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Laptops in the Classroom, A New Article
Folks,
You just have to love an article that begins:
"Laptops should be a welcome addition to law school classrooms because
they can provide substantial educational benefits to today’s law
students. They might not benefit all learners, or be appropriate at
all times, but to ban them completely from a lecture hall is to deny
students a powerful learning tool—one that many students already use
to enhance their learning."
The author then sets out to debunk 5 "laptop myths" often used as
justification for banning laptops in the classroom. The myths,
"Students Use Laptops to Take Transcript-Style Notes", "Laptops in
Class Lead to Decreased Class Participation and Engagement", "Laptops
Primarily Provide Law Students with Opportunities for Distraction",
"Because They Are Digital Natives, Law Students Make Informed Choices
About Laptops and Learning", and "Law Professors Have Developed
Sufficient Standards for Measuring the Results of Law School Laptop
Bans" are examined in light of data gathered by surveying actual first
year law students at 2 law schools, one with a laptop requirement, one
without a requirement. The results are enlightening.
So, this is a teknoids reading assignment. Download Murray, Kristen
E., Let Them Use Laptops: Debunking the Assumptions Underlying the
Debate Over Laptops in the Classroom (2011). Oklahoma City University
Law Review, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN:
http://ssrn.com/abstract=1761358 and let's discuss.
I did not attach the article to this post because I understand the
value of SSRN download counts in determining the value of legal
scholarship. Got to SSRN and download the article. And be sure to pass
this along far and wide, it is an important article.
Elmer.
- Login to post comments
Comments
RE: Laptops in the Classroom, A New Article
Downloaded and skimmed as requested. A couple of thoughts...
We were recently testing a new IP camera installed during a remodel. Terrific clarity...so good, in fact, that we could tell that the students in the first row were (1) on Craigslist (2) playing online poker (3) on FB (4) reading gmail (and so on). Our faculty had the "what to do about laptops in the classroom" discussion over and over again and all but a couple believe it's a matter of choice. One has banned them and one has stated that she reserves the right to ban them if students complain.
While the article was a good distraction for a Friday morning (but not nearly as riveting as the "world's scariest path" video), I mean no disrespect to the author when I say that to me, this seems like such a dead issue (almost like student printing...). We've had a laptop requirement policy for quite awhile. Our biggest challenge these days is not whether laptops should be banned from the classroom...it's how to get main campus to increase the wireless IP pool to accommodate smartphones and other wireless devices. Personally, I'm as bad as anyone with my Droid and have made the decision to leave it at my desk when attending meetings or in my pocket when out for dinner with my husband. If I don't, I'm not fully present and I know that. Do I really need to be connected all the time? Nope. Am I tempted by the opportunity? Yup. Is this anyone's problem but my own? Not in my opinion.
One anecdote...I was recently in a Satellite coffee shop getting my afternoon caffeine fix. I was standing in line and heard a familiar sound that I couldn't place. I looked around and saw dozens of students with their laptops - and one lone middle-aged gentleman typing attentively on a black Royal typewriter, just like the kind I used when Dad taught me to type (back in the dark ages). The sound I recognized was the carriage return being thrown to start a new line. I wish I had taken a picture of it...such a contract to the students with all their fancy laptops and i-pads.
Cyndi
Cyndi Dean Johnson
Assistant Dean for Information Technology
UNM School of Law
(505) 277-0695
-----Original Message-----
From: teknoids-bounces@ruckus.law.cornell.edu [mailto:teknoids-bounces@ruckus.law.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Elmer Masters
Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 9:43 AM
To: Teknoids
Subject: [teknoids] Laptops in the Classroom, A New Article
Folks,
You just have to love an article that begins:
"Laptops should be a welcome addition to law school classrooms because
they can provide substantial educational benefits to today's law
students. They might not benefit all learners, or be appropriate at
all times, but to ban them completely from a lecture hall is to deny
students a powerful learning tool-one that many students already use
to enhance their learning."
The author then sets out to debunk 5 "laptop myths" often used as
justification for banning laptops in the classroom. The myths,
"Students Use Laptops to Take Transcript-Style Notes", "Laptops in
Class Lead to Decreased Class Participation and Engagement", "Laptops
Primarily Provide Law Students with Opportunities for Distraction",
"Because They Are Digital Natives, Law Students Make Informed Choices
About Laptops and Learning", and "Law Professors Have Developed
Sufficient Standards for Measuring the Results of Law School Laptop
Bans" are examined in light of data gathered by surveying actual first
year law students at 2 law schools, one with a laptop requirement, one
without a requirement. The results are enlightening.
So, this is a teknoids reading assignment. Download Murray, Kristen
E., Let Them Use Laptops: Debunking the Assumptions Underlying the
Debate Over Laptops in the Classroom (2011). Oklahoma City University
Law Review, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN:
http://ssrn.com/abstract=1761358 and let's discuss.
