[Air-l] laptops and Internet access in class

[Bonnie Nardi]

I have not done any research on laptops in classrooms but I have had 
two undergraduate student groups study this topic.

They have found that students lose track of what is being said in 
lecture when they get involved in interactions with friends on IM or 
they play games or do homework for other classes. These are not 
activities that lend themselves to keeping an ear open for the 
important bits of the lecture.

The students also reported that 50% of the students said they would not 
bring a laptop to class if there were no wireless access. This wireless 
access is for games, etc. not looking up what the professor is talking 
about.

An important issue I have not heard mentioned is that the presence of 
other activities in the classroom --  activities that require attention 
and separate the student from the classroom -- changes the culture of 
the classroom as a whole. Students are not engaged with each other in 
the same way. They are no longer a "body" of students but individuals 
selecting their own activities, virtually leaving the classroom. It's a 
subtle but pervasive effect.

Students who need help with English can make a special arrangement to 
text a friend or they can bring unobtrusive dictionary devices (one of 
my students has one).

See also Gay and Hembrooke's Activity-Centered Design. There's a good 
chapter on wireless in the classroom there.

--

Bonnie

On May 18, 2007, at 6:49 PM, Matthew Bernius wrote:

> I come at this issue from both side: as a PhD student (at Cornell) and 
> as
> professor teaching undergraduate classes (at RIT, btw, so I'm pretty
> familiar with the scenario Alex laid out).
>
> Next year I will be banning cell phone, ipods, etc. in my undergraduate
> classes. Laptops will be allowed for specific assignments, but 
> otherwise not
> to be used as well (especially in Freshman classes). This ban extends 
> to
> myself as well (unless unavoidable, I'm going to rely on lecturing and 
> white
> boards -- no more ppt). As Alex suggested, my biggest issue with 
> laptops is
> the distraction that they cause to other students. Geyond that (and 
> outside
> of lab activities), I am increasingly coming to the belief that they 
> present
> a barrier to students developing certain skills that will, down the 
> road,
> better allow those students to use those same devices. And, at least 
> for a
> school like RIT, that prides itself on preparing it's students for the
> workplace, basic technology etiquette needs to be stressed. The sad 
> fact is
> that a lot of the technology behavior I've seen isn't appropriate for 
> the
> workplace.
>
> As far as upper level undergrads, depending on the class makeup, I may 
> allow
> it. But right now I'm more concerned about raising physical engagement
> rather than passively encouraging virtual engagement.
>
> Now for the possible hypocrisy -- I fully intend to use a laptop to 
> take
> notes when I attend class. That said, if a prof doesn't allow it, I 
> won't
> mind. And I'm confident that I'm at a point where I can use the laptop
> responsibly.
>
> - Matt
>
> -- 
> -----------------------------
> Matthew Bernius
> New Media and Customer Intelligence Strategist for Hire
> mBernius at gMail.com
> http://www.waking-dream.com
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Bonnie A. Nardi
Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697-3440
(949) 824-6534
www.artifex.org/~bonnie/