laptops and Internet access in class
A colleague of mine recently published this op-ed in the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/06/AR200704 0601544.html He describes his reasons for banning his first-year students from bringing laptops to class (they go into "stenographic mode", or they surf and check e-mail, which distracts other students and detracts from the learning experience). He reports that his students reacted positively to the experiment (some of my own reacted quite negatively when I mentioned they idea, but they were upper-years who had self-selected to study IP/technology law). He has also begun campaigning to have us modify our wireless network so that it is turned "off" in classrooms during class time and/or to modify our entire network to disable students' university e-mail and web accounts during the hours that they're listed as being signed up for class. I was surprised to learn this, but apparently the U. of Michigan law school has done both of these things and some other law schools are considering it. In the ensuing debate, many colleagues cited what I think are some very good reasons not to do the last two things, including: missed pedagogical opportunities (both re use of the Internet for on-the-fly research as subjects come up in class and re ethics of networked technology use), cost, inequality as between students who use only our network and students who can access other available wireless networks via commercial accounts, and excessive paternalism. Now that the semester has ended, I expect the subject to come up again, and I thought I would see what members of this list think. Most specifically, I'm wondering (1) what you all say to colleagues who react to laptops and wired classrooms in this way; and (2) techniques that you use to encourage students to think about their own responsibilities re networked technology usage. Thanks, Julie
There's one thing I've seen students do with laptops and wi-fi in a class that convinced me to not impose any kind of outright class-wide ban on using the technology, and that's IM-ing between one another in a situation where one student was more fluent in English than the other and would translate things for the less fluent student. I've often wondered what it would be like if I provided students with a back-channel via IRC for the class (and what would it be like if I projected the channel on a screen in front of the class)? What would students do with this (if anything)? If I had to make a binary decision I'd probably do it on a class by class basis, and try to take into consideration any number of things such as course content, the types of learning I'm encouraging most, the emphases I seek on particular forms of engaging the class, and the students themselves (among other things). What's been interesting to me is the reaction of students to teachers who are themselves looking at screens and not at the class. In general they seem quite put off by apparently not getting the attention of the teacher (even when it's not personal attention, directed at them individually, but attention to the class). Sj On May 18, 2007, at 8:36 AM, Julie Cohen wrote:
A colleague of mine recently published this op-ed in the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/06/ AR200704 0601544.html
He describes his reasons for banning his first-year students from bringing laptops to class (they go into "stenographic mode", or they surf and check e-mail, which distracts other students and detracts from the learning experience). He reports that his students reacted positively to the experiment (some of my own reacted quite negatively when I mentioned they idea, but they were upper-years who had self-selected to study IP/technology law). He has also begun campaigning to have us modify our wireless network so that it is turned "off" in classrooms during class time and/or to modify our entire network to disable students' university e-mail and web accounts during the hours that they're listed as being signed up for class. I was surprised to learn this, but apparently the U. of Michigan law school has done both of these things and some other law schools are considering it.
In the ensuing debate, many colleagues cited what I think are some very good reasons not to do the last two things, including: missed pedagogical opportunities (both re use of the Internet for on-the-fly research as subjects come up in class and re ethics of networked technology use), cost, inequality as between students who use only our network and students who can access other available wireless networks via commercial accounts, and excessive paternalism.
Now that the semester has ended, I expect the subject to come up again, and I thought I would see what members of this list think. Most specifically, I'm wondering (1) what you all say to colleagues who react to laptops and wired classrooms in this way; and (2) techniques that you use to encourage students to think about their own responsibilities re networked technology usage.
Thanks, Julie
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Hi all, I've been a lurker for a while now on this list, but now I need to bud in... I recently graduated, and I liked using my computer in class! I find it very exciting to be able to google things that are mentioned in class, and that I recognize, but don't really remember the background from. Also, it makes a lot of sense to be IMing other students about the subject, since they have a lot of other insights and information on the topic. They can answer questions fast and quietly, without having to interrupt the teacher. Next to that, it is better to be typing, than to be whispering, every teacher will agree with that, I think... Banning the use of laptops and wireless networking would have inhibited my own creative flow in class, as interesting links between the topic of the class and my own interests would not have been able to be pursued right away. If I have to wait until I sit behind a computer to google something, I most likely forget and not do it. so for me: Banning internet access is stopping creative flows! eve On 5/18/07, Steve Jones <sjones@info.comm.uic.edu> wrote:
There's one thing I've seen students do with laptops and wi-fi in a class that convinced me to not impose any kind of outright class-wide ban on using the technology, and that's IM-ing between one another in a situation where one student was more fluent in English than the other and would translate things for the less fluent student.
