Alternatively titled, "Jesse Stommel Turns Out to Be Wrong. Again." Sorry. Couldn't resist.
The professor who banned laptops a year ago has an essay in the CHE on the results.
A little flava:
The gist is that her students are paying better attention and doing better on tests since she "gave laptops the boot a year ago."
Or you could just click the link.
Have a good weekend, everybody.
The professor who banned laptops a year ago has an essay in the CHE on the results.
A little flava:
I looked out at my visual-communication class and saw a group of six students transfixed by the blue glow of a video on one of their computers, and decided I was done allowing laptops in my large lecture class. "Done" might be putting it mildly. Although I am an engaging lecturer, I could not compete with Facebook and YouTube, and I was tired of trying.
The next semester I told students they would have to take notes on paper. Period.
I knew that eliminating laptops in my classroom would reduce distractions. Research has shown that when students use their laptops to "multitask" during class, they don’t retain as much of the lecture. But I also had a theory, based on my college experience from the dark ages—the 70s, aka, before PowerPoint—that students would process lectures more effectively if they took notes on paper.
The gist is that her students are paying better attention and doing better on tests since she "gave laptops the boot a year ago."
Or you could just click the link.
Have a good weekend, everybody.
Thank you, RGM, for fixing my post. You rock.
ReplyDeleteLet's stop taunting Jesse Stommel, until he does something new that's obnoxious. It's too easy: it's not as if we continue to taunt him, he's going to make a mistake.
ReplyDeleteAlso, as a physics proffie, I have long thought that technology in the classroom of all kinds should be treated as a rich dessert: a little of it is delightful, but more than a little is sickening. It can be useful for helping your students understand, but not for showing them how clever you think you are.
DeleteSounds fair.
DeleteI must say, though, that it would be hysterical to announce, on the first day of class, a "no pencils" policy.
And when Fox News (probably 30 seconds after class has finished) comes calling,to direct the august organization in Dr. Stommel's direction.
OK, then, let's be more precise about it: make that a "no student electronics" policy, with the exceptions of dedicated calculators that cannot communicate outside the classroom, or any sort of equipment needed for a disability (e.g. hearing aids) or are officially documented by the campus disability office, or life support.
DeleteNow you know why the ol' syllabus is at 19 pages and counting...
(It also reminds of the snark that John Billingham took for his book "Life in the Universe." I thought it was a pretty good book, but Bob Park pointed out that Earth is in the Universe. The subject is now called astrobiology.)
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ReplyDeleteI teach almost entirely in computer-equipped classrooms (and almost never lecture), so I may not be in the best position to comment, but my guess is that the move from laptops to tablets (and, increasingly, portable computers that can play either role) is going to make this a moot point, or at least change the debate from whether students should be allowed to use electronic devices to how they should be allowed/encouraged to use them. Tablets are capable of functioning very much like pen(cil) and paper (in other words, they allow handwriting, which seems to have cognitive benefits), and also seem to be less tempting as distractions (I'm not sure whether that's because they're harder to hide behind/more visible, because it's a bit harder to switch apps than open windows, or a bit of both). And, of course, tablets allow for the possibility of simultaneously referring to and marking up a text, activities dear to humanities professors everywhere.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see whether we eventually decide that computers that sit flat on a desk will work in classrooms, but computers that set a screen upright in front of a student (which, of course, a tablet can also do, though most of them are smaller) are not a good idea. Or whether we end up requiring students to keep their computing devices flat on the desk at certain times (this begins to sound like the old "four on the floor" parietal rules), or to write with styli or fingers in certain circumstances, or just end up recommending certain approaches, and letting students decide. I do think we're in a transition moment, and that makes for complex policies, and lot of experimentation with same.
And all of this, of course, also depends on what various devices cost, and what students can afford. My school is moving away from computer-equipped classrooms to bring-your-own-device flexible-furniture classrooms, and, while I'm mostly happy with the idea (our computer classrooms come in various configurations, all of them row-based, and some of them situating half of the class facing screens set along the outside perimeter of the room, so flexible furniture sounds good), I am concerned about the students who don't own devices other than a phone. Most of the texts we read and write in my classes really aren't meant to be viewed on a phone.
At the other extreme, I have a nephew who goes to a very fancy prep school at which all classes are conducted seminar-style (with the students explicitly taught from the day they enter that they, not the teacher, are responsible for keeping conversation going -- I know; hard to imagine, but it apparently works, at least in this highly-selective environment). He receives some financial aid, including for technology, and his grant covers both a laptop and a tablet, precisely because the school feels that the laptop is more appropriate for certain out-of-class activities (e.g. writing papers), but the tablet is more appropriate for in-class discussion. Apparently nobody's suggesting that the students shouldn't bring tablets to class; on the other hand, when you've got about a dozen students around a single table, and all accept that they're collectively responsible for the discussion, the option of getting lost in one's device just isn't available.
Tablets have caused just as many problems in my classroom as laptops and smartphones, and I have banned all electronic note-taking except as approved accommodations. Having the textbook as an ebook was just one more distraction from the lecture and discussion.
ReplyDelete(I don't let them read the book in hard copy either during class.)
The only problem with my ban is about the campus emergency notification system. We're all (faculty, staff, and students) urged to sign up for notification by text, email, or voice mail in case of shooters and such. But during class, I want all of our phones set to silence and put away. My students rightly pointed out that we're isolating ourselves from the network and won't know if we get a shelter-in-place warning.
What to do? Is there an app that lets only emergency calls make noise?
Easy! Say "I have my phone on, and I've signed up for emergency notifications. So if we get a warning, I'll know and of course will pass that on to you. Now turn off your goddamned phones before I kick them right up your entitled little asses."
DeleteI grok that fantasy. But my phone gets junk calls and calls from relatives and the dentist and my HMO. It's my main phone. Is there a filter app that will let only the campus system get through during class times?
ReplyDeleteiPhones have a Do Not Disturb feature which only allows selected numbers to cause ringtones. Not sure if equivalents exist elsewhere.
DeleteI just assume that despite my warnings, some of them will have phones in their laps and will get the alert. Plus, nobody ever calls me.
My feeling is that they're free to distract themselves with whatever they like, as long as they don't distract others.
ReplyDeleteThat is the problem, Ra/oG--where doodling distracted maybe one other person, the glow of Facebook or Twitter or Reddit or Tumblr distracts the people on either side and behind the student with the laptop. Those students' grades are statistically lower than students without the distraction.
DeleteCf Laptop multitasking hinders classroom learning for both users and nearby peers at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131512002254