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Should Colleges Ban Classroom Laptop Use?
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.'"
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
By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth. -- George Carlin
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.