Lecture Hall Back-Channeling

emmastory writes "The New York Times is running a story on the phenomenon of lecture hall back-channeling - now that many conferences and universities have wireless access, some people discuss lectures via instant message or weblog as they happen. Although the article quotes an instructor at NYU, I haven't seen much of this in lectures I've attended there. I would guess it varies from department to department, but laptops aren't yet as common in classes as one might think. Either way, some people consider the practice rude, others consider it progress, and good arguments can be made on either side."

Comments

Google link (no reg)

[Patik]

Link

Re:Wow - studenst discuss what's happening in clas

[rusty0101]

The fact that the school will not install WiFi should not limit the students. Simply set the WiFi card to ad-hoc rather than structured, and use the 169.254.x.x/16 address space (Windows and some linux dhcp clients will configure for this if they do not find a dhcp server) and start communicating.

If you really need access to the Internet in class, a single ethernet-WiFi bridge should connect anyone in the classroom if both a ethernet and power jack are close enough or in the room.

-Rusty

Re:What it means...

[bcrowell]

what it means is that the instructor isn't doing a good enough job discussing it himself, or isn't keeping the environment open enough to encourage open discussion in the class.
I'm a teacher, and I think you're exactly right about what this says about openness to questions. A couple of things you notice as a teacher:

• Even if you encourage it, students are usually very shy about asking questions, because they're afraid they'll look stupid.
• Often a student will rush the podium immediately after class is over, point to the blackboard, and say, "where you wrote 2+2=5, did you really mean 4?" In other words, it often happens that everyone in the class is aching to ask the same question, but they all think they're the only ones who are confused.

I can also see how the appropriateness of this kind of thing could depend on the situation:

• At the community college where I teach, the typical number of students who bring laptops to a class is 0, with rare statistical fluctuations going as high as 1. If that 1 is IMing, I guarantee it's not about the class :-) Maybe this could be more appropriate at a business meeting where everyone has a laptop.
• I teach mostly small classes (15-35 students), so I don't see what the problem is with just raising your hand. But if you're in the horrible situation of teaching one of those ridiculous 300-person lectures, I guess that might not be practical. To me, however, that just begs the question of what is the purpose of a 300-person lecture. Is anybody under the illusion that there's really any learning going on in that kind of class? Why not just watch it on video, or read the textbook? Why doesn't the prof just distribute her PowerPoint file, or type up lecture notes that everyone can discuss online?
• It's goofy that the prof is the only one who doesn't know what's being said. If she's made a mistake or said something unclear or confusing, shouldn't she be alerted so she can clarify? What this really points to is the need for a more appropriate way to use the technology.
• The keyboard noise is a real issue. Not only is is distracting as noise per se, but most of the other students are probably assuming (and probably correctly) that the student is websurfing or playing a game. (Again, it might be different in a huge auditorium, where the prof is speaking into a mike.)