It had been brewing all semester, and finally, on the last day of class before the final, all hell broke loose: my computer science professor decided it was time to ban laptops from class.
It was to be a review session “discussion” type class, and she didn’t want us absorbed in our screens. The professor (who shall remain nameless since I haven’t taken the final yet) had long despised the 60% of students who typed away on their Macbooks during class, and frequently threatened to ban them. In our faces bathed in screen-glow they saw nothing but disinterestedness and halfhearted attempts to look engaged. Were we really taking notes like we appeared to be, or were we simply attempting to look enthralled while stalking people on Facebook?
The truth is that we’re doing a combination of both. Of course we are reading NYU Local in Firefox, but we are also taking notes in Open Office–and hey, some students actually are just plain taking notes! And just because we’re Gchatting doesn’t mean we’re not listening. We look up about every three to five minutes just to reassure you that we are, in fact, absorbing everything you say, even if it looks like that mustachioed dude in the back may or may not be videochatting.
But see, multitasking isn’t even really the point. The point is that we’re college students, and if we want to gain any sense of academic autonomy, the right place to start would be to let us decide for ourselves just how much we want to pay attention. After all, it’s our grades that will be impacted if we spend class time blogging instead of writing down everything you say. Isn’t that a lesson you should let us learn for ourselves?
This seems to be a debate at campuses across the country, with some studies finding that students who bring laptops to class have seen their grades suffer. My thoughts on that? You live, you learn, you stop bringing your laptop to class. It’s not really the professor’s job to coddle us into paying attention, and it shouldn’t have to be.
Some other writers on the NYU Local staff have experienced similar bans in NYU classrooms. In Annie Werner’s ConWest class, the professor banned laptops and “said something about ‘despising the sea of Facebook’ while she was lecturing.”
Luis Paez Pumar said that his Brit Lit 2 professor “said no laptops allowed, ever, and he yelled at someone the first month for having one. I think he relaxed after awhile.”
I know it must be frustrating to gaze into a lecture and realize that basically nobody is paying attention. I’m sure you were around back when everyone took notes on pen and paper. But when you ban laptop usage–especially in a computer science class!–you cripple my ability to actually take notes. Do you think I came to class prepared with a pen and paper? No, because my laptop has taken the place of pen and paper. Now, because I’m not allowed to use it, not only can I not follow along in the software you’re using, I also can’t take notes–and the whole reason you banned laptops in the first place is so that I would take more notes!
From the side of the professor, I can see why this might be a contentious issue. It would be endlessly frustrating to field flurries of e-mails from students who spent all class on the internet asking about topics you clearly already covered. But these things happened even before we were tethered to our laptops. There has always been the student doodling in her notebook who raises her hand and asks you to answer something you just said.
It’s annoying, but it’s part of being a professor. And in my mind, part of being a student is knowing when and when not to pay attention.
Have any of your professors ever banned laptops?
And no, I did not write this in class.
(Image via)
When a professor is engaging – that is, good at giving lectures – I have no problem looking up from my laptop and listening. If a professor’s going to be droll and read from a PowerPoint, I’m going to be on my Gmail. There’s gotta be a give and a take!
I will say, though, that the advantages of actually taking notes well on a computer should be more than enough to convince professors that laptops are okay in class. I have a class this semester where laptops are banned, and it’s still a situation where five kids are participating every class while everyone else doodles, texts, or looks totally bored. Is that better? At all?
Something does kind of irk me about seeing people on Facebook in class, though. Like, at least I shit away my time on the NYT and Wikipedia. Jeez.
Eh, it’s not THAT bad. I’m in a Hacker Culture class in Steinhardt and the professor banned laptops from day one. I mean, come on. . . hacker culture. She claimed she knew how distracting the Internet can be. (She does research about 4chan and FOSS.)
@Jess I totally agree that the internet is distracting, I just feel like we should be allowed to decide for ourselves whether or not we want to be distracted, and pay the consequences for when we are.
LOL at laptops being banned in Hacker Culture though. That’s just silly.
1. Woo Open Office shout-out! If I were a tech activist, I’d try to get the masses to switch over from MS Word, but I’m not so someone else is gonna have to take care of it.
2. Yep, corroborating the Hacker Culture story. Actually, we’re having out final class over IRC, so I guess that counts as using your laptop during lecture.
