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."

Comments

Limiting Internet Access

[unik]

Maybe it would be possible to allow access to a local intranet only through the wifi? It wouldnt eliminate any Legend of Zelda, but it might keep the surfing to minimum.

Re:Limiting Internet Access

[kgruscho]

Or just let the teacher have a switch on the WAP, with one WAP per classroom.

Being a teacher that is what id like to do.

Re:Limiting Internet Access

[jbrader]

Why should you want to limit it? This is college we're talking about. These students are paying for the priviledge of wasting thier class time. Thier tuition bought the wireless they can play Zelda during Phys 121 if they want. So long as they keep the volume down so that the student who want to pay attention (and who will end up being thier bosses later on) don't get distracted.

Re:Limiting Internet Access

[Janitha]

By personal experience as a College Student who use wifi in almost every class, I don't think how I can go without it. I think it has greatly improved my learning experience since its like a library in front of you. For example, say your in a ethics class and they bring up the topic of some act or case, just google or use wikipedia to look it up. Your in physics and you need a quick reference or more graphics and illustrations on a certain theory, simple: just search it. If it wern't for the laptop/internet, I (or anyone) would ever bother to look that information up later.

And what about the times when the prof is going on and on about things that you have clear understanding, honestly everyone was just falls asleep or skips the class, or you can use that time to look up some information on the subject/topic the prof just talked about or is about to talk which is much more efficient use of the time while still keeping a ear open to see if anything interesting is said be the prof. This helped me understand the lectures and material much better (than those days when I don't take my laptop).

If you are playing games or surfing stupid websites that the students choice and you shouldn't blame wifi or laptops for that, the student is responsible. But if you just take wifi out of the class room, then all the students who use internet connection in class rooms are the ones who will suffer.

Re:Limiting Internet Access

[CommiePuddin]

Jesus. Instead of doing something like, I don't know, asking them to stop, or changing seats, you instead vandalize their property.

Do you expect people to slash your tires every time you park slightly crooked in a parking lot?

Congratulations, you're the lowest form of asshole. How the hell were they infringing on your learning experience anyway? If you can't help but watch the porn on their laptop, that's your problem. Adopt qualities that are less akin to a ferrett.

Re:Limiting Internet Access

[Yokaze]

Futhermore, universities are usually getting paid for having the reputation of producing good graduates and several get more money from alumni then from current students. If the students are goofing around too much, both revenue streams may soon become dry.
So, it is in their own interest to minimise the negative impact of WLAN in classrooms.

Re:Limiting Internet Access

[EvanED]

The word "between" implies that he can't be both at the same time.

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.

Re:Limiting Internet Access

[Crystalmonkey]

A friend of mine, who is the principal of a school, allows seniors to go off campus when they are not in class. He knows that some students will abuse it, but he feel's thats not an excuse for not allowing the others. He simply has to take care of the people who abuse it. The same goes with any freedom. There are plenty of people who abuse things like WiFi in the classroom, but that doesn't mean you should cut it off for everyone. If it's a problem, you should deal with it, not just treat the symptom.

Re:Limiting Internet Access

[insomniac8400]

You can't just block the internet all the time. The only way to fix it, is to automatically restrict wifi access to the local intranet during the times you are scheduled for class. Although it would also mean no wifi if you skipped class. Honestly I think no tech solutions are best. In one of my classes anyone with a laptop had to sit in the 2nd to back row so their screens wouldn't annoy anyone else, and a TA would sit in the back row watching them to make sure they were taking notes and not surfing the web. It worked flawlessly.

Re:Limiting Internet Access

[Peter La Casse]

Futhermore, universities are usually getting paid for having the reputation of producing good graduates and several get more money from alumni then from current students. If the students are goofing around too much, both revenue streams may soon become dry.

So, it is in their own interest to minimise the negative impact of WLAN in classrooms.

In that scenario, it is not WLAN that causes the problem, it is the students who goof off too much. An effective way to produce good graduates is to help the slackers flunk out early. Forcing students to pay attention is therefore counterproductive. The higher your dropout rate, the more students you can admit, and the greater your odds of admitting someone who will someday make you proud.

Re:Limiting Internet Access

[metrokarl]

Apparently elite geniuses are also too cool to spell properly.

Re:Limiting Internet Access

[bcrowell]

Why should you want to limit it? This is college we're talking about. These students are paying for the priviledge of wasting thier class time. Thier tuition bought the wireless they can play Zelda during Phys 121 if they want. So long as they keep the volume down so that the student who want to pay attention (and who will end up being thier bosses later on) don't get distracted.
One strange thing about your logic is that it's all based on the supposition that the student is the one paying. At an expensive private school, it's probably Mommy and Daddy who are paying. I teach at a community college, so in my case, it's the taxpayers who are paying essentially all the cost. Why should the taxpayers subsidize people to play a MMORG?

