... 'Take those headphones off,' 'stop talking back there,' etc.
These days, the instructor has a bunch of laptop lids pointed in their direction and the students could be doing anything from dutifully taking notes to running their virtual mob to reading Slashdot.
The point I'm eventually getting around to making is that these sorts of distractions that having full internet access in the classroom causes is unfair to the students who do want to pay attention.
I really don't give a shit if someone wants to waste their time and (parents') money by not paying attention in the classroom... but I get royally pissed when it wastes my time and my money.
Personally, if I was teaching I would have a policy in place where first time caught on the internet during a lecture or critique would get a warning, second time... auto fail.
But... I digress...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't know that removing the laptops would necessarily help. My gf is in school for nursing and she complains a lot about people who are slow to understand or ask "stupid" questions -- i.e. questions that were already covered during that class, or were covered in the readings (that were assigned to be completed before that class).
True... there is no cure for stupidity!
Re:Ban laptops or jam the Wi-Fi (Score:4, Interesting)
The problem is when flashing graphics from internet surfing and so forth distract other students from being able to pay full attention. The human eye is naturally drawn to motion and the flashing graphics on computer screens will cause others to be distracted by it... especially if it's accompanied by the *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* of someone harvesting their damn crops.
This is not about how laptops effect university professors. It is about how inappropriate usage laptops and internet in the classroom effects fellow students.
If another student is causing distraction in the classroom be it talking during a lecture or playing games or surfing the internet during the lecture, they are taking away from my classroom experience. I am paying for my own classroom experience not Mommy & Daddy. You take away what I am paying for with your inability to pay attention to something for a couple of hours and you are stealing from me.
I am in college to learn. It is not an extension of high school.
Another prof's take on this (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm also a prof, and here's my take on it... I give lectures in a couple of different majors. The CS students all bring their laptops, the business students never do, and there are some some classes in between.
First off, I do not require attendance. In fact, I usually explicitly say: "if you want to read your email, play games, etc, please do not come to class". If you're in my class, I want you there because you intend to pay attention to the lecture.
Alarindris (in an earlier post) made a really good point: to make a lecture interesting, you need to be able to interact with the class. If everyone is heads down in their laptops, and asking them a question causes them to look up with an expression of "huh? what's going on?" - well, there is just no way to make the lecture work. Over the years, I have had a couple of groups like this - it is really, really awful.
Regarding note-taking: I have never seen a student take notes on a computer. Mostly they load up the slides I've provided (which contain some, but not nearly all of the content). What goes up on the board is developed interactively with the class, and inevitably involves pictures and diagrams - there is just no reasonable way to take notes like that on the computer.
A few students complain that I don't provide complete material to download - thus making note taking unnecessary. These are the same students who expect to be handed an "A" on the final, without actually having to study or do anything difficult. The point of a lecture is for the professor to ensure that the students understand a topic. The material presented changes based on feedback from the class. "Is that clear, or do we need another example here?" If another example, or an alternative explanation is needed, you make one up on the spot. You go faster or slower, show more or less detail, use fewer or more examples based on the students' comprehension of what you are talking about.
If you find yourself talking to the tops of everyone's heads, you have no source of feedback. Did they understand? Are they even listening? One poster on this thread said that it's the prof's own fault if the students aren't interested. The other side is: if the students don't give any feedback, the lecture is guaranteed to be boring - because there is no way to tailor the presentation to the audience.
If you have a really horrible prof (yes, I know some of those), don't take the class. If you have to take the class, save yourself the boredom and don't go to lectures. If attendance is required, life's a bitch, deal with it. Consider it practice for those really exciting business meetings you'll be attending throughout your professional life: if you don't pay attention when the boss is talking, you'll be walking.
All of which is a long way of saying: laptops in lectures are really pretty useless for the students. I wouldn't bother to ban them - too much fuss - but I can and do ban any sort of distracting activities.
Fail (Score:3, Insightful)
Notes from my Father: 4.0 top of med school class. (Score:4, Interesting)
When I went to college I attempted this method, but I didn't have the stamina. I ended up with a B/C average when I graduated, but I had a lot of fun. I'm not making seven figures like he does, hell I'm not even earning six figures yet. So was having no social life worth the seven figure salary? Definitely, but how to you train yourself to have that level of self discipline?
