

This year, I resolve to ban laptops from my classroom - frostmatthew
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/30/this-year-im-resolving-to-ban-laptops-from-my-classroom/

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tokenizerrr
Is this before or after the students were told they were required to own a
laptop to participate in their education? I'm just about finishing my own
education, and everyone there owned a laptop at the school's recommendation.

Personally I used mine for a lot of rapid note-taking, which was a lot faster
for me than having to write things down. It actually allowed me to take notes
in real time which I am not able to do on paper. Then I also encountered a
professor like the one in the submitted article who hated the idea of students
using the devices the school encouraged them to buy for their education in his
classroom. That class was the roughest for me, I found it very hard to work
with my written notes (Which I no longer was used to using of course, since I
used that laptop for years) and am convinced the class would have gone a lot
better for me had the professor not decided to make a decision which set his
classroom starkly apart from the rest.

If the school has a policy of allowing laptops then I think it's terrible for
a professor to override that.

~~~
DanBC
What did you use for note taking? Did you use any system?

I hand write notes in meetings and I use Cornell method. For me personally I
don't think a computer would work (partly because I only type at about 65 WPM)
so I'm interested when I find people who say it does work for them.

~~~
tokenizerrr
I just used Google Docs, but I type very fast. I'm not entirely sure, but I
think I have about a WPM of about 130. I managed with just typing things as
they happened, and using the shortcuts to enter LateX formulas. I didn't
encounter a lot of diagrams or other things that needed drawing during my
studies, but usually kept a notebook nearby just in case.

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TronPaul_
I was a student very recently and if I class was boring, or too easy (easy
enough I could get by without good notes) I distracted myself, with or without
a laptop. Most Mathematics professors don't allow laptops to be brought to
class, so I planned out personal projects, made UMLs, and at one point wrote
shitty poetry if I got bored.

If he's going to ban laptops, I hope he refrains from reading off powerpoint
slides. Any professor or teacher who does has given up their right to be mad
if students aren't paying attention.

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qzcx
Honestly, I think it is up to the student to decide. If they find they don't
pay enough attention with a laptop in front of them, then they should stop
pulling it out. If they feel like they barely get anything out of the lectures
and decide to stay home, that is also their decision. Its strikes me as odd
that it is so common in college now to require attendance or attempt to force
student to pay attention. I typically only pay less attention if I don't feel
the professor is offering me any new content or insight into the material. If
reading the book and doing the assigned homework gets me the same knowledge,
then I only feel inclined to half listen to the lecture. I think it is often
the pride of the professor which drives them to ban laptops or phones, they
want everyone to listen to them, even if it is receptive and boring. Instead
of addressing the problems with their delivery, they blame the students. I
always listen to entertaining, interesting professors.

~~~
DanBC
I tend to agree with you. What about the student who is trying to concentrate
but who has a bunch of distracted colleagues playing games or checking social
media?

~~~
qzcx
I tend to sit closer to the front to help myself concentrate. This helps me
not get distracted on my own computer, but also it puts less distractions in
front of me. Nothing is really out of your control as a student. Sure maybe
the guy playing Flappy Bird in front of you might distract you for a single
class, but if you sit behind him every class then its your own fault.

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throwawaymsft
We think technology is the solution to education (our math test scores are
lower than China's because they have better laptops than us!).

It comes down to motivation. Laptops in the classroom are a nearly
irresistible demotivator/distractor for most kids.

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jacquesm
When you write something down it is not just the information passing through
your eyes and brain onto the paper, it's the remnant of that information in
your brain that counts. That's why note taking is useful.

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userbinator
_I had a choice. I could disrupt the class to single him out. Or I could do
what most teachers in higher education do: just ignore it. After all, these
students are adults, and they have to take a final exam._

I think there are always people who will do something else, if they were not
looking at a laptop they'd be daydreaming or idly doodling. In the end it
doesn't matter as long as they can do the work and meet the learning goals of
the course. The ones who can't, regardless of whether they're looking at a
laptop, will (or should...) fail anyway.