Another problem with your logic is that you assume bandwidth is as free as the air we breathe. It's not. AFAIK, every college and university in the U.S. these days has an acceptable use policy for their network. I've had a student pornsurf while his female lab partner (a Muslim woman who wears a head scarf) sat there uncomfortably. I made the student meet with me and the dean, and it was quite interesting. My attitude had been that it was pure and simple sexual harassment, but the dean simply treated it as a violation of the AUP. (The guy had also cheated off of her exam paper.)

Finally, my feeling as a teacher is that I do have a right to ask students who are losers not to distract from the educational experience of the people who are really there to learn. It really is distracting to have this sort of thing going on. However, I structure the rules of the course so that nobody has to stay for the full 1.5-hour period if they feel they aren't learning anything. I give quizzes and collect homework during the first 5-10 minutes of class, and after that, they're free to leave without any penalty to their grade if they feel there's a more productive way to use their time.

Maybe one reason this kind of thing becomes an issue is that the standard chalk-and-talk lecture is simply a bad way to teach, but a lot of professors don't want to admit it. The solution is to use better teaching techniques --- techniques that get the students actively involved. The idea of lecturing came from centuries ago, when books were so expensive that students couldn't afford to buy them. (I mean really, really, really couldn't -- the disproportion between incomes and the cost of books was an order of magnitude worse than it is today.) So the teacher would read the book out loud, and the students would take dictation, writing down their own individual copies.

Re:Limiting Internet Access

[andreyw]

I wouldn't say WiFi has been ruining my "college experience". In fact, I actually have gone to classes where I would otherwise not have, simply by having the knowledge that if today's lecture was going to be a bore (and something I already know), I could browse away.

Re:Limiting Internet Access

[jumpfroggy]

"An effective way to produce good graduates is to help the slackers flunk out early."

So true, yet from what I've seen that's very hard to do. Most students will do just enough to scrape by, so whereever the line is drawn you'll see them floating just above it. I see that universities have 2 approaches; either draw the bar very high and focus on a small amount of high quality/motivated students, or be less-exclusive and baby the kids some. Basically, from a college standpoint it seems like they've added something (internet), measured it, and found negative effects. Say, more internet = lower grades (completely untrue, no in the article, but useful for this argument). Are they going to say "we should weed out the bad ones by slowly and subtly lowering their grades and concentration." Ahh, very tricky of them. The college is already made that kind of decision. Either they're a high level school and are weeding kids out in real ways (hard classes) vs. subliminal ways (wifi, internet, free beer just outside the classrooms, free GTA3 for each student). Or they're a lower level school and they want to help kids help themselves.

So take away that wifi, eliminate those notebooks in the classroom, no talking in class! Help me, help you. Help me, help you... etc etc etc.

Re:Limiting Internet Access

[Anonymous Coward]

Well this is college. If you don't to learn, why come?

Because if you have a crappy school/prof, there is information to be learned at the lectures, but over a 1-hour lecture, there is a total of about 10 minutes' worth of actual information.

In any school where Wi-Fi in class is actually a problem, I can't help but suspect that the real source of the problem is bad profs.

Re:Limiting Internet Access

[DavidTC]

Problem: Students are skipping classes because classes are boring and pointless and they can pass just by reading the book.
Solution: Requires students to attend classes

Problem: Students are ignoring the teacher in the classes they are now required to attend.
Solution: ...

Well, I dunno. Maybe they should fix the first fucking problem and stop making people show up to classes if they don't want to be there. They are, indeed, distracting other students, but an equally logical argument could be that the teacher is distracting them and wasting their time.

If people would rather play computer games than listen in class, they should be allowed to...they're the ones paying for the class. We can argue if it's rude to do that inside of the classroom when they actually have a choice about their location.

OTOH, once they do have a choice, the teacher should ask them to be quiet or leave if they're distracting anyone, no matter what the reason. And not ask them to leave if they aren't, even if they clearly aren't paying attention. Leaving is for when their behavior is interfering with learning.

And it'd be nice if they'd designate a 'computer free' area of the class room. It could be as simple as the first two rows or whatever.

I say this as someone who never used a laptop in class outside of a computer lab, because it would distract me.

Browsing vs Looking up definitions

[Anonymous Coward]

so long browsing sessions drop grades (because the students are ignoring the professor)

and short but frequent sessions increase grades (because students are looking up wtf the teacher is talking about)

Seems pretty strightforward.

Re:Browsing vs Looking up definitions

[triplepoint217]

A few years back my grandfather was teaching a class on at least several occasions a student with a laptop would look up information he was lecturing about and then add current examples, other information and the like. It took my grandfather by surprise a bit, but he said it was actually quite beneficial overall. Just like all technologies, it can be misused, but it can also be put to good use.

