11–20 of 255 posts
I have a feeling that people who aren't paying attention weren't going to anyhow.
However, I'd also guess that at least some people use the computer to look up additional information instead of stopping the class and asking, which helps everyone involved.
If students aren’t engaged, they aren’t going to become star pupils once you take away their distractions. Perhaps kids attend more lectures than before knowing that they can always listen in while futzing with other things (and otherwise, they may skip some of the classes entirely). The lecture format is what needs changing. You need a reason to go to class, and there was nothing worse than a professor showing slide…
If students aren’t engaged, they aren’t going to become star pupils once you take away their distractions. Perhaps kids attend more lectures than before knowing that they can always listen in while futzing with other things (and otherwise, they may skip some of the classes entirely). The lecture format is what needs changing. You need a reason to go to class, and there was nothing worse than a professor showing slide…
It's like we never left the Middle Ages, when books were expensive and the point of lecturing was to read the book, which was the only book, or one of a few, to students, who'd then copy it down in their notebooks so they'd have at least a copy of what was in the book. These days, despite the textbook publishers' best efforts, the information is freely available (up until you run into paywalled research papers, but t…
I'd be more impressed if they also did the same study with notepads and doodles and daydreams, and compared the numbers. I have a feeling that people who aren't paying attention weren't going to anyhow. However, I'd also guess that at least some people use the computer to look up additional information instead of stopping the class and asking, which helps everyone involved.
No it doesn't. Practically the only point of lectures is so students can ask questions. Otherwise just read the material and don't go. Moreover there are probably others in the class too shy to ask the same question, but at worst it reinforces everyone else's learning.
I'd be more impressed if they also did the same study with notepads and doodles and daydreams, and compared the numbers. I have a feeling that people who aren't paying attention weren't going to anyhow. However, I'd also guess that at least some people use the computer to look up additional information instead of stopping the class and asking, which helps everyone involved.
Are you sure about that? Intuitively, wouldn't it be the opposite? Asking questions results in the teacher giving an answer that can benefit the whole class, whereas if you just look something up yourself you're the only one who benefits from that additional piece of information.
If students aren’t engaged, they aren’t going to become star pupils once you take away their distractions. Perhaps kids attend more lectures than before knowing that they can always listen in while futzing with other things (and otherwise, they may skip some of the classes entirely). The lecture format is what needs changing. You need a reason to go to class, and there was nothing worse than a professor showing slide…
As soon as a lecture brought out slides, I knew my mark was going to be abysmal in that class. Thankfully I recognized that and in my later years promptly dropped those classes.
I'd be more impressed if they also did the same study with notepads and doodles and daydreams, and compared the numbers. I have a feeling that people who aren't paying attention weren't going to anyhow. However, I'd also guess that at least some people use the computer to look up additional information instead of stopping the class and asking, which helps everyone involved.
If students aren’t engaged, they aren’t going to become star pupils once you take away their distractions. Perhaps kids attend more lectures than before knowing that they can always listen in while futzing with other things (and otherwise, they may skip some of the classes entirely). The lecture format is what needs changing. You need a reason to go to class, and there was nothing worse than a professor showing slide…
Most interesting, engaging class I have ever had was Philip Greenspun's short database class at MIT. All day for three days, a cycle of ~15 minute lecture, ~15 minute problem sets worked by each student on their own laptop, ~15 minutes of reviewing student solutions (and, if needed, presenting the "correct" solution). I imagine that many classes could be presented in a similar format. I also imagine it would be a lot…
I can imagine that taking a lot of planning and refinement over multiple offerings to get the timing just right on the exercises.