The case for banning laptops in the classroom. • Hacker News Board

Re: The case for banning laptops in the classroom.

#61

Post by serge2k » Sat, Jun 07, 2014, 8:19 PM UTC

adwf wrote: post #55

booruguru wrote: post #50

This kind of bullshit drives me crazy. If I chose to spend thousands of dollars so I can goof off during a lecture, that's my prerogative. I don't need some to dictate what's in my best interest. My PowerBook was a huge boon for me in college. I write far better notes with a laptop than with pen and paper. What's more, I was able to multitask in ways that are simply impossible without a computer. If I were to encount…

It's not just about you though. In a lecture of 100+ people on laptops, you're bound to have plenty of distracting people browsing youtube, watching flashy videos or somesuch. That sort of thing can affect the people around you negatively. In that regard, it's hardly any different than asking the hall to be silent while the lecture is on, rather than everyone chatting out loud.

I had a professor who just had a rule that people with laptops had to sit at the back. Worked fine.

Re: The case for banning laptops in the classroom.

#62

Post by BruceIV » Sat, Jun 07, 2014, 10:35 PM UTC

existencebox wrote: post #57

Htsthbjig wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with laptops is keyboard noise. Compare note taking with keyboard typing in a class with several dozen people and you will see noise is a big problem if you are the teacher. I personally believe the best solution is audio record anything the teacher says, automatically transcribe it and just draw diagrams and stuff. But it will take some time before people start doing it.

I realize this is one of the "better" examples, but it's certainly close to home for HN, but would you really argue that recorded audio and drawn diagrams are more useful for CS/algorithms courses than some typed snippets and pseudocode? That was at least where having a laptop in class really paid off for me.

Different people process information differently; for me seeing an abstract diagram of say, a B-Tree, would be more useful than a pseudo-code overview of the structure (at least first - the code might be useful once I had an grasp of the idea from the diagram). That's just me, though, different people learn differently.

Re: The case for banning laptops in the classroom.

#63

Post by adwf » Sun, Jun 08, 2014, 11:31 AM UTC

serge2k wrote: post #61

adwf wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just about you though. In a lecture of 100+ people on laptops, you're bound to have plenty of distracting people browsing youtube, watching flashy videos or somesuch. That sort of thing can affect the people around you negatively. In that regard, it's hardly any different than asking the hall to be silent while the lecture is on, rather than everyone chatting out loud.

I had a professor who just had a rule that people with laptops had to sit at the back. Worked fine.

That's not a bad idea. As long as you don't have the entire room filled with laptop users ;)

Re: The case for banning laptops in the classroom.

#64

Post by jcromartie » Mon, Jun 09, 2014, 2:41 AM UTC

nknighthb wrote: post #39

jcromartie wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a non sequitur. If an emergency comes up, and your phone rings, you leave the room and answer it.

> If an emergency comes up, and your phone rings, you fail the course. Some are even known to demand everyone place their phones, very much powered off, in a box on their desk at the start of class.

even if it is on vibrate?

Re: The case for banning laptops in the classroom.

#65

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jun 16, 2014, 4:44 PM UTC

victorhooi wrote: post #58

vlunkr wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a couple of professors that didn't allow cell phone use in their classes, and it was annoying, for all the reasons the original poster listed. I can understand not letting high school students use phones, but in college you are an adult with sometimes conflicting responsibilities.

As other posters have said, just leave the damn room to take a call. But seriously, are you so incredibly important that you cannot spend 60 minutes listening to a lecture? This generation (and yes I know that includes me) seem to have an incredibly inflated sense of self-worth, as if they're the centre of the universe. It's like those idiots who can't stop texting in the damn movie. The world will keep spinning if y…

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