An "A" is an "A" Studen

[MLopat]

FTFA: "There are about 100 students in the Columbia University lecture I'm currently attending, and about 10 have laptops. (The lecture consists mostly of grad students in their late 20s, so the ratio is a bit low.) I can see four screens from here; only one person is actually taking notes. Another is looking at the registrar's Web site. The other two keep checking their e-mail."

So the real question is, would these same students pre-occupy themselves with something else if they didn't have their laptops open to browse? Its reasonable to conclude that they have a limited attention span as it is, so whether they're sending email, talking on an IM client, or checking out the hot blond two rows down, they weren't going to being paying attention in their English 101 lecture anyways.

Re:An "A" is an "A" Studen

[snilloc]

If there had been wifi at my college when I was there, I might have actually attended a few classes that I chose to put a lower priority on, knowing that I could get other things done while in class.

It's a tool

[Turn-X Alphonse]

The internet is a tool just like a notepad. I can sit and doodle all day in my notepad instead of taking notes if I wish to. Does that mean notepads are suddenly bad for studying?

The problem is peope abuse the tool to do other things, so they lose focus which ends up making them worse off in the long run.

Wifi is not the problem here, giving it to people who want to dick around is.

Re:It's a tool

[KylePflug]

Precisely.

I'd hate to see laptops taking away because some idiot is abusing them. That idiot will fail the class; he would have failed the class without it too, if only by sleeping or reading a book or cheating and getting caught or whatever.

I bring my laptop (an old Toshiba Tablet PC) to every class I go to at my college and usually have it on my desk for the majority of the class time, unless it's "Listening to Music" and we're watching some DVD or something. Have I used my tablet's wi-fi to hop on facebook once or twice? Yes. Have I checked my email here and there? Yes. The catch? Usually I do these things for legitimate, school-related purposes. I collaborate with project partners on facebook. I use email to communicate with professors. If the professor is actually talking, I'm probably not going to be on wi-fi, but rather in GoBinder taking notes on hte Tablet. I've got a 150mb GoBinder file full of handwritten notes if the professors want me to prove I've been listening.

Admittedly, part of my motivation is that I've got a weak battery and so I tend to only flip the wi-fi switch on for a few minutes at a time if I'm going to use it at all in class. The biggest part of my motivation? I'm paying thousands of dollars a year to go to school here. If I don't do well, I lose my scholarship, and then I'll be paying THREE TIMES as much to go here. Why in God's name would I spend that kind of money on something and then dork around on facebook all class until I flunk out?

Re:It's a tool

[nSpace]

There's only so much enjoyment you can get out of doodling. The Internet presents unlimited possibilities for distraction. You can't really compare a notepad and the Internet.

Really, what possible use could the Internet have when you are supposed to be paying attention to the Prof? You don't need to be checking email, surfing websites, or posting to your blog. You need to be paying attention and taking notes.

I say keep the laptops, take away the Net.

For me...

[Chickenofbristol55]

...I would be tempted to play CS:S in class. Doubt that would help my grades much.

professor "You see, you must first find the limiting reagent, then..."

Me BOOM HEADSHOT "PWNAGE!!!!!"

professor "What in god's name was that?"

*raise my hand from the back of a crowded study hall* "Me pwning"

Run a chat room

[CrazyJim1]

If everyone has a computer(in some labs, and in the future), a monitored chat room can help learning a ton. For example: The teacher says something obscure, and the students want to know what it is, they can chat among their peers instead of disturbing the lecture. If no one knows in the class, they can interrupt the teacher. All talking would be logged so the teacher can see who's abusing the system after class.

Re:Run a chat room

[pexatus]

The teacher says something obscure, and the students want to know what it is, they can chat among their peers instead of disturbing the lecture. If no one knows in the class, they can interrupt the teacher.

Any good teacher welcomes an interruption to clarify something that the students don't understand. That's the whole point of paying tuition instead of just buying books and learning at home. Human interaction can fill in the knowledge gaps more efficiently than staring at a book. The only problem is convincing the students that their teacher really is a human and can answer questions just like a classmate (and hopefully, better than the classmate).

All talking would be logged so the teacher can see who's abusing the system after class.

Likewise, any good college-level teacher wants to spend no time doing babysitting of this sort, and without some kind of on-topic enforcement, it is almost guaranteed to degenerate into useless noise.

Re:Run a chat room

[EvanED]

The only problem is convincing the students that their teacher really is a human and can answer questions just like a classmate (and hopefully, better than the classmate).

And I think that the chatroom could help with this. Students could see that others have the same questions as them, thus sorta embolden them to ask it in class. I think a lot of the time people don't ask questions because they think they might be alone in not knowing it and don't want their classmates to think they don't know.

