I've taught in laptop classrooms, and can sympathize somewhat with faculty comments - like those in Digital Distraction - that suggest laptops should be banned from classrooms. It can be distracting, even frustrating, to instruct a class where students don't appear to be listening to the lecture but are instead engagement in instant messaging, downloading music, watching videos, etc. But, as the article mentions, the deeper problem may rest with instructional methods. Active, engaged learning is probably the best model for dealing with lack of student interest. The situation is obviously complex - students can often miss important concepts when not involved in the lecture or in class learning activities. I recall many discussions with students who realized, often too late, that they were well behind in course work due to distractions online. However, students at the higher education level are adults. We can't impose our will on them in classrooms. We need to mirror the democratic worldviews which form society's foundation. I don't think banning laptops accomplishes that.
Posted by gsiemens at November 6, 2007 3:55 PM | TrackBackLaptops can be so useful in the classroom, and adults have the right to decide how and when they want to use them. I agree.
Posted by: R08 at November 8, 2007 12:38 PMI agree with that. I use a laptop at meetings to take notes with and access references. I blog all of my conference notes. This is just how I work. As an English instructor, my students are writing, doing peer reviews, working on grammar and composition exercises, listening to one another's papers. They would hardly have time to download movies in my class.
Posted by: Geoff Cain at November 9, 2007 11:35 AM