Hey everyone,
I work at the law school so I picked up 'the National Jurist' and saw this interesting article which I thought people might want to read. We talked about it in class, and what we thought about classrooms not allowing laptops. Anyway, this article talks about different professors, their laptop policies and the pros and cons etc.
It's interesting, I promise.
Kassandra
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4 comments:
It's interesting that the professor quoted cites differences in test performance between the laptop-having and laptop-banned classes. I wonder whether having students on laptops or not in the class affects how the instructor teaches.
Elaine brings up a good point. It seems likely that a teacher's enthusiasm for teaching would probably have a correlation along with students' for learning/attention. I think it is a good thing that professors are banning lab tops- except of course for those hard core note taking classes. I don't have a lab top, so my view is biased, but I can surely say that other students' lab tops distract me, and that sometimes I wish I had one when I get bored in lecture.
A year and a half ago I took a COMM course with Alison Trope, and she didn't allow lab tops in class. But she always made class interesting and engaging to where students probably didn't miss it.
Sorry, resubmitted, I accidentally posted an incomplete comment.
I don't personally bring a lap top to class but I really don't believe in the idea of not allowing lap tops in class.
I think there is a shift in responsibility between high school and college. In high school we were obligated to learn, sometimes in classes that we had absolutely no interest in. And that was acceptable because we were minors and at an age in which we did not really know that we needed to know the material and that it was somehow beneficial to us.
However, college is a different matter. The district is no longer responsible for us as students. We are the ones taking out the hefty loans and responsible for our own educations. The least professors can do is acknowledge that the students have a right to choose what they want to learn. If a student is browsing Myspace on his laptop, the sole bearer of responsibility in relation to his/her education is on that student and on that student alone.
I think this is especially true in classes where the material is mundane. I'd like to suggest the possibility that sometimes students turn to their laptops because the instructor offers no insights that are not already included in the reason. Especially in basic level classes where there are 300 students and one professor just reading fact after fact spread across 60 slides of power point.
I've had many good professors over the years and none of them needed to ban laptops from the rooms to feel connected to the students. Good instructors relate the material to students in a way that makes the material feel relevant. In the end, I still believe that it is up to the student to take responsibility for his/her own education and thus he/she should have the choice to disconnect him/herself from the class room.
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