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LukeB_UK
How about instead of lecturing (talking _at_ people instead of _to_ them) and
banning laptops, we change the way these people are taught so that they are
actually engaged and focused. It's been known for a while now that different
people learn in different ways. Technology can be a huge help in this and
companies are already creating products to help create this personalised
learning experience.

Disclosure: I work for Frog, a company that creates learning platforms.

~~~
DanBC
> It's been known for a while now that different people learn in different
> ways.

Are you talking about "learning styles" such as kinaesthetic or visual or
auditory?

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_styles](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_styles)

> Although there is ample evidence that individuals express preferences for
> how they prefer to receive information, few studies have found any validity
> in using learning styles in education.[2] Critics say there is no evidence
> that identifying an individual student's learning style produces better
> outcomes. There is evidence of empirical and pedagogical problems related to
> the use of learning tasks to "correspond to differences in a one-to-one
> fashion."[3] Well-designed studies contradict the widespread "meshing
> hypothesis", that a student will learn best if taught in a method deemed
> appropriate for the student's learning style.[2]

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javiercr
Hello, this is 2015 and people learn in totally different ways than 20 years
ago.

In other words, if your students are staring at Facebook maybe is because your
lecture is boring as hell. That's what you should be worried about.

~~~
keithpeter
_" Hello, this is 2015 and people learn in totally different ways than 20
years ago."_

The _learning_ process will be similar to 20, 200 or 2000 years ago as the
brain does not change that quickly. The mode by which we access things to
learn may well change from generation to generation.

Challenge: 'boring' may imply resistance to engagement, perhaps because the
material is _hard_.

~~~
javiercr
By learning different I mean we don't learn in a "broadcast" way anymore.
Check out this great article by Don Tapscott:

 _Yet the students, who have grown up in an interactive digital world, learn
differently. Schooled on Google and Wikipedia, they want to inquire, not rely
on the professor for a detailed roadmap. They want an animated conversation,
not a lecture. They want an interactive education, not a broadcast one that
might have been perfectly fine for the Industrial Age, or even for boomers.
These students are making new demands of universities, and if the universities
try to ignore them, they will do so at their peril._

[http://edge.org/conversation/the-impending-demise-of-the-
uni...](http://edge.org/conversation/the-impending-demise-of-the-university)

~~~
frostmatthew
> By learning different I mean we don't learn in a "broadcast" way anymore.

Given the excerpt you quoted uses the word "want" I think you mean you don't
_want_ to learn in a broadcast way. That's fine, but that's not a sufficient
rebuttal to the point you were replying to that " _The learning process will
be similar to 20, 200 or 2000 years ago as the brain does not change that
quickly_." I'm not sure I entirely agree with that[1], but saying you _want_
to learn in a different way is not evidence that "people learn in totally
different ways."

On one hand I feel students preferring more interaction / less broadcast is
nothing new, but on the other hand the popularity of Coursera, MIT
OpenCourseWare, Udacity, Khan Academy, and countless other very "broadcasty"
education sites/resources would seem to indicate many are quite satisfied with
little or no interaction.

[1] [http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-
googl...](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-
making-us-stupid/306868/)

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santiagobasulto
The problem is not whether you take notes on a laptop or a legal pad. The
problem resides in TAKING NOTES! This might be just my opinion, but I hate
taking notes, it's completely useful! If I'm going to a class I go to LISTEN
to the professor and to ask questions to him/her.

Before every class I used to read the contents we were going to cover
(superficial read). That way I wouldn't be caught by weird words, references
or concepts. At least I knew something. Then I'd "use" the professor to
"explain" and "dig" those concepts for me.

If you seriously need to take notes, the one failing is the professor. She/he
should provide the content covered in the class in the form of pages of books
to read, slides, etc.

If you're a student. DON'T TAKE NOTES! (again, just my opinion)

~~~
graeme
I wasn't much of a notetaker in college. But there may be something to it.

I was going through old books from university over christmas. I found two
notebooks where I took extensive notes during class.

They were all familiar. I remembered the content of the class quite well,
whereas I've forgotten most other classes.

(Of course, one possible bias is that I thought these two teachers were
better, so I may have paid more attention)