3. Agree with this whole post. Though I must say that last week I used one of those uni-ball pens to jot down something or other and man, it felt great! So smooth and graceful, like the first spoonful of chocolate pudding pie. (It will probably never happen again.)
I think professors should focus on ways to make their classes more interesting or make it so that people need to pay attention in order to do well in the class. My communications professor doesn’t give out handouts, doesn’t use Powerpoint or doc-cams. But he also gives ample opportunities to ask questions and always goes over things very well (he’s a good teacher). So it’s in the students best interest to pay attention. Plus there are lots of diagrams and complicated equations so pen and paper are essential.
At this point it would take a LOT to get me to give up my laptop in class. But I must say, ever since I started using my laptop for note-taking, instead of a pen and paper, I haven’t been able to pay as close attention to lectures. The lure of the Internet is just too strong. I don’t think we millenials are as good at multitasking as we think… At least I’m not.
@Rosie Yeah you’re right… I was watching an episode of “Frontline” that addressed the fact that we’re not necessarily that great at multitasking. And I DEFINITELY pay less attention, I just think it’s my prerogative to do so.
If students are not required to pay attention to the professor in class (Jess, you’re being too generous – we both know that the majority of students are simply on FB, Gmail or PerezHilton during class), and we also argue against taking roll during class, at what point does college just become the act of paying $50,000 a year for a piece of paper?
The battle on this topic isn’t a battle – it’s a resolved issue. We pay an exorbitant fee and attention in order to get this degree that puts us in the top 10% of Americans. If we only pay the first portion of our fee and not the latter, this isn’t an educational establishment – it’s a place for the privileged to pay to be more privileged. That’s not right.
And Jess, the skill of taking notes isn’t outdated. While CompSci may be an exception, Conwest, BritLit, and my Holocaust course are places where the need for a computer is erroneous. The use of pen and paper and being able to take notes are important skills we should all have, as painful as it may be to not have access to Gchat.
I’ll cite the words of Stern’s Professor Hendler in pointing out that, more than likely, very few of the attendees of Obama’s Cooper Union had computers. Why? Eye contact and respect. That should hold true for our professors as well.
And hey, if it’s that uncomfortable, just keep your iPhone on your lap. Lord knows I peruse the Times when the professor’s topic bores me. Plus, no glare!
Huh, general policy at Stern is that all computers/phones/etc. are banned from use during class. There are a few exceptions, mostly when the class requires the use of Excel, but otherwise nobody’s using a computer.
On the other hand (and I really have to think these things through before posting), we are paying (a lot) for these classes, so if you choose to fool around on Facebook or whatever during class, that’s your loss.
@Paul Yeah in most Gallatin classes people don’t usually have their laptops out because a lot of times they’re tiny discussion classes. But for all CAS/bigger Gallatin classes I’ve taken most people bring their laptops.
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@Jess: I’m currently in one of the Gallatin seminars, and half of the class will have their laptops open (including me) during the lecture. And there’s only like 10 people in that class.
I am not completely on one side or the other; however, I do find it very distracting as a non-laptop in class person to see the screens all over the place. The people I see actually taking notes are in the minority. I think it doesn’t really promote an engaging environment where you are allowing people so many opportunities to be engaged elsewhere. It is noisy and just the fact that no one is looking up is upsetting. I’m in Gallatin so I’ve seen people with laptops in all different schools at the university and I really can’t recall many serious note takers. I don’t think it is the professors job to be an entertainer. I want my professor to be a scholar and a great teacher, but even if a great teacher, it can be hard to be more appealing than stalking the person you want to hook up with.
I am not completely on one side or the other; however, I do find it very distracting as a non-laptop in class person to see the screens all over the place. The people I see actually taking notes are in the minority. I think it doesn’t really promote an engaging environment where you are allowing people so many opportunities to be engaged elsewhere. It is noisy and just the fact that no one is looking up is upsetting. I’m in Gallatin so I’ve seen people with laptops in all different schools at the university and I really can’t recall many serious note takers. I don’t think it is the professors job to be an entertainer. I want my professor to be a scholar and a great teacher, but even if a great teacher, it can be hard to be more appealing than stalking the person you want to hook up with.
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