I've often wondered what it would be like if I provided students with a back-channel via IRC for the class (and what would it be like if I projected the channel on a screen in front of the class)? What would students do with this (if anything)?
If I had to make a binary decision I'd probably do it on a class by class basis, and try to take into consideration any number of things such as course content, the types of learning I'm encouraging most, the emphases I seek on particular forms of engaging the class, and the students themselves (among other things).
What's been interesting to me is the reaction of students to teachers who are themselves looking at screens and not at the class. In general they seem quite put off by apparently not getting the attention of the teacher (even when it's not personal attention, directed at them individually, but attention to the class).
Sj
On May 18, 2007, at 8:36 AM, Julie Cohen wrote:
A colleague of mine recently published this op-ed in the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/06/ AR200704 0601544.html
He describes his reasons for banning his first-year students from bringing laptops to class (they go into "stenographic mode", or they surf and check e-mail, which distracts other students and detracts from the learning experience). He reports that his students reacted positively to the experiment (some of my own reacted quite negatively when I mentioned they idea, but they were upper-years who had self-selected to study IP/technology law). He has also begun campaigning to have us modify our wireless network so that it is turned "off" in classrooms during class time and/or to modify our entire network to disable students' university e-mail and web accounts during the hours that they're listed as being signed up for class. I was surprised to learn this, but apparently the U. of Michigan law school has done both of these things and some other law schools are considering it.
In the ensuing debate, many colleagues cited what I think are some very good reasons not to do the last two things, including: missed pedagogical opportunities (both re use of the Internet for on-the-fly research as subjects come up in class and re ethics of networked technology use), cost, inequality as between students who use only our network and students who can access other available wireless networks via commercial accounts, and excessive paternalism.
Now that the semester has ended, I expect the subject to come up again, and I thought I would see what members of this list think. Most specifically, I'm wondering (1) what you all say to colleagues who react to laptops and wired classrooms in this way; and (2) techniques that you use to encourage students to think about their own responsibilities re networked technology usage.
Thanks, Julie
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I was shocked when I found out they had removed wireless access in some of the largest lecture halls at my previous university, at the request of some professors. I have a few responses. First, I recognize that email and the internet can be distracting. That said, bored students will always find a way to distract themselves. I sat behind two students at RIT during a talk. One was doodling, the other was simultaneously taking notes in a word processor, IMing, playing World of Warcraft, and editing the design of a website. I was surprised not only that she had a laptop that could handle all of this at once, but that she seemed more engaged in the talk than her doodling companion. The experience also highlighted how difficult it was to sit BEHIND someone who has graphical content on their laptop. I consider myself a fairly animated speaker, but I apparently resemble an animated character popular with undergrads these days, and it was distracting for students to see that animation on screens several rows ahead. That is, I have a feeling laptops are far more distracting to others in the room then they are to the users. But turning off access really seems like throwing out the baby with the bathwater. I had a similar experience to Steve's, with a hearing impaired student assisted by her peers when the ASL translator was unable to come. (In fact, this was for a course on cyberporn, and I have to say that the ASL translator was far more distracting than Wifi could ever be. Each time I would use a term that was even slightly risque, she would blush uncontrollably and attempt to figure out how to translate it. I could watch the eyes of every student in the class shift from me to her as soon as I uttered such a term.) In some classes, I announce a place (IRC, AIM, or the dreaded Blackboard) where students can chat freely in a backchannel. I've also experimented, with mixed results, with projecting that chat so that I and the other non-connected students can follow the backchannel discussion (i.e., a "frontchannel"). Especially in smaller courses, Wikipedia has become a kind of off-board textbook. I feel confident in having students get into small groups and explain how a certain idea applied in, say, the Haymarket Riot, knowing that if students have no idea of what it is--a common occurrence--they can look it up quickly. That kind of on-the-fly, interest-driven information seeking, I think, can be a very effective way of learning in a classroom. Many of my students have a browser up to check ideas as I am lecturing, and frequently they will stop me if I get a date or fact wrong. I can see how that would be unnerving for some, but I love it. Others have edited blog posts or wiki entries based on the content of the course while we are in class. I have yet to try collaborative editing of shared notes, but I look forward to trying it. If you don't plan on changing your style of lecture (assuming you are lecturing), I can see why the laptops would appear to be a problem, particularly in large classrooms. To be honest, the larger problem for me are classes where not everyone has a laptop, and you have to deal with uneven distribution of the technology. That limits how much experimenting with hybrid teaching is possible. Finally, especially in a law school, you would think that a narrowly tailored policy would be the norm. In large classes, I generally request that the laptop users sit in the back so as not to distract their classmates, and to make sure that all audio is off. When I have guest lecturers, I ask that they do not use their laptops, since I recognize that many such guests--depending on their industry and background--may register the tapping of keyboards as disrespect. I am shocked that an admonition alone from the faculty member to not use a laptop is not seen as enough, but I suppose a "wifi kill switch" that knocked out power to local wifi routers would at least be preferable to forcing all of the faculty, on the basis of largely anecdotal evidence, to precipitously eschew today's most common tool of communication and exchange of knowledge. - Alex -- // // This email is // [X] assumed public and may be blogged / forwarded. // [ ] assumed to be private, please ask before redistributing. // // Alexander C. Halavais // Social Architect // http://alex.halavais.net //
