But teach’, how am I suppose to take notes?
Saw this article Law professor bans laptops in class, over student protest the other day, and wanted to blog about it, but forgot. The link remerged on Blackrimglasses blog today. His stance was that it took away from the learning experience, as well as he cheated, and worked on other homework.
Before I go any further, I might be a little biased. As I look around the basement, there are a total of 6 monitors (one not hooked up), 3 computers, and 2 laptops. That’s not including what is upstairs. (Note: this is a combined tally of mine and my roommates stuff). Don’t even think about it. Kyle and I carry a gun at all times. 
I finished my last two years of school at UIS, a WiFi campus. This was at the time that wireless was really starting to become mainstream. 54meg was cutting edge. I could sit in lecture and take legible notes, check on references to facts professors made, work simultaneous with theories that were being taught (sorting algorithms, basics of tcp/ip..ect). It was very cool. My laptop was my greatest asset.
That’s not to say that I didn’t have AOL IM open, or personal email, or reading material for other classes. But I think you have to consider it multi-tasking. Technology (however much it ties us down) is suppose to set us free from robust tasks, make life easier, make things more manageable, make the job go quicker. Granted we are suppose to be paying attention, but hey, we’ve already got those notes, we just Googled them.
I brought the article up to GTG, one of the hottest high school English teachers you’ll ever meet. She being a teacher, and mindful of short attention spans, I thought she’d put up a dying fight to the end about pen and paper. Not the case, she actually embarrasses embraces laptops in the classroom. I don’t know if that necessarily includes high school students, but she liked the idea of laptops as a learning tool in the college arena.
…. I could go on further, but A. I’m tired and B. You guys have got the idea ….
What do you think? Useful learning tool, or best way to keep connected to eBaum’s world?
It’s too bad that she “embarrasses” laptops in the classroom. That’s not a nice way to treat computers.
One of the best spellchecker mistakes in awhile
I didn’t have a laptop in college, but if I would have, I would have sat in the back of my lecture classes playing Tetris. Instead I sat up front and just paid attention, never taking notes. I’m a horrible note-taker anyway.
Dave, have I ever mentioned that I am not worlds best speller?
Thanks for the catch. You get the gold star today!
– Need to stop blogging after 11pm.
you should’ve let me get out my red pen on this one, shoo…and just the other day i was telling you that you’re getting better at this english stuff. i take that back, and not because of “embarasses”…
and, yes, i do approve of using laptops in my classroom; however, i have control of the wireless internet on them, so it makes it a little easier to know what they’re doing…they don’t get away with anything with me on board.
i just think that some students simply cannot take good notes without a laptop. their handwriting may be too messy, they don’t know how to organize and whatnot. plus, if they do notes on the computer, then they can save them on the computer, and they won’t lose them…which is a huge problem with some of my students.
I’m OK with laptops, I guess, but back when I was in college, not too many people had them. And the people who did sat there and played games, checked e-mail etc… Which in turned pissed me off a lot, which hindered my note-taking abilities as well. So I guess I don’t like laptops in the classroom all that much.
that’s where i’d draw the line. if they’re distracting to other students, then i couldn’t allow them in class. it’s the reason i-pods are banned in my room…that and the kids can upload pictures and all that to cheat with. i swear, they spend more time looking for ways to cheat than they would if they’d just study.