Though who knows if that's the real reason, or if a chatroom would help relieve anxiety. (I think the anonymous nature would help.)

So I think a chatroom could help and wouldn't hurt.

(Also, you have to take into account that not all teachers are good. In fact, there are plenty of sucky ones. I have one now that really doesn't answer questions well.

Likewise, any good college-level teacher wants to spend no time doing babysitting of this sort

Get the TA to do it. :-p

I really wouldn't mind a quick perusal. And it could also help to identify sticky areas.

the more things change the more they stay the same

[PrinceAshitaka]

Wi-Fi wont ruin colleges, just the students in them. If a student chooses to surf in class, that is the students problem, not the schools. It will still take the same intelligence and smarts to get decent grades. Some students will be able to surf in class. Many others wont. I was able to skip hundreds of hours of lecture time and still got out with a degree.

How they handle it at Harvard (Business School)

[jwachter]

I'm a student at Harvard Business School, where they have a fairly interesting solution for handling this problem. While every campus building has wireless access, all the access points in the classroom buildings require a web based log-in that checks your student ID versus your class schedule. If you're scheduled to be in class at that moment, you are denied wireless access to the internet (in any classroom building).

Draconian, perhaps, but very effective at keeping us focused in class.

Re:How they handle it at Harvard (Business School)

[Anonymous Coward]

and thereby (in my opinion) completely defeating the supposed purpose of HAVING wifi in the first place. why would they have wifi access in classrooms if you can't use it while you're supposed to be in class?

Re:How they handle it at Harvard (Business School)

[snarkh]

Do they also implant a chip in your brain, which cross-references the class schedule limiting your access to inappropriate memory during class?

Re:How they handle it at Harvard (Business School)

[jwachter]

and thereby (in my opinion) completely defeating the supposed purpose of HAVING wifi in the first place. why would they have wifi access in classrooms if you can't use it while you're supposed to be in class?

A very good point. Two possible responses
(1) the admins want the internet wirelessly available in common / collaborative work spaces in the class buildings, which their solution still allows (as long as you're not "collaborating" during class time)
(2) genuine lack of foresight (as you suggest)

Probably a bit of both...

Re:How they handle it at Harvard (Business School)

[NMerriam]

Great, yet more evidence that business schools don't know anything about motivating employees or customers. Thank God someone is there to teach the MBAs of the future that the internet is useless except for marketing and DRM verification!

This is no surprise

[zappepcs]

The casual relationship between multitasking and higher grades is no big news. People with ADD get bad grades... duh. Seriously, this is only one incidental aspect of a well known relationship. The real news will be when browsing/surfing is supporting or augmenting students in ways that were not predictable.

The really good part of information tools is that they allow us to multitask on our own time, not the time schedule of others. The article hardly lends any time to whether or not the students who are surfing in class know the material well already or not. The wide variety of subject matter knowledge held by the students determines their own personal need to listen intently or not. If they don't require it, multitasking is a good use of time, and students who can multitask well will make good grades whether there is Internet access or not, likewise, students who cannot multitask will not make as good of grades.

Multitasking in a school environment means that you don't have to shut off the parts of your thinking that are not fully focused on the matter at hand.... you may be in a poli-sci class, but your thinking is on a project that you are working on for another.

There are three kinds of lies... lies, damned lies, and statistics!

Re:This is no surprise

[khallow]

The casual relationship between multitasking and higher grades is no big news. People with ADD get bad grades...

Among several incorrect assumptions, you suppose that people with ADD can't multitask. I don't pretend to know whether this is a problem in general, but I know of one person who is diagnosed with ADD and is an amazing multitasker. He, however, cannot focus very well on one task for long periods of time though he has figured a way around that problem.

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.

students use time on the internet, news at 11

[Nept]

use class time to read the Drudge Report, send e-mail, play Legend of Zelda, or update profiles on Facebook.com

Thus preparing them for the corporate world?

Effects on others

[rmcd]

I teach and find laptop abuse to be an issue. The Slate article misses the real problem, which is not that the student checks out (the article correctly notes there are lots of ways to do this), but that others can see the laptop screen. Suddenly there is a group of five students giggling about something. I've had students complain about the distracting laptop usage of others.

I don't know what the right solution is, since I think that in theory it's fantastic for students to have a laptop to take notes, perform calculations, and look up related issues during class. But it's a real problem when the abusers distract a group of students. I suspect that shutting off internet access during class is the best practical solution.

Job

[mikejz84]

If professors can get away with just giving the powerpoint enclosed with the textbook, we should be able to get away with going online.

Re:Job

[Joe Tie.]

Amen. I can read faster than a presenter can talk. Any lecture using powerpoint is a waste of both our time. Just give me the damn slides.

Killswitches.

[saintlupus]

Speaking as someone who works in college IT, I've heard from more than one colleague that the same faculty clamoring for wireless and technology in every classroom are the ones now clamoring for killswitches so that the students can't use it during their classes.

