Should Colleges Ban Classroom Laptop Use? 804
theodp writes "If you were a college prof, think you could successfully compete for the attention of a lecture hall of Mac-packing students? CS student Carolyn blogs that a debate has sprung up on her campus about whether it is acceptable to use a laptop in class. And her school is hardly alone when it comes to struggling with appropriate in-classroom laptop use (vendor/corporate trainers would no doubt commiserate). The problem, she says, is that the OCD Facebookers aren't just devaluing their own education — there's a certain distraction factor to worry about. 'Students,' she suggests, 'should also communicate with each other more and tell their classmates when their computer use bothers them. I'll admit it, when I'm trying to pay attention to the lecture, even someone's screensaver in the row ahead of me can be a major distraction.'"
Distracting? Think of it as another test. (Score:2, Interesting)
There are real arguments to be made here, but the "distracting other students" one is, in a word, ludicrous. Even from the article summary - "...when I'm trying to pay attention to the lecture, even someone's screensaver in the row ahead of me can be a major distraction,' - plays to it.
If you are actually distracted from study by someone else using a computer silently in your field of view, you will have a difficult time with most corporate environments. Ignoring unimportant screens and filtering out irrelevant information are basic abilities of modern people.
There is plenty to debate on the issue of laptops in general. I doubt many students use them to take any manner of notes, and the one's I've seen earnestly trying fall hopelessly behind someone with a pen and paper (as notes tend not to follow a format the way an office document does). But, it's basically a problem of individual students in the end. If someone chooses to distract themselves from a lecture they're paying for, it's their own business by and large.
Debate all you want, but claiming that laptops distract the whole room is laughable.
No. (Score:2, Interesting)
For an entire college to have some fiat position on laptops (unless it is simply a statistical product of the fact that the entire faculty feel the same way about them...) would be uneccessary and pernicious interference into the classroom.
Now, if Professor X thinks that laptops are of Satan, and ruin all learning, the college should back him/her/hypocritical positronic brain up on the matter(unless somebody has a suitably compelling ADA style case to make). Students who don't like it can choose Professor Y, who thinks that 'engaging 21st century media integration is the future of collaborative learning'(and, similarly, deserves the college's support, within their financial means, in making sure that IT in their room doesn't suck).
Re:College is a choice... (Score:5, Interesting)
I liked how a professor handled this last semester. If you have a laptop, you are required to sit in the front 2 rows of the class. This gets you in a designated area so people who dont want to be around you dont have to, and it means that everything you do...everyone behind you can see, in an attempt to at least keep people from looking at porn.
I hate paper, I write poorly, I like to type my notes on a laptop so I can read them, edit them and back them up. I really, really dont want to see the privilege taken away from me but I understand why some people are annoyed at others. /keeps my wifi off during class so I can focus
Re:College is a choice... (Score:5, Interesting)
I've also been stuck with soft-speaking lecturers whose voice has been partly obscured by a forest of clicks around me.
Anyone claiming 'tough, get used to it' is a mannerless fool like the kind who shouts on cellphones next to you. Students once got along perfectly well quietly taking notes on paper long before the present self-indulgent generation of laptop users. If people don't care about the effect of what they do on their neighbors, it shows a flaw in them, not the protester. I object to the selfish attitude of 'I'm the consumer paying for this, I can do what I want (without regard for others around me)'. And it's significant disrespect for the professor when people fail to pay reasonable attention to him.
I walk away from anyone who's rude enough to stop abruptly and take a phone call in the middle of my sentence, because they're being selfish and ill-mannered. Civility belongs in the classroom, too.