I did not attach the article to this post because I understand the
value of SSRN download counts in determining the value of legal
scholarship. Got to SSRN and download the article. And be sure to pass
this along far and wide, it is an important article.
Elmer.
Laptops in the Classroom, A New Article
Nice post.
I have long believed that the issue of banning laptops in the
classroom is not the real issue, it is instead an indicator of student
attention/distraction. The premise of the argument to ban laptops can
be boiled down to...
"If you provide a distraction free environment, students can learn more".
Plenty of room to argue what a "distraction" is, but I would rather
look at the "learn more" part.
If "learn more" is the goal, then this issue needs to be studied,
unpacked and examined to find out what exactly it means. Some
students are trying to learn more by using their laptops. Others are
realizing that they are not learning in the traditional, "sage on the
stage" classroom and so are opting to use their laptops to do
something else rather than waste their time "not learning".
Generally speaking, the instructor who just lectures has no idea at
all if students are actually learning. Mere lecture may be the
easiest/cheapest way to "instruct" a roomful of students, but it
provides the least amount of feedback and therefore least opportunity
for correction. Shiny, happy faces without glazed-over, bovine
staring is NOT an indicator of attentiveness and interest and
learning. No network engineer worth her salt would run a network
without a dashboard of feedback about the health of the network and
systems. What is the equivalent in the classroom that measures
student attention/interest? (and yes, I know, students are not nodes
in a network and faculty are not servers).
I believe that lecturing should be eliminated almost entirely or taken
offline as videos or podcasts. Let the students learn the doctrine
from the book/reading/CALI lesson (sorry) and use the classroom for
small-group interaction, mini-writing projects where the results are
"passed to the left" and discussed with a partner, etc, etc. Some
interaction occurs with the socratic method, but, I suspect, not
enough.
This is what the laptop ban issue is highlighting. Students want to
learn and don't want to waste time if they are not learning. They
want formative feedback - mostly from the instructor, maybe from their
peers, even from a computer - something that tells them they ARE
learning and mastering the topic. They can consume the "data" of the
course best on their own. They ARE graduate students after all.
John
On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 12:42 PM, Johnson, Cyndi <johnson@law.unm.edu> wrote:
> Downloaded and skimmed as requested. A couple of thoughts...
>
> We were recently testing a new IP camera installed during a remodel. Terrific clarity...so good, in fact, that we could tell that the students in the first row were (1) on Craigslist (2) playing online poker (3) on FB (4) reading gmail (and so on). Our faculty had the "what to do about laptops in the classroom" discussion over and over again and all but a couple believe it's a matter of choice. One has banned them and one has stated that she reserves the right to ban them if students complain.
>
> While the article was a good distraction for a Friday morning (but not nearly as riveting as the "world's scariest path" video), I mean no disrespect to the author when I say that to me, this seems like such a dead issue (almost like student printing...). We've had a laptop requirement policy for quite awhile. Our biggest challenge these days is not whether laptops should be banned from the classroom...it's how to get main campus to increase the wireless IP pool to accommodate smartphones and other wireless devices. Personally, I'm as bad as anyone with my Droid and have made the decision to leave it at my desk when attending meetings or in my pocket when out for dinner with my husband. If I don't, I'm not fully present and I know that. Do I really need to be connected all the time? Nope. Am I tempted by the opportunity? Yup. Is this anyone's problem but my own? Not in my opinion.
>
> One anecdote...I was recently in a Satellite coffee shop getting my afternoon caffeine fix. I was standing in line and heard a familiar sound that I couldn't place. I looked around and saw dozens of students with their laptops - and one lone middle-aged gentleman typing attentively on a black Royal typewriter, just like the kind I used when Dad taught me to type (back in the dark ages). The sound I recognized was the carriage return being thrown to start a new line. I wish I had taken a picture of it...such a contract to the students with all their fancy laptops and i-pads.
>
> Cyndi
> Cyndi Dean Johnson
> Assistant Dean for Information Technology
> UNM School of Law
> (505) 277-0695
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: teknoids-bounces@ruckus.law.cornell.edu [mailto:teknoids-bounces@ruckus.law.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Elmer Masters
> Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 9:43 AM
> To: Teknoids
> Subject: [teknoids] Laptops in the Classroom, A New Article
>
> Folks,
> You just have to love an article that begins:
> "Laptops should be a welcome addition to law school classrooms because
> they can provide substantial educational benefits to today's law
> students. They might not benefit all learners, or be appropriate at
> all times, but to ban them completely from a lecture hall is to deny
> students a powerful learning tool-one that many students already use
> to enhance their learning."