Awesome.

It's sort of like when we put projectors with laptop hookups in all of the classrooms in nice, integrated bunkers and then they decided that the laptops were too heavy to carry, and they wanted desktops permanently installed in there are well. Whee! I'll never understand why a professor can carry three different NPR tote bags chock full of paper, and the four pound iBook they've been issued is the breaking point.

--saint

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!

Is the study realistic?

[mpoulton]

The Cornell researchers studied browsing habits in classes by giving students school-owned laptops that were known to track their browsing habits. Would people browse normally under those conditions? Also, the students being studied were probably not technophiles -- otherwise they would have their own laptopts, and not likely participate in the study. Technophiles in general have very different computer usage profiles than the general population. In my experience, it seems we are much more better at multitasking, and are better able to use computers while simultaneously interacting with the rest of the world. It looks like this study did not actually investigate how *current* laptop use by students who own them affects performance. Instead, they investigated how the *addition* of a school-owned, monitored laptop to a non-techy student's repertoire changes their performance.

As a College Student...

[Starji]

I can relate somewhat to what the writer of the article is trying to say. The computer in the classroom (especially with internet access) is just a distraction. In my experience with my own laptop, it's often true. If I have the laptop out then I'm usually not paying all that much attention to the professor. When he's talking about ip packet fragmenting, I'm playing Earthbound, or just browsing the web. Here's the trick though, I'm not doing this in classes where I actually want to pay attention. My networks class for example, is an example of a class where I don't want to pay attention. The professor will go on and on about something not related to the course materials for the day, and I've had a fair amount of networking experience in high-school that whatever concepts he throws out I understand immediately, so the rest of the lecture ends up being pointless. In contrast, in my Senior project class we go over things that are new to me and are useful to me in a format I don't fall asleep right away. And it's not like the computer and internet in the classroom are just a distraction. I have used it to look up facts and extra information about the lecture before.

So is wifi ruining college? No more than any other service provided on campus. I can still shut down the laptop and not pay attention to the professor the old fashioned way, like reading a book, or sleeping. A boring professor is a boring professor whether there's wifi or not. It's my choice to use it knowing the consequences of my actions may lead to lower grades, and as long as I'm not disturbing or otherwise interfering with my classmates who actually want to pay attention, I don't see the problem.

Re:As a College Student...

[MoneyT]

Bingo.

This is the real problem. Go to a class where the professor is engaging and entertaining, where the material taught is relevant and the students are engaged. You'll notice a lot less people slacking off.

GASP.

[DakotaK]

From my own expereince, every single person that brings a laptop to programming lectures is either talking on AIM, surfing Facebook, or playing a game. This really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone - the internet is more fun than doing work or paying attention. http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/5505/dilemia0ps .gif

How they handle it at Georgia Tech

[mrchaotica]

Tech has a good solution to this problem too: they let you do whatever you want, but if you don't understand the material they fail you and kick you out. It's effective at keeping us focused (enough) in class, and also isn't draconian.

Latops have helped me

[vga_init]

I've been toting my laptop off and on since high school, and until a few years into college I was one of the only people in my class to be doing this.

In high school, I used it to take notes; I can type quite a bit faster than I can write, and they come out looking a bit more organized and legible than they otherwise would have. Also, having a computer for some reason would help me stay focused; I was practically raised on computers, and you might say it is sort of a comfort thing. Whatever it was, it helped me study.

In college, things became more interested. I started off taking primarily computer science courses. I taught myself to program when I was younger, and this process involves a great deal of fiddling around with new concepts in order to fully grasp them. I would sit in class during the lecture compiling away, doing examples that the instructor was giving me and seeing how I could push the envelope. On one occasion I was even able to correct my instructor on the usage of particular syntax.

Being the kind of person that learns scientifically (I like to observe the process and alter test conditions to evaluate the results), a computer is a very nifty tool for giving me the means to gasp the material during the lecture. While my original methods did not employ the use of wifi, having connectivity would be useful in case I needed to look up or download something on the fly; I would just have to be disciplined enough to turn off my instant messenger and mail client so that I don't get too distracted.

Usually I am opposed to computers in the classroom because of such things as funding and underemployment (of the machines themselves), but when the computers are owned by the students themselves, then I'm able to see more benefits (if you're going to pay a grand for a gadget, you're going to learn how to use it). Whether the computer ultimately helps or hinders your classroom experience depends on how good of a student you are, and typically good/bad students get the grades they deserve with or without wifi-enabled computers.

From the otherside of the laptop

[hahiss]

As an instructor, I generally discourage students from using laptops for notes. I teach philosophy, so it is generally more important to be listening and occassionally jotting down notes than it is taking dictation about an endless series of facts. (YMMV in other fields.) Students that bring laptops (and who do listen) tend to have gotten lots of bits of fact but generally have no clue how to use them to create integrated knowledge.

