If students thing the class is boring enough, they'll watch youtube whether on the laptop or on their mobile is no really important.
Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom
211–220 of 255 posts
Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some of us also have terrible handwriting, so taking notes by hand is out of the question. Though I will also surmise that they can also be a distraction.
In 15 years of studies, I have never ever heard anyone complaining about his own handwriting. Even with a handwriting that can be very bad for others, one can always reread 99.9% of what one has written, because it is one's own handwriting and one knows its quirks. This kind of complaint magically appeared after students got Internet-enabled laptops and were allowed to bring them at school. That's bullshit of the sam…
>Laptop in a classroom are used to play, browse the web and social networks; the rest are made-up justifications to be allowed to bring them.
As a side note, if you actually need/want to take notes on an electronic device such a laptop, it doesn't mean that the device MUST have a browser AND be connected to the internet. If there was a word processor ONLY laptop with no browser nor games on it, air-gaped from the internet, THEN it would be just a matter of preferences.
And I would go a bit further on the handwriting (excluded medical conditions) having a decently readable handwriting only costs some time in exercising wanting to better it, and it is a form of respect towards yourself (when you have to re-read your notes) and towards others that may need to read what you write.
Maybe you will manage to live your whole life only writing "electronically" but why risking to be unable to communicate in handwriting?
Once upon a time you couldn't get past first few years of elementary schools unless you had a decent handwriting, no need for it to be "beautiful" or "calligraphic", only readable.
The fact that it may be slower than typing ( and this BTW happens only for exceptionally fast and accurate typists) it's not in itself a bad thing, while you write by hand you somehow need more concentration to avoid mis-spelling as you haven't the equivalent of a backspace (or in some cases a spelling corrector) and this usually helps for memorizing what you are writing while you write it.
Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom
#213If 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…
Lectures have worked well enough for years for many people.
Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom
#214Politicians are also better off without a laptop during legislative sessions [0].
Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom
#215I've always find the idea of taking a laptop to a lecture pretty rude. I'm there to give the person teaching my full attention, not stare at a laptop screen. So personally I never use them in any type of lecturing / teaching environment simply as a mark of respect.
Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
You typeset all your lecture notes? I'm not sure this would benefit a student. Something I wish I did when I was in school is download the solutions manuals and work problems. I considered that cheating when I was in school but now I think it is just being time effective.
"You typeset all your lecture notes? I'm not sure this would benefit a student." The poster is doing this in addition to actually writing the notes - I've done something similar. Sometimes I take the initial notes on a computer. Later I hand-write them once or twice. Once immediately and once later on to narrow focus down on things I was having more trouble remembering. The biggest benefit is that such a system gives…
Agreed on the repetition. I tried using my Powerbook G3 in class, and there was no way to keep up. I would carry a colored folder for each subject, each with its own yellow note pad, for quickly taking down lectures. I never went digital, but would meticulously transfer the notes into those green, gridded, National 33-209 spiral notebooks :) A few years ago I bought a couple 33-209s on Amazon and was really disappointed to find the quality had taken a nose dive. Those were a darn good spiral notebook!
Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom
#217This reminds me of the running gag in some college movie where the first day all the students show up. The next cut some students come to class, put a recorder on their desk and leave, then pick it up later. Eventually there's a scene of the professor lecturing to a bunch of empty desks with just recorders. And the final scene there's the professor's tape player playing to the student's recorders.
FYI, this gag appears exactly as described in Real Genius . I wonder if there are any other movies that use it?
TVTropes probably has it, but I couldn't find it. Snopes has it as urban legend here http://www.snopes.com/college/admin/recorder.asp
Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom
#218If 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…
They controlled for that:
>In this case, however, boredom was not the answer – at least not entirely. Students who reported lower interest in the class did tend to have lower exam scores, but this relationship did not account for the relationship between internet use and exam performance.
Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
A counter argument for the sake of discussion: students in the classroom can add value to the recorded lectures by engaging the professor with questions that ask to clarify, extend, etc. If there are no students left, the students rely fully on the profs ability to monologue. Could be a risk. Could dilute the lecture's potential.
As a professor, I'm increasingly trying to avoid using a computer to lecture. I'm making a lot more use of a whiteboard pen to explain things, backed up by powerpoint slides, video and audio only when I think it adds. The nice thing about using a pen is there isn't a set script - I can digress, or add extra explanation as needed. I do have detailed notes for how I plan to do the lecture, but I very rarely use those n…
This is how almost all the lectures I attended in the mid 70s (Physics, Exeter Uni.) were done. The one useless lecturer who just read the set book we tried to get fired and when that didn't work just formed a rota and noted the page numbers so that we could just precis the relevant pages at leisure. He also set the exam in the same way and as all the exams were open note we all passed with flying colours.
The other course were more challenging and more interesting.
Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
I took a class that basically covered a lot of papers. The lecturer spoke at a mile a minute and it was nigh impossible to write all the important info by hand and the really important parts are not on the slides. Typing on a computer allowed me to write all the juicy bits that made studying a breeze.
I thought the main benefit of taking notes on paper was that it forced you to think and to summarize instead of transcribe.
Exactly. Scientific American also highlighted a study of precisely that issue:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-learning-secret...