Laptops: Classroom Friend or Foe?
June 29, 2010 | ama83
Are you laptop obsessed?
Laptops – they are a quick means to taking notes, looking up information, and even playing a game of solitaire or IM-ing with buddies in the middle of a teacher’s lecture. Let’s face it, when students pop open their laptops in class, very few, if any, actually use their personal computers for academic’s sake. So why are laptops allowed in the classroom?
Teachers get offended when they know students are not paying attention to their lectures. I have heard many of them become disgruntled and scold students who pull out their phones in the middle of class to text or check a voicemail, but I never see any professors give any kind of objection to seeing a laptop in class.
From what I understand, most teachers assume that the laptops are being used for educational purposes; that the students are just taking notes on their computers rather than writing them longhand, or maybe the students are getting started on a class assignment.
Seriously, has anyone ever seen an open laptop with information on the screen that actually pertained to the classroom? Interestingly, no-one seems to get caught. With as many times as I have seen students sitting in front of me with a game going on their screen, the teacher always remains oblivious to what the student is really doing. I have never seen a teacher flinch at the sight of a laptop opening in the middle of a lecture, and I have never heard of a teacher complain to a student about bringing a laptop to class.
I’ll admit that I personally do not find laptop usage a distraction because it only distracts the user. If anyone thinks otherwise, I would gladly like to hear that opinion.
Were I a student, I would be one who forces myself to listen to lectures respectfully, and watching some other student get away with playing computer games in the middle of a lecture seems unfair. Also, it is very rude to the professor. But these students probably figure what teachers don’t know won’t hurt them. I am just baffled that teachers actually allow students to continue with this.
I remember seeing a student open up a newspaper in the middle of class, which obviously caused some paper ruffling sounds, as well as blocked the student’s entire visibility from the teacher. The instructor immediately called the student’s attention in front of the whole class and proclaimed her actions as rude. An open newspaper is considered bad-mannered, but an open laptop isn’t?
It would almost seem that using a laptop in class is the perfect crime for students. The teachers don’t complain, and the students can go on being rude and ignoring the lecture. But, where is the sense of being mature and respectful in the classroom?
If a student has paid for the class, shouldn’t they get their money’s worth by actually paying attention and learning from the class? And, if the teacher is trying to do his or job by helping students with the material, shouldn’t students give the teacher enough respect to listen? Perhaps this is more a matter of maturity and classroom ethics than anything else.
Eventually it will catch up with the student and he/she will fail, or get a lousy grade. It all evens out in the end.
Because right nowadays a globalization is happening. But the globalisation is simply economic, so the corporations and the banks economic might is more wide-ranging than the transnational political power. If the globalization would as well be political, then the corps and banks would be obligated to stick with the rules that the supranational governement orders. Right nowadays there is no regulations so the corps and banks just exploit everyone they can…