The reason transcribing works so well is that during the lecture you miss a large percentage of the material to distractions, then on top of that you only remember a fraction of that. By transcribing the lecture you get exposed at least once to 100% of the material covered, then you can re-enforce what you've covered later when you review the transcripts.
Ban teaching by powerpoint before you ban laptops (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
There
Hey, stop surfing around and reading /. and start taking notes!
Re: (Score:2)
This whole thing could be avoided if the wifi connections available inside the classrooms were heavily filtered. It would be a bitch to administrate, but it would stop people from playing games during class and get them to concentrate.
Re:First Post (Score:5, Informative)
and get them to concentrate
Why would you want people to concentrate? People should want to concentrate, they are the only ones who can decide that. If they wanna play WoW during class they should be allowed, as long as they don't disturb the ones who want to learn.
It's their choice and nobody else's. Personally I intercalate between doing fun stuff and paying attention, because I decided to, and I face the consequences quietly and in my own.
Re:First Post (Score:4, Insightful)
If they wanna play WoW during class they should be allowed, as long as they don't disturb the ones who want to learn.
Why? They will almost always be disturbing people (anyone behind them, and anyone that can hear their computer's fans or keyboard/mouse presses). if they want to play WoW they can go to the common room, or just stay at home.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Total and absolute BS. Most college educations are completely worthless. Psychology, French Lit, History?
While the education is likely worthless, the degree is not. Try getting a job without one. It isn't easy, and as a college drop-out, I should know.
If you'd like to label my comment as 'absolute BS', I'd request you back that up. Find me the high school guidance counselor that recommends skipping college. Find me the recruiter who doesn't even ask if you have a degree.
I'd say most people would be much better off financially if they skipped college and used the money that would've gone into that somewhere else.
You're delusional. First they'll have a much tougher time finding a job. Second, and most importantly, it isn't real money. People get
you don't learn much in college, except... (Score:4, Insightful)
You don't learn much in college, except HOW to learn. The learning comes in grad school. Thus it's not the French degree that's important, but the completion of the degree proves that you have the skills/desires to complete the degree.
As far as them being totally worthless, my one semester of French in college has helped me talk to Haitian immigrants to diagnose their medical problems, so I say it is. Calling it totally worthless is like calling basic science research totally useless -there is something one can do with the basics of a good, solid education, regardless of what you do with it later.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The problem is that there are different types of learners. Some people learn visually, some aurally. Having some portion of the lecture notes on overhead slides helps the visual learners, but it isn't equivalent to being able to have precise notes that you can read, and people just can't take notes as rapidly by hand.
By taking away computers in the classroom, you unfairly bias grades towards the aural learners to a rather significant degree, s
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
In contemporary campus environments, though, how relevant is the difference? The campus, or at least all the academic buildings, are almost certainly blanketed by wifi, controlled by an IT department that isn't about to start taking "Please shut down all APs accessible in room X during times Y and Z" requests if they can possibly help it; and a fair few laptops either
Re:and...? (Score:4, Interesting)
I had that happen to me in an intro to C course. I'd been programming in C for some years by that point but the school wouldn't let me skip the course (even though I demonstrated advanced knowledge). So after 3 classes, the teacher noticed that I was constantly surfing the net during the time when we were supposed to be working on his problems (He counted attendance). After the third class, he asked me to see him after. When he did, he told me I'd need to do the work if I expected to pass the class. I showed him every problem that he'd given us to do (that I completed in a few minutes). I then explained that I first ventured into C years ago, and felt comfortable with the material. So what did he do? The next class, he gave me a rather hard problem from the end of the course. He said if I can finish it by the end of class, I'd get an A and not have to show up any more. So I got my A, and had one less class to attend.
The moral of the story? Just because someone's goofing off doesn't mean that they don't know the material or that they should be punished. Learn WHY a student is goofing off before punishing them (After all, it could be because you fail at teaching). But then again, that's asking teachers to do their jobs...
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Do you recall ever being given a blurb in a syllabus that strongly suggests that the optimal approach to learning in a class is to:
- read the materials before class (even a cursory read will do)
- come to class to gain connections, context, and detail for the more subtle points
- study after class to do the 'heavy lifting' of mastering the details?
Following that approach may help you with the "can't really use what I've been taught or contribute to discussion/examples until I've tried out [whatever technique/