[Air-l] laptops and Internet access in class

['Gail Taylor]

> Matthew Bernius wrote: Next year I will be banning cell
> phone, ipods, etc. in my undergraduate classes. [snipped]
> 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. Beyond 
> 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. 

I'm wondering whether Matt might expand on ideas introduced in this posting. In particular, suggestions that techology usage in classrooms doesn't translate into workplace settings. Choosing not to use the technology, as the instructor, is a contradictory practice as workplace educators are highly dependent on a variety of information and communication technologies in promotion of learning among employees in a variety of work settings. 
Employees also use ICTs to complete work tasks in automated work environments. What are some of the student technology usage practices that are not allowed in work settings?


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Gail D. Taylor, M.Ed.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Human Resource Education Ph.D. Student
Educational Psychology Teaching Assistant
Library & Information Science Research Assistant

"Technology enables man to gain control
over everything except technology." -- 
Unknown