Of course, I also encourage my students *NOT* to come to class if they aren't going to pay attention---whether that means sleeping, reading the paper, texting friends, etc. Actually, if I catch that sort of behavior, I ask them to leave. They get no credit for coming to class, so either they find a way to be motivated or do whatever else they prefer.

Should not require notes

[sdaug]

No, often times taking notes actually gets in the way. For some people it is much more important to spend the time they would be writing notes by actually paying attention more -- especially when the professor just uses what is in the book. Thus, often times you can just use the book as your notes and worry about comprehension while in class, not in the time afterwards. That is truly efficient use of time.

Re:Should not require notes

[don.g]

I certainly found I had that problem -- I'd concentrate so much on writing illegible notes that I wouldn't take any of the content in. In classes where we were given printouts of the slides, and I could annotate them where needed, I found I retained much more information from the lectures. Unfortunately, I can't claim that the correlation is significant, as lecturers for each subject all seemed to use the same technique.

Part of the problem, I think, is that lecturers like to see students doing something, and having to write out copious notes helps with that. I had a lecturer who, in previous years, had given out a coursebook with material from the course. But for some reason he decided this was a bad idea, so stopped giving them out and just wrote up all the notes on the board verbatim and expected everyone to copy them down. This made it very difficult to learn things in his lectures, even when you did have the previous years' coursebook :-)

Cornell Student Responds

[Alterscape]

I'm a Cornell University student, and I use my Powerbook during many of my long lecture classes to browse, as well as take notes. I'm in the film program, and most of my classes tend to be 2-3 hours long, and occasionally my brain needs something to think about besides the relatively dry theoretical content that's discussed.

I've noticed that when class discussions get interesting, heated, or something other than monotone, and I have an interest in actively participating, I close my laptop and listen more attentively. But in most cases, I can handle both the text and the lecture "data stream" concurrently. If anything, giving my mind something to do other than passively receive content. I also find myself looking up sites related to what we're discussing, if its actually interesting. Strange as it seems, sometimes dividing my attention actually lets me focus on stuff I'm less interested in.

I realize that to a certain extent, I'm probably hurting myself by tuning out "less interesting" material. But, at the same time, before I had my laptop, I took notes in spiral notebooks and they'd often be punctuated by long stretches of doodles where the lecture became to dry to hold my attention by itself. I was a 3.5-ish student before I got my laptop, and I'm still a 3.5-ish student today.

Placing blame

[billyradcliffe]

Don't blame the technology, blame the person (ab)using the technology. They know what they're supposed to be doing in class. They know that they're paying to be there. They're choosing to use the technology versus paying attention. A little self-discipline goes a long way.

Dadgum youth of today...

[Urusai]

When I was a lad, working at the shoe factory at 12, I didn't have none of them fancy "educations". We had to work hard, and maybe at the end of the year, Mr. Jones would give us an extra tuppence for Christ's Mass. I worked my way up the corporate chain, first as senior tongue stitcher, then journeyman heeler, all the way up to lace inspector, and I did it though hard work, gumption, pluck, and sheer moxie.

This youth of today expects their fancy degrees and book learning to get them a big shot job in the city without the perserverance and elbow grease we old-timers had to invest. Why, just t'other fortnight, this young whippersnapper came strutting into the factory like Little Lord Fauntleroy, looking for a job. When I asked him if he was willing to dedicate his life to the High God of Shoes, to prostrate himself before the Terrible Majesty of Zapato, He Who Shods Man, I swear a slight look of unbelief crossed his naive visage as he politely excused himself and fled the factory, no doubt to go read another book on how to be mighty smart but ignorant of the ways of the world. Pfeh! Run ofta yer Ivory Tower, you Harvard dandy!

Multi-tasking

[shmlco]

"...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."

It's also certainly possible that the kind of brain that THINKS it can handle multiple channels of information is also the kind of brain that can't.

Since none of them have your full attention, doing four things all at once makes the odds pretty good that all you're doing is screwing up four things at once.

Of course, I expect plenty of people here are going to tell me they're experts in this regard... much like the "90% of all drivers think they're above average" statistic.

Filters?

[xant]

What do you think of something like this monitor filter? 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.

Thats bullshit

[elucido]

Just because some people use the internet to look at stupid stuff, shouldnt mean you should eliminate the nternet for people who actually use it to research stuff for the class or for other classes.

I think removing wifi is as stupid as removing the library to prevent people from stealing books. If a student is too stupid to use their tools to succeed then they shouldnt be in college to anyway. Wifi is just a tool, just like a notebook, a library, or a teacher giving a lecture, all tools to help you get a degree.

