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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."
I'm in a lecture right now and haven't paid attention the entire time.
I think laptops etc. are a really bad idea in lectures. I should really stop bringing mine.
If you can download and watch the materials on your laptop it's far less distracting than if you have to take notes and simultanously listen to the professor.
When I went to college I didn't have a cellphone or a laptop. I still spent plenty of time not paying attention to the lectures. For most people it is impossible to sit and listen and pay attention the whole time. The problem is the lectures, not the laptop.
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.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
There is a time and place for that. During the lecture is not it.
If students didn't have them or smart phones, they'd be doodling, spacing out, sleeping in class as well. It is just a diversion.
Dude it has been shown that doodling enhances absorption and recall on information, but distracted multi tasking decreases it.
Also since when do we say notebook in a headline and have everyone read it and think laptop not paper notebook.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
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).
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.
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.
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
This is a complaint I occasionally get in my classes - that students have trouble taking notes while listening to my lecture. Or, that they can't write down what's on the board and take notes on what I'm saying. I like to think it hasn't been too long since I was in school last, but maybe I'm older than I realize.
So, how exactly are teachers presenting information to classes at the junior high school level and above these days? I remember teachers talking while I wrote down key points and summaries of what they were saying. I remember copying or summarizing material they put up on a chalk board, transparency, or occasional powerpoint while listening to the teacher. Is there some new pedagogical technique that's been developed in the past 10 years that I should know about?
When I was in college (2 years ago) I brought my laptop to most classes, simply because I can type about 4-5x faster than I can hand-write. The only thing running was emacs, but none of my professors minded.
The thing that makes this work for college is that I *want* to be there. If I really don't want to take a class, I just don't register for it. So if I'm sitting in a classroom, it's because I'm actually interested in what the professor has to say. Such a thing would never work in a setting like high schools and lower precisely because attendance is compelled.
On the other hand, it feels good to be the recitation TA at times like this.
More on the subject, I only use my laptop during lectures as an e-book reader, and sometimes for note-taking (live-TeXing is quite hard); and I have only seen other students use it in the same manner. But then again, that's grad school; no electronics might be an effective measure in some intro undergrad courses.
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.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqXS9m6aiyk
Unfortunatly nowadays just telling the students will have them answwr "Why, there is no rule that I must do that." and continue to disturb all of the class. Then the parents come and say the same thing. A bit like this as people can not acceopt that their kid could be doing anything wrong.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Great Plan...Ban electronics but then go to eBooks for all your textbooks. How does one follow along with the lecture? Let's ban notebook paper as well. We wouldn't want students doodling instead of listening to the professor...
Honesty, I might expect this policy from a liberal arts college, but not an Institute of Technology. If the student doesn't want to pay attention, they can fail the class. Learning is the responsibility of the student not the teacher. (I've been through many of classes through my undergrad and grad level classes.)
As technology becomes more common, schools and teachers need to embrace it, not demonize it.
When I was studying computer science, we had class in a lecture hall twice a week, then lab sessions in a computer lab once a week. The community college I'm teaching at has all of our computer programming classes in computer rooms. I had to explicitly put in my syllabus no eBay, no Facebook, no Twitter, no games, etc. during class, or it would be grounds for removal. Even if the person understands the material, they might still act as a distraction to the people sitting next to them.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
What about banning lectures where it's just reading from the text book and maybe a set power point slides.
Which can end up being similar to lectures at times. I use the notes app to be able to take notes, attach pictures and videos to the notes etc. It's like a super-notebook and helps me keep track of things better. I think out right banning is short sighted and if people are not taking their classes seriously and failing then that is sort of their fault no? This isn't elementary school we're talking about here.
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.
Life is like a web application. Sometime you need cookies just to get by.
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.
Hah philosophy class. Show up for the first day, midterm and final, 3 days out of the whole class, still pulled an A.
Entirely this.
I'm an engineering student and I have noticed that most of the time, the general theorem that applies is that the interestingness of lecture is inversely proportional to the technologic level used.
In other words, someone in the theatre who'll use blackboard/scribbled projection tend to be almost universally amazing, those that use common "fill in gaps" projections tend to be OK , and lecturers using powerpoint tend to be the "gouge out eyes" sort of boring.
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.
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
Exactly - it's not that the students do not understand that what is happening is wrong, it's that they feel that they are allowed, unless there is a rule against it. When you combine that with parents that assume the perfect little sweety can't be at fault, you have a recipe for disaster. I'm not that old (37), I still remember grade-school. When the teacher sent a note home, my parents would schedule a meeting with that teacher. This meeting was to discuss what **I** did wrong, what **THEY** could do better, and what the **TEACHER** would do after s/he saw progress. Now, in the 6th grade class I teach (I'm home sick today before you jump on me about my time-stamp), when I send a note home. . . . The parents still set a meeting up, but it's to discuss what **I'm** doing wrong, what **I** will do for them, and what part of the class **I** will change to make their child's life better. I'm not saying that my classroom is a locked down police state, or that I never change my teaching tactics to suit an individual or an individual class. What I am saying is that I am disinclined to change my basic practices, based on my 15 years of experience, two advanced degrees and years of experience as a mentor teacher, just to suit the views of a twelve year old whose has parents that won't stand up to him/her. What I am saying is that there is a reason that schools have zero-tolerance policies. The people that make the policies understand that zero-tolerance on anything usually leads to more problems. They have read the research that says that zero-tolerance doesn't work. They've cited these studies. They understand most of the factors (at least in my experience). BUT, they are going through the forced motions of appeasing the knee-jerk reaction of the loudest group around, no matter what that group is or what their agenda is. Now, in the specific case of the school in this article, maybe not - there probably is a better way to go about it. But, in 99% of cases where you see a school set a zero tolerance policy, it is in response to PUBLIC outcry. So, when this zero-tolerance policy bites the PUBLIC on the ass, why do we ask for the school leaders or teachers to resign, instead of asking for the parents to resign?
I'd say that almost every class I've had after returning to school, most people I see are just screwing around on their laptops and maybe looking at lecture notes part of the time. Only in one class is the professor using our laptops as a teaching aid; having us set up our website. This naturally evolved during the semester and wasn't a forethought.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Not entirely. The slides will tend to be to the point (usually. Some do contain excess imagery *) but the problem is, that using replicates tends to make it easy for the lecturer to just read through what's written on the board. And that's what the PPers tend to do, especially since it isn't easy to add anything
Written on transparencies have both kinds - folks that just boringly plow through , and folks like our current Fracture Mechanics, and Electric Drive Systems professors who'll actually derive stuff in writing, ask questions , and talk about lotsa stuff not written on.
* - This apparently tends to be a problem with modern books, I have read somewhere. Given how easier it has gotten to actually print images into text, especially children/young books tend to image-saturate instead of providing solid information in terms of text. Never mind that simplified diagrams are usually that much easier to understand.
Well then gag them too while you're at it. I'm TAing for a large freshman class right now. The number of students who think it's appropriate to carry on extended conversations during lecture, at almost normal volume, is absurd. Computers may cast a cone of distraction behind if they're too bright, but conversations carry in all directions and actually interfere with the message, not just your attention.
So you're the reason why my philosophy classes required a 1 page essay for each class (with annotations added during during class discussion).
I'm TAing for a large freshman class right now. The number of students who think it's appropriate to carry on extended conversations during lecture, at almost normal volume, is absurd.
Kick them out. Make sure the lecture material is online so they can learn it on their own time, and not waste yours and their classmates.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Did you consider mentioning this to the professor?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Did you thank him for the lecture, and urge him to continue in this fashion?