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Professors Banning Laptops In the Lecture Hall
Pickens writes "The Washington Post reports that professors have banned laptops from their classrooms at George Washington University, American University, the College of William and Mary, and the University of Virginia, among many others, compelling students to take notes the way their parents did: on paper. A generation ago, academia embraced the laptop as the most welcome classroom innovation since the ballpoint pen, but during the past decade it has evolved into a powerful distraction as wireless Internet connections tempt students away from note-typing to e-mail, blogs, YouTube videos, sports scores, even online gaming. Even when used as glorified typewriters, laptops can turn students into witless stenographers, typing a lecture verbatim without listening or understanding. 'The breaking point for me was when I asked a student to comment on an issue, and he said, "Wait a minute, I want to open my computer,"' says David Goldfrank, a Georgetown history professor. 'And I told him, "I don't want to know what's in your computer. I want to know what's in your head."' Some students don't agree with the ban. A student wrote in the University of Denver's newspaper: 'The fact that some students misuse technology is no reason to ban it. After all, how many professors ban pens and notebooks after noticing students doodling in the margins?'"
And remember, no margin, no Fermat's Last Theorem!
Yeah, he should have gone with a car analogy instead...
Cheers, Chris
I bet there's someone in a lecture reading this right now.
I believe that this would happen in a slightly different fashion today. "I have discovered a truly marvelous proof that all non-trivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function have a real part of 1/2, but the landing zone of my Macbook's hard drive is too narrow to contain the TeX file."
Ezekiel 23:20
There
Hey, stop surfing around and reading /. and start taking notes!
Ezekiel 23:20
I ran into this issue at my school and had a few professors get frustrated by students with laptops. However we talked about it in class and came to the determination that the people who are using laptops to screw around are only hurting them selves. And besides whose paying the tuition? This would be one thing if this was High school but not college.
You sound like Alliance.
meep
It's madness, I know. The idea that teachers might want to think about the best way to ensure that the information they are trying to impart is absorbed and retained by their students.
When I was a student, I found the best way to enjoy lectures was with my eyes closed, listening to my Walkman. I didn't disturb anyone, so I have no idea why the lecturer took exception to my stance.
That's a very one-sided view of things. The success of every student should be top priority for a professor.It may be that they (the professor) is a genuinely good person who cares about other people and how their education will affect society years later when the student is in the real world, or that in the university's eyes the success of the student reflects the effectiveness of the professor. In any case, education ... hey, get that sniper on the crane... HEADSHOT!
Apple would only allow proprietary Fermats in the iMargin.
rewriting history since 2109
I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter (provided it includes drawings of monkeys and hunters, of course)
I think I speak for all the men here, when I say that there's nothing more distracting on Earth than a beautiful 19 year old girl in a tank top and a short skirt...
I'm a Mac user, you insensitive clod!
Nah: "I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of this, but Twitter 140 chars lolol"
maybe they should go to "concentration camp"