Wellman Hall has several lecture halls wherein students enter from the back, so it’s a great place to observe college classrooms unobtrusively. You can stand at one of the back doors to get a “students’-eye” view. My own highly informal research in this area tells me that classrooms look really different to students than they do to instructors at the front of the room.
One of the first things I notice as a pseudo-student is the light from laptop screens dotting my visual field. The laptop screens become even more noticeable when the professor dims the lights for a PowerPoint lecture. But many students take notes directly onto their laptops these days, so all those glowing screens are actually good news, right?
Alas, many of the students are not taking notes, or at least not exclusively. They are updating their facebook status, playing electronic poker, googling anything and everything, checking the weather, and examining yesterday’s sports statistics. You think I’m getting creative with this list, yet I’ve actually seen each of these laptop uses during classes at UCD.
So is there anything we as instructors can do to get our students to stop surfing?
To back up one step, I should mention that some professors are fine with this state of affairs. Yet it seems worth examining the ethics of this attitude. Is it really OK with us if some students sit near the front with distracting screens while other (engaged) students are forced to sit behind them? At minimum, I’d like to suggest that we take the learning needs of the engaged students seriously and add a line to our syllabus that says, “If you plan to use your laptop for anything other than taking notes, please sit in the back of the room to avoid distracting your fellow students.” I’d like to hear other opinions as well though.
If we do in fact want to stop them, I can think of at least two places to look. The first possible culprit is the students themselves. Maybe the students are disrespectful and shiftless and don’t value their education. I’ll address this group, hopefully a minority, in another post.
But I’d like to put forth the hypothesis that many of these students may NOT, in fact, be lazy or unmotivated.
They may be… bored.
And, if that’s the case, we may want to consider a second possible culprit: our own teaching. I like to put myself in their shoes. If I were asked to sit passively for 50 minutes, not talking to or otherwise engaging with anyone, and I had a laptop in front of me, well, I’d use it. So a better version of the question above might be:
How do we make our classrooms a place where students DON’T WANT to surf?
One solution is to engage our students more. If we ask them to solve (meaningful) problems and do (meaningful) mini-projects in small groups during class time, working with their peers will hold their attention, and they won’t have the time or inclination to update their facebook status.
What experiences have you had with surfing students? And non-surfing students? Fill us in.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree with several points here but disagree with a few as well. Yes, the ability of students to surf in class (or otherwise use the computer for non-class purposes) can be a distraction, but only to that student him/herself, I think. For example, even if student 1 is doing non-class computer work right in front of student 2, I’m not sure I really have any sympathy for student 2 not being able to pay attention. Yes, I’ve been student 1, and I often have multiple work projects due that sometimes I must work on in class. And I’ve been student 2, and have let my attention wander to someone else’s laptop screen. But as student 2 I wouldn’t blame student 1 at all (unless they are being disruptive at some additional level)–my wandering attention is under my own control.
And to touch upon the point of whether the students may be lazy, unmotivated or bored: these certainly may be true. They’ve all been true for me at one point or another. But another possibility is that the student may be multitasking. As a student, I often get to certain points in lecture where I am familiar enough with the content that I weigh the cost-benefit ratio of reducing my class attention for 5 minutes to work on something else with that valuable time. Sure, Facebook is not a good excuse for not attending to lecture, but aren’t other endeavors possibly better excuses: working on upcoming talks and posters, setting up an analysis to run, or responding to an important email from a student/advisor?
But enough devil’s advocate, I’d like to finish by agreeing: our own teaching styles could be a culprit. With an engaging enough classroom, every time I calculated that personal cost-benefit ratio as a student, the class would win out. And I’d like to learn how to teach my own courses such that my own students would feel the same way: so engaged by the course that any other use of time (e.g. surfing, or multitasking) would not be as valuable.
I often have to remind myself that the students who are now undergrads were born in the age of technology. Many of them have owned a cell phone for many years, perhaps even a decade. It amazes me often that technology has been an integral part of their upbringing. The multiple forms of technology have been equally important in raising this generation as has been pacifiers and bottles.
Can a professor actually instruct the class and say that laptops are not permitted? If so, then students might be more inclined to pay attention rather than playing on their computers.
I have also witnessed students playing non-stop on their phones. Some are texting, others are playing on applications. I highly doubt any of these students are “taking notes” on their cell phones. I have been in classes where the professor has specifically told students not to use phones in class. This has worked.
I think at the end of the day finding ways to incorporate technology in the classroom is a good thing.
I have to agree with Lisceth’s final statement that one solution to the problem Mikaela discusses here is to find a way to use that technology in the classroom. In this way students will be more engaged and more in-tune with the material, as they have grown up using it in their daily lives. I once saw a talk at a conference where the presenter used facebook groups both inside and outside of her classroom to facilitate discussion among students. After much trial and error, she stated that eventually she successfully incorporated facebook into her classroom a way that was acceptable to both her and the students. However, this may be more difficult for large lectures. I think we, as instructors, need to focus more on embracing technology rather than outlawing it.
In the last year I have made the decision to ban open laptops in my classes. I teach two undergrad classes of approx 20 students and one larger of about 100 where I’ve instituted this policy. (I teach design for theatre and film classes and I assume many are taking these classes for fun – I have a cross section of students from all areas.) I did this because I was seeing a distinct drop in student performance directly related to surfing the web and I found it to be a big distraction when students weren’t engaged with what was going on in class. I admit my own addiction to electronic devices and know it’s difficult to tear myself away–I now call the break a “text break” and this seems to relieve some tension with this policy. I believe if a student has another priority he/she needs to make the choice about coming to my class or working on something else. I also think in some cases it’s just habit and and an electronic addiction. BTW-I have not had one complaint about this policy–(that I’ve heard anyway). Here is what I put in my syllabus: Classroom decorum and etiquette: A new rule — No open laptops or electronic devices in class. Activity not related to classroom instruction such as phone calls, texting, emailing, surfing the web, talking unnecessarily during lectures, etc. is distracting to other students and the instructor and takes time and attention away from your educational experience. (Anecdotally, I have found that students who surf the web during class time have been getting lower grades. I will try to have “text breaks.”) You will be allowed to use computers when needed for project research and presentations. Generally, I will ask students to leave class if they create disruptions. Additional policies posted on our class Smartsite.
I’ve used the “laptops in the back of the room” (or the sides) rule before. I also suggest adding a note in the syllabus along the lines of “Those who use electronics in the class may be asked to share their notes with the instructor.” I put the scare on ‘em the first day and say that lots of click-clacking means they are excellent note-takers, and I want to see their work. Moving around also helps.
I also agree that they could be bored- one way to make the material relevant is to incorporate things like FB into the class. I agree with the comments above, though- these students were mostly born in the digital age and it is unrealistic to ban tech.