Estonian Tech University Bans Notebooks and Smartphones

J-Georg writes "In Estonia's Tallinn University of Technology, all electronic devices — like notebooks, tablets and smartphones — are now banned in lectures held by the Institute of Public Administration. The restriction, which according to the institute aims to reduce factors interfering with academic work, came as a surprise to most of the university-goers. Moreover, it came just a day before the country's Ministry of Education announced a plan that by 2020 all textbooks and other literature would be turned into e-books and in eight years students are expected to start using computers and tablets to access study materials."

Comments

Pay attention to the professor?

[LostCluster]

Doesn't seem that out of line and there's many US schools with the same rule... they don't ban computers everywhere, but when you're in the classroom the only computer should be used by to the professor,

Re:Pay attention to the professor?

[masternerdguy]

I'm a college freshman so I remember high school very well. Teachers put a slide up with all the info on it and waited for students to copy everything down before advancing. They trained students to copy everything they see instead of evaluating what needs to be copied.

Re:Pay attention to the professor?

[khendron]

When I was in first year U I had a calculus prof whose lectures were painfully boring. He'd put a slide on the overhead projector, talk about it while we'd copy it down into our notes. Then he'd put up another slide, repeat, repeat. No time for interaction with the students. Just switch slides, copy, switch slides copy, for 50 excruciating minutes.

One day, the bulb in the project blew. We were all hoping that the prof would cancel the class, but no. He just pushed the overhead to one side, picked up a piece of chalk and started to lecture while writing on the blackboard. The prof transformed from painfully boring into a first rate lecturer. The class was engaging, there was interaction with the students, back and forth discussions. For that one class, the prof was one of the best lecturers I've ever seen.

Next class the overhead was fixed, so it was back to painfully boring.

Re:Pay attention to the professor?

[jd2112]

Powerpoint is a tool of the business world based on the premise that if you can't dazzle with brilliance you should baffle with bulls*it. It has little if any value in an educational setting.

Must everything in education be an overreaction?

[elrous0]

I always find the "zero tolerance" thing (which seems most prevalent in education) to be annoying. Contrary to the image most people have of every college student texting away on their phones all through class, I took a few classes not long ago and found that the vast majority of students were actually pretty attentive and polite in class. You would have one or two who you would see occasionally texting or playing on their laptops, but they were definitely the exception. Now, the reasonable, sane way to deal with this would be for the professor to pause briefly and say to the idiot texting "Hey dipshit, stop texting in my class, or you're going to be texting 'I failed this class' to your parents very soon." Takes about 3 seconds, everyone gets the message, idiot is suitably embarrassed.

But, of course, in typical "zero tolerance" fashion, rather than manning up and targeting the few abusers with a quick kick in the head, they throw out a blanket proclamation that punishes EVERYONE by threatening them for even having a cellphone or laptop in their bookbag or pocket. So now everyone has to suffer because the faculty and administration are a bunch of pussies who can't wipe their asses if there isn't a regulation somewhere authorizing them to do so.

It's shit like this that leads to teachers calling in the 5-0 to slap the cuffs on a 5-year-old.

Re:Laptops are not the problem

[hipp5]

But sitting behind a student doodling is not as near distracting as sitting behind a student playing WoW or watching porn (I've seen both).

Re:Laptops are not the problem

[Trubadidudei]

A diversion that everyone behind you is forced to watch as well, which can be utterly infuriating.
People checking up on news, entertainement or playing games during class are projecting a wide cone of distraction behind them. It is also impossible for others to ignore it due to how the human brain reacts to peripheral movement and bright light sources.

Good call! But exceptions?

[Manip]

In general I agree it is the right decision but they should consider making exceptions for students with special needs. Some students literally cannot write normally for medical reasons and they should be allowed to either type or be provided a recording of the lecture to type up notes later.

In general I think most people who bring a laptop to a lecture will be distracted by it, in particular if there is WiFi available. Unfortunately in the world of instant Facebook updates and e-mail alerts, it is very hard to remain focused even with the best intentions and frankly most students don't have the best intentions.

Bad professors are usually the problem

[BForrester]

Maybe if the instructors engaged and involved the class instead of yammering at them for hours on end, students wouldn't need to look elsewhere for engaging material.

Sincerely,

College professor

Re:Understandable.

[Nursie]

Don't worry! There will be more than enough time for that after college. I think they call it an office job...

What about banning lectures where it's just text b

[Joe_Dragon]

What about banning lectures where it's just reading from the text book and maybe a set power point slides.

Re:hahaha

[Moheeheeko]

And by revised we mean 4 words in chapters 2 and 3 were changed for better sentance structure. But no, the older on is obsolete and unuseable, so not only will we not buy it back but we will make everyone else buy a brand new $300 textbook.