Just to add a student response... I adapt my note taking habits to the lecture style of the professor. This semester I had a professor who had very structured lectures and note taking on paper was easy. However, I've had professors in the past who use gigantic powerpoints with tons of information and basically read off of them. I tried taking notes by hand but I wasn't able to write fast enough, so I started using my laptop. One of the advantages of typing notes in class is that sharing notes among classmates is very easy. One of my classmates had to miss a class so I just emailed him my word file. It also makes it very easy to search through notes for specific items. However, just the simple fact of having a laptop in distracting. I don't agree with shutting down the wireless or email servers during what should be class time. First, taking down wireless or blocking it during class time is, in my view, a waste of university energies. I'd rather see the tech departments spend their budgets and time on upgrading the lab computers that choke on even medium sized SPSS files. Second, blocking student email access during class times is wasteful. What if the professor cancels class and the system doesn't know? Plus, how many students use their student email accounts that much? I check it several times a day, but I never leave it open in the background like I do my gmail. As for instant messaging in class, I've done this with a classmate sitting next to me on her laptop. As a courtesy I always sat in the very back of the classroom when using my laptop. It is distracting, but it was rather interesting to have an insiders commentary on the material being presented. That being said, I wouldn't argue for it's use or a classroom wide chat room while the professor is lecturing. That is what discussion times are for. I prefer hand taking notes and typing notes at different times for different reasons. I feel more free when hand writing notes because I don't have to follow computerized formatting rules, and I honestly don't trust technology with important notes. I do like taking notes on my laptop just in the cases where the professor goes too fast and it is difficult to keep up by hand. If I had a professor who banned laptops in class I would completely understand that it is distracting to all parties, and I would not object. However, certain exceptions should be made in the case where a student might need online translation services (as mentioned by a previous message), or if the student had a disability of some sort and worked better by entering notes on a keyboard instead of paper. -Ellie, going back to the lurker cave.
This is an interesting discussion. A colleague and I redesigned our first-year courses to include laptops and internet access, as a pilot project. It was incredibly difficult to get the technology we wanted (tho wi fi was already available for everyone who brought their OWN laptop). We redesigned the class to have round tables, not lecture style, and a single laptop per 3 students. We then interspersed "mini lectures" with some PPT slides with "mini exercises" which were typically Web-based. An example was visiting several statistical agencies' sites and investigating how they asked the question of race or ethnicity. Students collectively (in groups of 3) visited the sites, and as a table or group, collated their responses to critical questions. These were then shared with the larger group of the entire class. From there, the next "mini lecture" would start. We found students did indeed still IM and check email during class. However, they were also much more engaged with the subject matter and had a better grasp than they would have in a traditional lecture style. Our learnings would amount to: * have students share laptops, and keep an eye on who controls it (dominant personalities? men? women? senior students?) * design interactive exercises intended to develop "critical surfing skills" and autonomous learning (i.e., without their professors holding their hands) * reconfigure the physical classroom to support collaborative learning over lecturing Now if you do none of those things, well then, go ahead and shut off the wi fi.
All, I recently was part of a team of TAs for a large (450+) lecture course. If you have the numbers you can scatter to police obsessive myspace cruising but we found that that other technology (iPods and cells) and old issues like talking were at least (if not more) as big a problem. The problem, I think, is large lecture courses and long lectures. I don't think that shutting down wifi is a good option. It really is a losing battle. In fact, playing the cop takes the fun out of teaching. IMO these types of technologies show up the problems with our largely 19th century industrial mass production educational techniques. Research indicates that orally downloading information on students is the most ineffective method of teaching. I used to obsess with the importance of course designs that made participation a major factor in grading. Now I tell my students not to come to class if they don't want to be there. They are adults, let them make the choice. Sure it will hurt them, but why burden everyone else with distractions and poor attitudes? I limit myself to 10 slides to frame discussion and activities. This makes web surfing and general noodling less of an option. I have heard of large courses that use clickers (on the fly polls and quizzes), podcasting, back channel chat and other techniques to engage students. This is much better use of time and effort that trying to "make" students to pay attention, sit quietly, and take notes. Esp. since sometimes (as with our program) these large intro classes are currently the only viable option. -TED Ted M. Coopman Department of Communication University of Washington On Fri, 18 May 2007, Sam Ladner wrote:
This is an interesting discussion.
