[Air-l] laptops and Internet access in class

[Julie Cohen]

A colleague of mine recently published this op-ed in the Washington
Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/06/AR200704
0601544.html

 

He describes his reasons for banning his first-year students from
bringing laptops to class (they go into "stenographic mode", or they
surf and check e-mail, which distracts other students and detracts from
the learning experience).  He reports that his students reacted
positively to the experiment (some of my own reacted quite negatively
when I mentioned they idea, but they were upper-years who had
self-selected to study IP/technology law).  He has also begun
campaigning to have us modify our wireless network so that it is turned
"off" in classrooms during class time and/or to modify our entire
network to disable students' university e-mail and web accounts during
the hours that they're listed as being signed up for class.  I was
surprised to learn this, but apparently the U. of Michigan law school
has done both of these things and some other law schools are considering
it.

 

In the ensuing debate, many colleagues cited what I think are some very
good reasons not to do the last two things, including: missed
pedagogical opportunities (both re use of the Internet for on-the-fly
research as subjects come up in class and re ethics of networked
technology use), cost, inequality as between students who use only our
network and students who can access other available wireless networks
via commercial accounts, and excessive paternalism.  

 

Now that the semester has ended, I expect the subject to come up again,
and I thought I would see what members of this list think.  Most
specifically, I'm wondering (1) what you all say to colleagues who react
to laptops and wired classrooms in this way; and (2) techniques that you
use to encourage students to think about their own responsibilities re
networked technology usage.  

 

Thanks, Julie