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Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom

#61

Post by klodolph »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #44
djrogers wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If students aren’t engaged, they aren’t going to become star pupils once you take away their distractions That's a bit of a straw-man - nobody said anything about turning every student in to star pupils, it's a matter of degrees. There is no question in my mind that a device capable of being online, using social media, and that is constantly pushing information at you is going to be a higher level distraction than…

What if star pupils do better when given a laptop?

I don't think that there's any question about that, there’s not some kind of one-size-fits-all set of rules that you can make everyone follow. But I can tell you from personal experience that I did my best performance in classes where I brought my laptop to class. Why? The answer is obvious when you look at it—if a class was below my level, and I was only taking it because it was required for my degree, I brought my laptop to stave of the boredom and breezed through the homework and tests.

So the answer to “what if?” question is really just that students are ultimately responsible for their own outcomes, and figuring out that laptops are a liability is part of that.

Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom

#62

Post by [deleted] »

compuguy wrote: post #24
stevemk14ebr wrote: post #9

I think this is a highly personal topic. As a student myself i find a laptop in class is very nice, i can type my notes faster, and organize them better. Most of my professors lectures are scatter brained and i frequently have to go back to previous section and annotate or insert new sections. With a computer i just go back and type, with a pen and paper i have to scribble, or write in the margins. Of course computer…

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.

[deleted]

Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom

#63

Post by Balgair »

izacus wrote: post #42
Glyptodon wrote: post #21

I feel like the conclusion is a bit off base: that students lack the self control to restrict the use of laptops laptops to class-related activities is somehow a sign that the problem is the laptop and not the students? I think it's very possible that younger generations have big issues with self-control and instant gratification. But I think it's wrong to think that laptops are the faulty party.

Riiight, because teenagers and young adults are so known for their long-term planning skills and self-control. We're not animals, we don't get born with instincts. This is why humans require education and upbringing to teach. And yes, this ( gasp !) sometimes means you need to make a non-adult person to do something against their first whim.

To be pedantic, we do have instincts as humans and common scientific consensus is that we are animals as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_reflexes (note that instinct and reflex are essentially the same thing in biology)

Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom

#64

Post by Balgair »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #38

We really need to begin ditching most studies. We have the ability now to collect vast amount of data and use that to make conclusions based on millions of endpoints, not just 10, 100 or 1000 pieces of information.

informed consent for scientific research is very specific and very important. It's history is somewhat intersting, but goes back to the Geneva conventions in the aftermath of WW2 and the Axis efforts on human experimentation: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2328798/

Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom

#66

Post by Bearwithme »

They should try this study again, but with laptops heavily locked down. Disable just about everything that isn't productive including a strict web filter. I am willing to bet the results would be much better for the kids with laptops. Of course if you let them have free reign they are going to be more interested in entertainment than productivity.

Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom

#67

Post by izacus »

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #59
izacus wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is improving your handwriting out of the question?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysgraphia There's a very specific part of the brain responsible for the movement planning and fine motor control required for writing. Some folks have it underdeveloped, and need to spend an inordinate amount of effort and concentration in order to write. And even then, their writing will often degrade over time as they fatigue.

Oook, but is that the case with the OP or is it an excuse? Handwriting does require a bit of practice (children usually do it for a few years to get good).

Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom

#68

Post by izacus »

scottLobster wrote: post #57
deadhead wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not an option for everyone. I had a classmate in undergrad who had a medical condition where they could not take notes by hand. They even had a doctor's note saying that they had to have a laptop in class.

Not physically able to use hands != perfectly able to use hands but was failed by their elementary school system and now rationalizes that learning to write legibly is somehow a waste of time ;) Not to be too personal, 99% of college students (including myself back in the day) are lazy rationalizers in some fashion. In my experience it's not until Junior/Senior year that some majors start squeezing that out.

Just remembering the amount of excuses and ways we used to rationalize our laziness in college really makes me cringe :P

Most people do grow up tho.

Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom

#69

Post by Balgair »

ourmandave wrote: post #31

This 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.

For real though. Many large undergrad lectures kinda run this way. I'll take the video of the lecture (many large universities record all lectures now) and just play it back at ~1.3x speed later. I can rewind, stop, and fast-forward to the stuff I know I need to know. Since the tests/HW are the only thing that matters, why would I not do it this way? It's a better use of all of our time.

Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom

#70

Post by vblord »

During indoor recess at my kids school, kids don't eat their lunch and just throw it away because of the chromebooks. There are only have a few computers and they are first come first serve. Kids would rather go without lunch to be able to play on the internet for 20 minutes.
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