Is Wi-Fi Ruining College?

theodp writes "Over at Slate, Avi Zenilman has seen the real classroom of the future firsthand: Students use class time to read the Drudge Report, send e-mail, play Legend of Zelda, or update profiles on Facebook.com. But not to worry - replace laptops with crumpled notes, and the classroom of the future looks a lot like the classroom of the past." From the article: "... when Cornell University researchers outfitted classrooms with wireless Internet and monitored students' browsing habits, they concluded, 'Longer browsing sessions during class tend to lead to lower grades, but there's a hint that a greater number of browsing sessions during class may actually lead to higher grades.' It seems a bit of a stretch to impute a causal relationship, but it's certainly possible that the kind of brain that can handle multiple channels of information is also the kind of brain that earns A's."

My experience at WPI

[Bagels]

In my one class where nearly everyone uses a laptop (that's IMGD 1000, part of the Interactive Media and Game Dev major) I've noticed that several of the students are browsing, even playing games during the lectures. Whenever I brought in my own laptop, I got sucked in myself; it was sometimes helpful to be able to bring up online articles relevant to class material, but I usually got completely sidetracked and lost the thread of discussion. I made a conscious effort to ditch the computer, and it's greatly improved my focus in-class, though I still get occasionally distracted by the fellow playing Lunar at the end of the row.

Not the Universities nor the Professors problem...

[Whatchamacallit]

Not the Universities nor the Professors problem...

If I were teaching, I would tell everyone that I get 'paid' and the school gets your money whether or not you pass or fail. Grow up, this is college. Look to your left and look to your right, next semester either one or both of those individuals will no longer be here.

In order to pass this course, you will need to do all of the assignments on the syllabus and turn them in on time. You will need to attend all the lectures and read the assigned reading. You will need to spend time studying and researching your own answers and you will need to participate in class discussions. You will get out of this course what you put into it.

Now we have some very cool technical toys to share and use in this course but it's up to you to not let them get in the way of learning. So go ahead, surf away and play stupid games, chat with your friends, take a nap on the bean bag chairs, etc. But if you fail this class, it's your own darn fault. If your parents are paying your way, then you will have to explain to them why you failed. There is no such thing as a parent teacher conference in the real world!

Look this up...

[Anonymous Coward]

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=your [reference.com]
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=you're [reference.com]

You should at least master the basics before going on to higher education.

Filters?

[xant]

What do you think of something like this monitor filter [3m.com]? Maybe make it required for students who wish to use their laptops. Seems like most of the time, the laptop users would prefer this anyway; I know on the few occasions I've had a laptop in a lecture setting (conferences, not schools, but basically the same thing) the laptop wasn't distracting, but the ability of other people to read my screen made me uncomfortable, even though I was doing innocuous things.

Re:Limiting Internet Access

[asdfghjklqwertyuiop]

In all fairness, if im paying tuition, I want whats best for me, not only what I think I want at the moment. Do I want a future in what im interested, or a shit grade but all the erotic stories online.

If you have so little self-control that you can't keep yourself from wasting time on the Internet every chance you get, you're probably better off not being in school anyway.

Depends on class

[Kiaser Wilhelm II]

You can't make blanket statements like this about laptops and grades..

Some classes require lots of focus and attention.. think of math. Professor is spending most of the time doing proofs, examples, etc. You can't goof off on Slashdot at the same time the Prof. is doing an example of something and understand what he is doing.

Other classes just present casual bits of information that can easily be summarized as the professor goes along.. this is like a humanities class, for example. I just jot down details I think are important while I sit around and read Slashdot or whatever. Yes, and truthfully, I don't pay as much attention because I don't find it interesting in the first place. I'm not going remember a single thing I learn here by the time next semester rolls around.

I will also note that I have ADD (perhaps computers are the cause, or perhaps my ADD causes my obsession with computers). If I dont bring a laptop, I will have no source of distraction. My mind will tend to wander quite a bit and I'll just never be able to have any concentration whatsoever (this is why I tend to do poorly on tests in general, because I lose focus rapidly - something no one understands or believes). At least with a laptop, I can sort of satisfy my desire to be distracted for brief periods of time while not totally losing focus of what I need to learn from class. In this sense, laptops are a godsend for me.

Re:The Financial Point

[Browncoat]

If the class is too boring, try a different section.

Oh how I wish this was the case...I'm a Communications major and there are one or two upper level classes that are taught by one or two professors only (who handle multiple sections). They do this because these profs are pretty frelling good at what they do and they don't want to thin the population between several good ones and several mediocre ones if all of their students can get the same level of education.

Unfortunately, some of these profs don't appeal to certain people. I took a class one time on the advice of a friend, who loved the prof. I hated the prof.

Sometimes you just can't switch...plus, registering for classes is sometimes a hassle and switching to a different section is impossible if other sections don't work in your schedule or if there are just not enough sections.

Re:Why?

[lpevey]

OK, my bad. I thought you must have meant epidemic since endemic is usually used to refer to something that is inherently the case. I didn't think that was your meaning, but in retrospect I suppose you could argue that our current system of higher learning does inherently encourage cheating and grade-grubbing as opposed to actual learning.