(I know teachers are persons but their role is to help you get your degree)

Removing a tool makes it harder to get a degree. Just like removing the internet makes us dumber, removing books makes is less educated, removing wifi also is stupid. If people surf less they'll just find something else to do other than study.

Why?

[elucido]

It's not the teachers job to force students to learn, or limit the ability of students who use the technology to learn faster. When you get rid of the internet, students who use the internet to actually research what you are talking about suffer, you end up hurting the students who are bright enough to use the technology properly. You also hurt the technology industry, as sales of laptops and wifi equipment will go down if you attack the main users and buyers of it. It is always wrong to punish the minority due to the stupidity of the majority. This means if the majority is ruining your class by not studying, give them F's, but don't hold others back with your solutions.

I think access to information and communications should be increased on campus as much as possible so students who actually know how to use the technology can use it. If a student wants to play games and goof off in class, theres a grading system to handle those students.

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.

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.

Law School

[Venner]

I started law school this fall; it differs from undergrad in that nearly everyone has a laptop and uses it to take notes. In my entering class, I think perhaps 6 or 7 students don't have a laptop. As an engineer and a techie in general, I find it terrific to have. I type much, much faster than I can write with a pen, and have FindLaw/Westlaw/Lexis-Nexis, state codes & regulations, the U.C.C., etc, all right at my fingertips for reference during class.

What amazes me are the people who chat on aim the whole class, or browse facebook, or play MMORPGs (seriously). Even if you're a freakin' genius and don't need to listen to the professor and class discussion, it's distracting and just plain rude. The corolary, of course, is that it's natural selection in action :-) You reap what you sow.

[As an aside, I actually find law school fun and, while not easy, certainly not hard. It is a feeling shared by the other handful of hard-science and engineering grads. We're basically used to the workload, if not the type of work . (No worries Slashdot-crowd, I'm not in it for the money and I'd sooner commit seppuku than work for the likes of the **AA.) ]

So What?

[suwain_2]

Our school issues students laptops, and has WiFi throughout *most* of the campus. Newer rooms have Ethernet ports for wired use as well.

I don't think we need to treat the Internet differently from bringing, say, a book or magazine to class. If I bring my textbook to class, and use it to follow along with the professor, it's helpful. If I bring the textbook for another class and study in downtime during class, it's only me that's losing out. If I bring Playboy to class, it'd be a distraction to others, and then we have a problem.

We give professors a means of turning network access off, but few professors do. I applaud this: I've used the Internet for a lot of constructive stuff during class. Looking up related material, getting the document we were supposed to print out and bring to class, etc.

Yes, sometimes I'll notice classmates chatting on AIM or doing other stuff of no adademic value, but they're only hurting themselves. I really don't think schools have any need to try to regulate usage in classrooms.

Been to an academic conference recently?

[munpfazy]

At least in the physical sciences, 2/3 of the audience have their laptops open and are busy at work finishing up their own presentations, sending email, and doing any number of other random things. I've never seen a classroom with anywhere *near* the density of laptops being used for tasks other than note taking that happens in a conference full of professors, post-docs, and senior grad students.

It seems to me the reason is simple: a lot of what speakers say isn't useful, even in the case of good speakers and voluntary audience. Even when it *is* useful, the rate at which information is presented is usually an order of magnitude slower than the rate at which the audience can absorb it, with huge gaps of dead time between important statements. So, at lectures people spend an hour sitting in their seats in order to catch a minute or two of really useful information.

As someone who hasn't taken a course without lots of equations and diagrams in a long time, I've never had an excuse to bring a laptop to class. Instead, I have to spend all that dead time thinking about other things on my own without the benefit of a technological distraction.

The problem with laptops in the classroom is that it hurts the feelings of lecturers, who are forced to confront the fact that most of their audience isn't paying attention to most of what they say most of the time.

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.

Reminds me of a story my grandson told me.

[CyricZ]

One of my grandchildren attends university in California. He was telling me that one of his friends always brought a laptop to one of their Biology classes. My grandson and some of his other friends were particularly annoyed with their friend who'd always be playing games or watching DVDs.

One of my grandson's friends ended up recording a soundfile that said "PENIS PENIS COCK PENIS PENIS VAGINA CUNT ANUS BUTTFUCK", and other sayings like that. They ended up putting it on their friend's laptop, and waited for a lecture when he left the class to go to the washroom. Once he was gone they turned up the volume, started looping that soundfile, and waited until their friend got back and sat down. As soon as he did, they pulled out the headphones, blaring out the audio.