>
> The author then sets out to debunk 5 "laptop myths" often used as
> justification for banning laptops in the classroom. The myths,
> "Students Use Laptops to Take Transcript-Style Notes", "Laptops in
> Class Lead to Decreased Class Participation and Engagement", "Laptops
> Primarily Provide Law Students with Opportunities for Distraction",
> "Because They Are Digital Natives, Law Students Make Informed Choices
> About Laptops and Learning", and "Law Professors Have Developed
> Sufficient Standards for Measuring the Results of Law School Laptop
> Bans" are examined in light of data gathered by surveying actual first
> year law students at 2 law schools, one with a laptop requirement, one
> without a requirement. The results are enlightening.
>
> So, this is a teknoids reading assignment. Download Murray, Kristen
> E., Let Them Use Laptops: Debunking the Assumptions Underlying the
> Debate Over Laptops in the Classroom (2011). Oklahoma City University
> Law Review, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN:
> http://ssrn.com/abstract=1761358 and let's discuss.
>
> I did not attach the article to this post because I understand the
> value of SSRN download counts in determining the value of legal
> scholarship. Got to SSRN and download the article. And be sure to pass
> this along far and wide, it is an important article.
>
> Elmer.
>
>
> --
> Elmer R. Masters
> Director of Internet Development
> Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction
> emasters@cali.org 773-332-7508
> _______________________________________________
> You are currently subscribed to teknoids as: johnson@law.unm.edu.
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to teknoids-leave@ruckus.law.cornell.edu
> --
> See the web interface at http://ruckus.law.cornell.edu/mailman/listinfo/teknoids to get your list password, unsubscribe, and view your list settings.
> _______________________________________________
> You are currently subscribed to teknoids as: jmayer@cali.org.
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to teknoids-leave@ruckus.law.cornell.edu
> --
> See the web interface at http://ruckus.law.cornell.edu/mailman/listinfo/teknoids to get your list password, unsubscribe, and view your list settings.
>
RE: Laptops in the Classroom, A New Article
Well said John--and with recent comments in the press and on blogs about the high cost of legal education and whether students are getting their money's worth it is very timely.
I really think the biggest problem is that there has been insufficient push to get faculty to learn how to incorporate laptops and technology into the teaching. There have been studies of programs in public schools where laptops are provided to students and the single most important determinant of success is how well the teachers are trained to incorporate or utilize the laptops in the curriculum. There is no doubt that laptops can be a distraction, but there is also no doubt that they can be a powerful enhancement of active learning. It is sad that so much attention is spent on the former and so little on the latter.
Bob Seibel
California Western School of Law
rfs@cwsl.edu
619 525 1445
________________________________
From: teknoids-bounces@ruckus.law.cornell.edu on behalf of John Mayer
Sent: Fri 2/25/2011 11:18 AM
To: Teknoids
Subject: Re: [teknoids] Laptops in the Classroom, A New Article
Nice post.
I have long believed that the issue of banning laptops in the
classroom is not the real issue, it is instead an indicator of student
attention/distraction. The premise of the argument to ban laptops can
be boiled down to...
"If you provide a distraction free environment, students can learn more".
Plenty of room to argue what a "distraction" is, but I would rather
look at the "learn more" part.
If "learn more" is the goal, then this issue needs to be studied,
unpacked and examined to find out what exactly it means. Some
students are trying to learn more by using their laptops. Others are
realizing that they are not learning in the traditional, "sage on the
stage" classroom and so are opting to use their laptops to do
something else rather than waste their time "not learning".
Generally speaking, the instructor who just lectures has no idea at
all if students are actually learning. Mere lecture may be the
easiest/cheapest way to "instruct" a roomful of students, but it
provides the least amount of feedback and therefore least opportunity
for correction. Shiny, happy faces without glazed-over, bovine
staring is NOT an indicator of attentiveness and interest and
learning. No network engineer worth her salt would run a network
without a dashboard of feedback about the health of the network and
systems. What is the equivalent in the classroom that measures
student attention/interest? (and yes, I know, students are not nodes
in a network and faculty are not servers).
I believe that lecturing should be eliminated almost entirely or taken
offline as videos or podcasts. Let the students learn the doctrine
from the book/reading/CALI lesson (sorry) and use the classroom for
small-group interaction, mini-writing projects where the results are
"passed to the left" and discussed with a partner, etc, etc. Some
interaction occurs with the socratic method, but, I suspect, not
enough.
This is what the laptop ban issue is highlighting. Students want to
learn and don't want to waste time if they are not learning. They
want formative feedback - mostly from the instructor, maybe from their
peers, even from a computer - something that tells them they ARE
learning and mastering the topic. They can consume the "data" of the
course best on their own. They ARE graduate students after all.
John
On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 12:42 PM, Johnson, Cyndi <johnson@law.unm.edu> wrote:
> Downloaded and skimmed as requested. A couple of thoughts...