A colleague and I redesigned our first-year courses to include laptops and internet access, as a pilot project. It was incredibly difficult to get the technology we wanted (tho wi fi was already available for everyone who brought their OWN laptop). We redesigned the class to have round tables, not lecture style, and a single laptop per 3 students.
We then interspersed "mini lectures" with some PPT slides with "mini exercises" which were typically Web-based. An example was visiting several statistical agencies' sites and investigating how they asked the question of race or ethnicity. Students collectively (in groups of 3) visited the sites, and as a table or group, collated their responses to critical questions.
These were then shared with the larger group of the entire class. From there, the next "mini lecture" would start.
We found students did indeed still IM and check email during class. However, they were also much more engaged with the subject matter and had a better grasp than they would have in a traditional lecture style.
Our learnings would amount to:
* have students share laptops, and keep an eye on who controls it (dominant personalities? men? women? senior students?) * design interactive exercises intended to develop "critical surfing skills" and autonomous learning (i.e., without their professors holding their hands) * reconfigure the physical classroom to support collaborative learning over lecturing
Now if you do none of those things, well then, go ahead and shut off the wi fi. _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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Julie, Some unreliable thoughts on the question of laptops and classroom. My own practice is "distance learning": the computer as the space of learning. Distance learning allows--as this list demonstrates--communities of collaboration and conversation to be formed by people scattered in time and space. Women , for example, who have home responsibilities can be freed from the need to be at a particular space at a particular time, and so can become students: unless, of course, the teacher or the institution believes in the importance of the face-to-face encounter, and requires one such meeting a month, or a semester, or a year. So: should distance learning programs require face-to-face meetings, or do such meeting negate some of the important benefits of distance learning? The laptop is at least two kinds of instruments. It is, for one, a recording device, allowing for notetaking in the face-to-face classroom, and other valuable extensions and enhancements of the activities of the conventional classroom. and lecture-recitation-discussion modes of instruction. Using the laptop in this way does not remove the student from the classroom: he or she continues to be "present." The computer, however, is also a communicative space, a space which allows the student to leave the classroom, to absent herself and think and talk with others about matters not connected with those of the classroom. So: the student is bodily present in the classroom but psychically absent. The proponents of the "digital native" thesis argue that the new computer-skilled student can "multi-task," can be in your classroom and on this list at the same time, or in short alternating bursts of attention. My hunch is that if I was to return to the face-to-face classroom I would limit the use of computers, or ban them, or rethink and revise my instruction so as to build in their use to my teaching. Which means, of course, that I don't yet know how I come out on the matter. Steve Eskow ----- Original Message ----- From: "Julie Cohen" <jec@law.georgetown.edu> To: <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Sent: Friday, May 18, 2007 6:36 AM Subject: [Air-l] laptops and Internet access in class
A colleague of mine recently published this op-ed in the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/06/AR200704 0601544.html
He describes his reasons for banning his first-year students from bringing laptops to class (they go into "stenographic mode", or they surf and check e-mail, which distracts other students and detracts from the learning experience). He reports that his students reacted positively to the experiment (some of my own reacted quite negatively when I mentioned they idea, but they were upper-years who had self-selected to study IP/technology law). He has also begun campaigning to have us modify our wireless network so that it is turned "off" in classrooms during class time and/or to modify our entire network to disable students' university e-mail and web accounts during the hours that they're listed as being signed up for class. I was surprised to learn this, but apparently the U. of Michigan law school has done both of these things and some other law schools are considering it.
In the ensuing debate, many colleagues cited what I think are some very good reasons not to do the last two things, including: missed pedagogical opportunities (both re use of the Internet for on-the-fly research as subjects come up in class and re ethics of networked technology use), cost, inequality as between students who use only our network and students who can access other available wireless networks via commercial accounts, and excessive paternalism.
Now that the semester has ended, I expect the subject to come up again, and I thought I would see what members of this list think. Most specifically, I'm wondering (1) what you all say to colleagues who react to laptops and wired classrooms in this way; and (2) techniques that you use to encourage students to think about their own responsibilities re networked technology usage.
Thanks, Julie
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participants (8)
-
Alex Halavais -
Dr. Steve Eskow -
Ellie Wix -
Evelyn Grooten -
Julie Cohen -
Sam Ladner -
Steve Jones -
Ted M Coopman