I think he said that the professor flipped, and told the kid to get out of his class. They had a meeting later on, and my grandson's friend was told never to bring the laptop to class again.

accountability

[eugeneiiim]

I'm a CS student at CMU. In my experience, most of the students who use their laptops during lectures (or alternatively don't attend class) are the brilliant ones who understand the material straight from the book and do well on tests anyway. Those who can't afford to not pay attention in class by surfing the internet or playing games simply don't. For example, a few weeks ago a friend of mine who programs and reads slashdot during matrix algebra lectures and never takes notes got 100 on an exam while I, after taking notes and studying every night for about a week, got a 97. In my calc class, another person I know who writes blog entries in every single lecture scored 99 on the latest exam.

As long as students understand the material (and show it by doing well on tests and assignments), I don't see any problem with having internet access in classrooms. Provided that students are held accountable for their learning through exam grades (it's easier to cheat on assignments, so they don't always demonstrate mastery), there's really not much that can "ruin college" as far as learning goes.

The most obnoxious/distracting thing I've seen anyone do on a laptop in class is play stepmania and make lots of noise with their keyboards. But even then, anyone can easily ask them to stop or move to another seat.

Laptop can be a distraction

[siim04]

I use laptop in my classes. And yes, it can be a distraction. I find myself checking my mail, reading comics, cnn, updating information on a portal I (with my friends) own. But most distractions do not come from the Internet, they come from what you already have on laptop. You read articles you have downloaded last night, you write documents for your other classes, you prepare your projects, you write your own materials (ie. personal web page or a blog entry to be uploaded later when finished, projects, programs, finish job tasks), try out new soutions (software), audit and configure your PC and do a lot more. So blocking Internet acces is not a good solution!

And blocking Internet access is bad for a number of other reasons as well. The first thing I do when I ge to class, I try to download the latest materials about the subject (and check the classes web page for updates). I also use the Internet to find materials relating to the subject (that can be very handy if you want to "take on" the tutor/presenter/lecturer ;)). Also finding alternate viewpoints to the materials can be helpful when trying to understand the lecturer or trying to confront him/her. Finding translations (from estonian to english or french or latin in my case) of terms is a challenge by itself. The downside is you understanding the amount of false information on wikipedia :p.

For people having trouble paying attention to class I have a suggestion. Try to make notes. Not handwritten (you won't be able to read those anyways - that is the reason why I started carrying my laptop to classes at first place), but make notes using Lotus Notes, Microsoft Word (or Excel), KWord, AbiWord or OpenOffice.org Write. If you are some kind of a Linux/Unix geek, you might even take notes in *TeX (which I wouldn't suggest to anyone else). It is especially useful if the class does not yet have an online conspect as then you will be the first to write one and it can be an opportunity to get credit or extra income.

I have seen most laptops in physics and economy classes, a bit less in computer science followed by law and then other social and real sciences and finally others. But I see the use of laptops increasing every week. I consider the use of laptops and Internet in classes more of a necessity than of distraction. It gives you much more opportunities than takes away. Ideally colleges and universities should be able to supply laptops to students in need as I can't see uncomputerised learning possible in ten years. E-learning, i-learning and learning from remote and independent is becoming more and more common. Classrooms are becoming more and more like (student) corporation rooms - places where people with similar interests can gather. It is even possible to graduate an university eithout actually ever visiting the university building (of the university you are to graduate) today. Why should we spend time for commuting between universty and home or university and work or university and cafe or ...? And why should we reserve certain times a week just to go and listen to one person talking if you could listen to the recording of his talk any time anywhere? We shouldn't!

The teacher does have one obligation, though

[James_Aguilar]

In my view (as a college student), it's the teacher's obligation not to bore me, or at least to provide information that I could not easily look up in a book. If the information the teacher gives during class does not do at least one of these things, I don't think it's reasonable to expect me to pay attention. That is, if the marginal benefit of paying attention is less than the marginal cost, I don't see why I would.

On top of that, paying attention to boring lectures is just impossible. I wish more computer science classes allowed some kind of more interesting form of student-teacher interaction.

Problem isn't always the students

[RyoShin]

I'm one of those people who always brings their laptop to class. The only classes that I don't take it to are math classes, or classes where it's not allowed (which is almost unheard of.) I even bring it to classes like Physics.

The main purpose is notes, but as the term goes on, it takes on a whole other secondary purpose: Giving me a reason to be there. Frankly, 75% of the professors I've had so far in college (I'm in my second half the junior year) are dull, read off slides, don't know what the hell they're talking about, or are incomprehensible. However, most don't tell me when tests/quizes/homework will be ahead of time, so I go to class to make sure I know. While in class, I either work ahead in the book, do homework, or browse the internet. I once played Half-Life during Chemistry.

There's no reason for me to do otherwise. Either the professors have such high curves that I don't actually need to learn the material to pass, the book gives me all the info I need so the professor is useless, or the professor is actually good and I am actually taking notes. The presence of my laptop generally has little to do with my overall grade, regardless if I use it to take notes or not, but the level of the professor has a profound effect.