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