Laptop Bans in Colleges

chanel

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Jun 8, 2009
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People's Republic of NJ
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. Wireless Internet connections tempt students away from note-typing to e-mail, blogs, YouTube videos, sports scores, even online gaming -- all the diversions of a home computer beamed into the classroom to compete with the professor for the student's attention.

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. Last month, a physics professor at the University of Oklahoma poured liquid nitrogen onto a laptop and then shattered it on the floor, a warning to the digitally distracted. A student -- of course -- managed to capture the staged theatrics on video and drew a million hits on YouTube.

washingtonpost.com

I feel their pain. High school teachers can no longer compete with cell phones and Ipods. It's a cancer that no one seems to want to address. Even the best and the brightest barely hear a word the instructor says.

Comments?
 
I think we need Zen-like austerity.

A teacher with a bamboo stick, no chairs, nothing but white walls and a black board.

Wrong answer and you get a bamboo koan in your crack.
 
I'd get bamboo splinters in my arse, can't understand koans (what I laughingly call my "rationality" gets in the way).

Anyway, in a classroom distractions should be minimised. Keep them all out. The teacher is teaching, the students should be attending (as in giving attention) not fucking around with battery driven whatsits.

And no boozing at the back of the class either. I remember when I was about 14 taking a science class and an older kid who had been backslotted (he must have been 16 or so, anyway his voice was broken and he had sideburns) used to sit next to me and swig out of a hip flask of Scotch. He was usually pissed before noon. That was distracting too.
 
I was born in the wrong country, I really should have went to school in Australia.

Do you know I scored a 100% below on the flask GRE?
 
Maybe since all laptops come with a built in camera the instructor's don't want what they say to be recorded.
 
Maybe since all laptops come with a built in camera the instructor's don't want what they say to be recorded.

Slightly post pubescent women and men who left university never getting laid are a very dangerous combination.
 
Same result as the rest of my education.

Meet the new brain, same as the old brain.

And I will be fooled again.
 
I just watched the video of the prof destroying the laptop ... the dude looks a lot like Harold Ramis.

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In high schools the social networks should be blocked. If hacked, the student should go to a no laptop class.

In university? If the student is such a twit to have no self-control, too bad. They won't make it in the 'real world' either.
 
Annie - I would tend to agree with you but I honestly believe its an addiction that many young people have no control over.

And Terry - that may be true, but audio cassettes have always been allowed. I taped many a lecture.

Our school computers have blocks but with Ipods and Blackberries the students can still get on thru wireless or cell service. I'd like them to block cell too. I know it's radical and the teachers would hate it, but we've had way too many issues with cellphones.
 
In high schools the social networks should be blocked. If hacked, the student should go to a no laptop class.

In university? If the student is such a twit to have no self-control, too bad. They won't make it in the 'real world' either.

Agreed.

If a student wants to play World of Warcraft or update their facebook status in a college classroom it's to their own detriment.
 
In high schools the social networks should be blocked. If hacked, the student should go to a no laptop class.

In university? If the student is such a twit to have no self-control, too bad. They won't make it in the 'real world' either.

Agreed.

If a student wants to play World of Warcraft or update their facebook status in a college classroom it's to their own detriment.

What if they become MBAs and fuck the rest of us with their computer game ideas of finance?

I have a son, God help us.
 
silent key's is in need. If I was a student I would be using my laptop with the silent keys because I can type a lot faster on a keyboard then I can freehand. Not only that I could record the entire instruction, therefore increase my chances to go back and review what all was taught.

A few bad apples shouldn't spoil the lot. I agree cell phones are a distraction but Laptops shouldn't be in a College!

Instead of banning perhaps these Colleges should set some guidelines in using laptops.
 
Annie - I would tend to agree with you but I honestly believe its an addiction that many young people have no control over.

And Terry - that may be true, but audio cassettes have always been allowed. I taped many a lecture.

Our school computers have blocks but with Ipods and Blackberries the students can still get on thru wireless or cell service. I'd like them to block cell too. I know it's radical and the teachers would hate it, but we've had way too many issues with cellphones.

Addiction? Then start a recovery program for the addicts, leave those that want to take notes and have research saved, alone. Send them to a 'no wi-fi/cell' zone.
Again, without self discipline, they are doomed from the start.
 
If universities ban lap tops what is next?

Banning pole dancing?

PC gone feral.
 
If I were a high school teacher, or elementary teacher, I'd have a basket at the door of the classroom and every student would have to drop their cell phone and ipod into when they entered the classroom; they'd get them back at the end of class. Anyone caught with holding would be given two weeks detention.

Colleges? Different kettle of fish. If the students are too stupid to utilize the laptop for note taking (I totally agree with Terry; I can type lightening fast and would capture much more information note taking with a laptop), then they're too stupid.
 
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