>
> We were recently testing a new IP camera installed during a remodel. Terrific clarity...so good, in fact, that we could tell that the students in the first row were (1) on Craigslist (2) playing online poker (3) on FB (4) reading gmail (and so on). Our faculty had the "what to do about laptops in the classroom" discussion over and over again and all but a couple believe it's a matter of choice. One has banned them and one has stated that she reserves the right to ban them if students complain.
>
> While the article was a good distraction for a Friday morning (but not nearly as riveting as the "world's scariest path" video), I mean no disrespect to the author when I say that to me, this seems like such a dead issue (almost like student printing...). We've had a laptop requirement policy for quite awhile. Our biggest challenge these days is not whether laptops should be banned from the classroom...it's how to get main campus to increase the wireless IP pool to accommodate smartphones and other wireless devices. Personally, I'm as bad as anyone with my Droid and have made the decision to leave it at my desk when attending meetings or in my pocket when out for dinner with my husband. If I don't, I'm not fully present and I know that. Do I really need to be connected all the time? Nope. Am I tempted by the opportunity? Yup. Is this anyone's problem but my own? Not in my opinion.
>
> One anecdote...I was recently in a Satellite coffee shop getting my afternoon caffeine fix. I was standing in line and heard a familiar sound that I couldn't place. I looked around and saw dozens of students with their laptops - and one lone middle-aged gentleman typing attentively on a black Royal typewriter, just like the kind I used when Dad taught me to type (back in the dark ages). The sound I recognized was the carriage return being thrown to start a new line. I wish I had taken a picture of it...such a contract to the students with all their fancy laptops and i-pads.
>
> Cyndi
> Cyndi Dean Johnson
> Assistant Dean for Information Technology
> UNM School of Law
> (505) 277-0695
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: teknoids-bounces@ruckus.law.cornell.edu [mailto:teknoids-bounces@ruckus.law.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Elmer Masters
> Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 9:43 AM
> To: Teknoids
> Subject: [teknoids] Laptops in the Classroom, A New Article
>
> Folks,
> You just have to love an article that begins:
> "Laptops should be a welcome addition to law school classrooms because
> they can provide substantial educational benefits to today's law
> students. They might not benefit all learners, or be appropriate at
> all times, but to ban them completely from a lecture hall is to deny
> students a powerful learning tool-one that many students already use
> to enhance their learning."
>
> The author then sets out to debunk 5 "laptop myths" often used as
> justification for banning laptops in the classroom. The myths,
> "Students Use Laptops to Take Transcript-Style Notes", "Laptops in
> Class Lead to Decreased Class Participation and Engagement", "Laptops
> Primarily Provide Law Students with Opportunities for Distraction",
> "Because They Are Digital Natives, Law Students Make Informed Choices
> About Laptops and Learning", and "Law Professors Have Developed
> Sufficient Standards for Measuring the Results of Law School Laptop
> Bans" are examined in light of data gathered by surveying actual first
> year law students at 2 law schools, one with a laptop requirement, one
> without a requirement. The results are enlightening.
>
> So, this is a teknoids reading assignment. Download Murray, Kristen
> E., Let Them Use Laptops: Debunking the Assumptions Underlying the
> Debate Over Laptops in the Classroom (2011). Oklahoma City University
> Law Review, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN:
> http://ssrn.com/abstract=1761358 and let's discuss.
>
> I did not attach the article to this post because I understand the
> value of SSRN download counts in determining the value of legal
> scholarship. Got to SSRN and download the article. And be sure to pass
> this along far and wide, it is an important article.
>
> Elmer.
>
>
> --
> Elmer R. Masters
> Director of Internet Development
> Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction
> emasters@cali.org 773-332-7508
> _______________________________________________
> You are currently subscribed to teknoids as: johnson@law.unm.edu.
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to teknoids-leave@ruckus.law.cornell.edu
> --
> See the web interface at http://ruckus.law.cornell.edu/mailman/listinfo/teknoids to get your list password, unsubscribe, and view your list settings.
> _______________________________________________
> You are currently subscribed to teknoids as: jmayer@cali.org.
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to teknoids-leave@ruckus.law.cornell.edu
> --
> See the web interface at http://ruckus.law.cornell.edu/mailman/listinfo/teknoids to get your list password, unsubscribe, and view your list settings.
>
--
----------
John Mayer
Executive Director
Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction/CALI
565 West Adams
Chicago, IL 60661
312-906-5307
312-906-5280 - fax
jmayer@cali.org
http://www.cali.org
twitter.com/johnpmayer
----------
_______________________________________________
You are currently subscribed to teknoids as: rfs@cwsl.edu.
To unsubscribe send a blank email to teknoids-leave@ruckus.law.cornell.edu
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