Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Laptops Are Great, But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 235 posts

Re: Laptops Are Great, But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting

#131

Post by ska »

jayess wrote: post #117
ska wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lectures as part of course are designed to be attended after reviewing the material at least once on your own. That way you know what to look out for, and your notes will be a concise revision. Its astonishing how many students resist this fact, even when it is clearly spelled out for them. Trying to write down everything the lecturer says is at best inefficient, and at worst a complete waste of time when you lose th…

In law school it was mandatory to review the material before class and be prepared to discuss it, because you likely would be called on to explain a case or concept for the class. It's a bit anxiety inducing but forced me to learn the material, which is I suppose the whole purpose of a class.

exactly!

Re: Laptops Are Great, But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting

#132

Post by mikebenfield »

ska wrote: post #103
amorphid wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why lectures suck for me. I can't "listen fast enough", and I lost track of the lecture when I try to take notes. This is where something like Khan Academy is way awesome-r for my style of learning.

Lectures as part of course are designed to be attended after reviewing the material at least once on your own. That way you know what to look out for, and your notes will be a concise revision. Its astonishing how many students resist this fact, even when it is clearly spelled out for them. Trying to write down everything the lecturer says is at best inefficient, and at worst a complete waste of time when you lose th…

> Lectures as part of course are designed to be attended after reviewing the material at least once on your own.

> Its astonishing how many students resist this fact, even when it is clearly spelled out for them.

I've taken a lot of classes, I've been a teaching assistant for a lot of classes, I've observed a lot of classes, and I've never gotten the impression that the instructor expected the students to have already looked at the material. Certainly no one ever said that explicitly.

I will say that it is true that the handful of times I tried to structure my class differently and have students read material on their own before lecture, they were indeed resistant and it didn't go well. And I do think that would be a better approach. But my point is that this is overwhelmingly not what is generally expected of students, at least in my experience, mostly at state colleges in the US.

Re: Laptops Are Great, But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting

#133

Post by slantyyz »

frou_dh wrote: post #115

I'm so glad that I attended university before it was the done thing for students to be on laptops during lectures. If nothing else, it's simply a distraction to have all the other peoples' bright and animated screens in your field of vision.

>> I'm so glad that I attended university before it was the done thing for students to be on laptops during lectures.

I'm also glad I finished before laptops (and even www) became a thing.

For me, the clicking and clacking of the keyboards would drive me bonkers.

Re: Laptops Are Great, But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting

#134

Post by harrisjt »

retrac98 wrote: post #4

To be honest, I found lectures to be a complete waste of time at University, with or without a laptop. You could just download the lecturer's slides and speaker notes outside of class and learn the material ahead of exams/coursework. I managed to come near the top of my class this way with something like 5% attendance at lectures. I expect this isn't the case in the top Universities, but I left my University thinking…

That is definitely true of sub top-20 universities. Even intros for the top-20s as well. This however is not true of that top tier for the average student.

Re: Laptops Are Great, But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting

#135

Post by afarrell »

lvoudour wrote: post #21
afarrell wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> publish them online later Note that you also need to have someone add captions to them for accessibility.

Most professors are experts at delegating the menial tasks to others :)

Sure, but that requires a budget

Re: Laptops Are Great, But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting

#136

Post by pklausler »

I don't mind laptops being used in meetings, so long as their use is relevant to the meeting. But I find it highly distracting when somebody is pounding away on a keyboard while paying no attention to what the rest of us in the room are trying to accomplish.

Re: Laptops Are Great, But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting

#137

Post by pacbard »

btbuildem wrote: post #100

> Students writing by hand had to process and condense the spoken material simply to enable their pens to keep up with the lecture. Indeed, the notes of the laptop users more closely resembled transcripts than lecture summaries. The handwritten versions were more succinct but included the salient issues discussed in the lecture. This seems to be the key point -- when taking notes by hand, you have to think about what…

The other important finding is the "negative externality" of laptop use on other people that are not using it. Even if someone is taking notes on paper and the student next to him/her is using a computer, research has found negative impacts on both the student using the laptop and the student using paper (akin to second-hand smoke).

I think that this is important from a policy prospective because students can make whatever choices for themselves, but the instructor should step in when those choices are impacting others' learning.

Re: Laptops Are Great, But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting

#138

Post by gilbetron »

Oddly, I've found that I pay better attention if I use a laptop during a meeting, but not for taking notes. Rather I will either lightly browse related information, or look for the answer to a question that pops in my mind. It can't be intense usage, but just simple. It seems to keep my mind more alert and I'm able to absorb the meeting better. I also can tune out if they are talking about something I already know. If I don't have a laptop or phone, I tend to zone out or fall asleep.

On the other hand, I get pissed if someone is in my meeting using a laptop and isn't paying attention at all. It's a weird thing.

Re: Laptops Are Great, But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting

#139

Post by timthelion »

mtpn wrote: post #97
timthelion wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. While not a direct replacement for lectures, I've been prototyping an audio media which does not have these same disadvantages, called push to talk. You can find the prototype here: http://thobbs.cz/push-to-talk/index.html Click on the first track, and then use the arrow keys to move through the essay. Note that you can rewind, review, pause to think, just like with text. But it is speech.

This seems awesome. I can’t get it to play from my phone but the concept is really really useful. I used to want to make something like this for audio-based exams for people with dyslexia, for example. In Ireland people with reading difficulties have a person sit with them and read the questions in a whole other room. It’s expensive compared to just having a group with headphones working through on computers.

I just tested it and it works with icecat mobile but not Androids default browser. Which browser are you using?

Also, I haven't optimized for mobile with regards to "arrow keys" not being a thing on the cell phone. I'll probably have to add arrow buttons that are visible only on the cell phone or something. Perhaps a swipe...

Re: Laptops Are Great, But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting

#140

Post by [deleted] »

ska wrote: post #103
amorphid wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why lectures suck for me. I can't "listen fast enough", and I lost track of the lecture when I try to take notes. This is where something like Khan Academy is way awesome-r for my style of learning.

Lectures as part of course are designed to be attended after reviewing the material at least once on your own. That way you know what to look out for, and your notes will be a concise revision. Its astonishing how many students resist this fact, even when it is clearly spelled out for them. Trying to write down everything the lecturer says is at best inefficient, and at worst a complete waste of time when you lose th…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN