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Is Wi-Fi Ruining College? 370
theodp writes "Over at Slate, Avi Zenilman has seen the real classroom of the future firsthand: Students use class time to read the Drudge Report, send e-mail, play Legend of Zelda, or update profiles on Facebook.com. But not to worry - replace laptops with crumpled notes, and the classroom of the future looks a lot like the classroom of the past." From the article: "... when Cornell University researchers outfitted classrooms with wireless Internet and monitored students' browsing habits, they concluded, 'Longer browsing sessions during class tend to lead to lower grades, but there's a hint that a greater number of browsing sessions during class may actually lead to higher grades.' It seems a bit of a stretch to impute a causal relationship, but it's certainly possible that the kind of brain that can handle multiple channels of information is also the kind of brain that earns A's."
Limiting Internet Access (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Limiting Internet Access (Score:2, Insightful)
Being a teacher that is what id like to do.
Re:Limiting Internet Access (Score:2)
Re:Limiting Internet Access (Score:2)
Re:Limiting Internet Access (Score:5, Insightful)
Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
I think access to information and communications should be increased on campus as much as possible so students who actually know how to use the technology can use it. If a student wants to play games and goof off in class, theres a grading system to handle those students.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Limiting Internet Access (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Limiting Internet Access (Score:2)
Re:Limiting Internet Access (Score:2)
I should get a 280 dollar discount
It doesnt matter though. I get just as pissed off when the kid behind me sighs every 15 minutes and tells the girl next to him "how stupid it is" the way the
Re:Limiting Internet Access (Score:4, Interesting)
One strange thing about your logic is that it's all based on the supposition that the student is the one paying. At an expensive private school, it's probably Mommy and Daddy who are paying. I teach at a community college, so in my case, it's the taxpayers who are paying essentially all the cost. Why should the taxpayers subsidize people to play a MMORG?
Another problem with your logic is that you assume bandwidth is as free as the air we breathe. It's not. AFAIK, every college and university in the U.S. these days has an acceptable use policy for their network. I've had a student pornsurf while his female lab partner (a Muslim woman who wears a head scarf) sat there uncomfortably. I made the student meet with me and the dean, and it was quite interesting. My attitude had been that it was pure and simple sexual harassment, but the dean simply treated it as a violation of the AUP. (The guy had also cheated off of her exam paper.)
Finally, my feeling as a teacher is that I do have a right to ask students who are losers not to distract from the educational experience of the people who are really there to learn. It really is distracting to have this sort of thing going on. However, I structure the rules of the course so that nobody has to stay for the full 1.5-hour period if they feel they aren't learning anything. I give quizzes and collect homework during the first 5-10 minutes of class, and after that, they're free to leave without any penalty to their grade if they feel there's a more productive way to use their time.
Maybe one reason this kind of thing becomes an issue is that the standard chalk-and-talk lecture is simply a bad way to teach, but a lot of professors don't want to admit it. The solution is to use better teaching techniques --- techniques that get the students actively involved. The idea of lecturing came from centuries ago, when books were so expensive that students couldn't afford to buy them. (I mean really, really, really couldn't -- the disproportion between incomes and the cost of books was an order of magnitude worse than it is today.) So the teacher would read the book out loud, and the students would take dictation, writing down their own individual copies.
Re:Limiting Internet Access (Score:2, Insightful)
Do you expect people to slash your tires every time you park slightly crooked in a parking lot?
Congratulations, you're the lowest form of asshole. How the hell were they infringing on your learning experience anyway? If you can't help but watch the porn on their laptop, that's your problem. Adopt qualities that are less akin to a ferrett.
Re:Limiting Internet Access (Score:2)
Basically, he's somewhere between a total asshole and a criminal.
Re:Limiting Internet Access (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Limiting Internet Access (Score:2)
What difference does it make to you if I learn best by taking mental notes? Why don't you test my knowledge of the subject, instead of notes I (don't) write for myself on paper?
Should not require notes (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Should not require notes (Score:5, Interesting)
Part of the problem, I think, is that lecturers like to see students doing something, and having to write out copious notes helps with that. I had a lecturer who, in previous years, had given out a coursebook with material from the course. But for some reason he decided this was a bad idea, so stopped giving them out and just wrote up all the notes on the board verbatim and expected everyone to copy them down. This made it very difficult to learn things in his lectures, even when you did have the previous years' coursebook
Re:Limiting Internet Access (Score:3, Insightful)
Because if you have a crappy school/prof, there is information to be learned at the lectures, but over a 1-hour lecture, there is a total of about 10 minutes' worth of actual information.
In any school where Wi-Fi in class is actually a problem, I can't help but suspect that the real source of the problem is bad profs.
Re:Limiting Internet Access (Score:3, Insightful)
So, it is in their own interest to minimise the negative impact of WLAN in classrooms.
Re:Limiting Internet Access (Score:5, Insightful)
In that scenario, it is not WLAN that causes the problem, it is the students who goof off too much. An effective way to produce good graduates is to help the slackers flunk out early. Forcing students to pay attention is therefore counterproductive. The higher your dropout rate, the more students you can admit, and the greater your odds of admitting someone who will someday make you proud.
Re:Limiting Internet Access (Score:5, Informative)
If you have so little self-control that you can't keep yourself from wasting time on the Internet every chance you get, you're probably better off not being in school anyway.
Re:Limiting Internet Access (Score:5, Insightful)
And what about the times when the prof is going on and on about things that you have clear understanding, honestly everyone was just falls asleep or skips the class, or you can use that time to look up some information on the subject/topic the prof just talked about or is about to talk which is much more efficient use of the time while still keeping a ear open to see if anything interesting is said be the prof. This helped me understand the lectures and material much better (than those days when I don't take my laptop).
If you are playing games or surfing stupid websites that the students choice and you shouldn't blame wifi or laptops for that, the student is responsible. But if you just take wifi out of the class room, then all the students who use internet connection in class rooms are the ones who will suffer.
Re:Limiting Internet Access (Score:2, Insightful)
Thats bullshit (Score:2, Insightful)
I think removing wifi is as stupid as removing the library to prevent people from stealing books. If a student is too stupid to use their tools to succeed then they shouldnt be in college to anyway. Wifi is just a tool, just like a notebook, a library, or a teacher giving a lecture, all tools to help you get a d
Re:Limiting Internet Access (Score:2, Interesting)
Curious how... (Score:2, Funny)
Partly educational perhaps?
Re:Curious how... (Score:2)
Browsing vs Looking up definitions (Score:5, Insightful)
and short but frequent sessions increase grades (because students are looking up wtf the teacher is talking about)
Seems pretty strightforward.
Re:Browsing vs Looking up definitions (Score:3, Interesting)
An "A" is an "A" Studen (Score:5, Insightful)
So the real question is, would these same students pre-occupy themselves with something else if they didn't have their laptops open to browse? Its reasonable to conclude that they have a limited attention span as it is, so whether they're sending email, talking on an IM client, or checking out the hot blond two rows down, they weren't going to being paying attention in their English 101 lecture anyways.
Re:An "A" is an "A" Studen (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:An "A" is an "A" Studen (Score:2)
Re:An "A" is an "A" Studen (Score:2)
It's a tool (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is peope abuse the tool to do other things, so they lose focus which ends up making them worse off in the long run.
Wifi is not the problem here, giving it to people who want to dick around is.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It's a tool (Score:2)
To me, that's somewhat funny because it's true... [deviantart.com]
Re:It's a tool (Score:2, Insightful)
Really, what possible use could the Internet have when you are supposed to be paying attention to the Prof? You don't need to be checking email, surfing websites, or posting to your blog. You need to be paying attention and taking notes.
I say keep the laptops, take away the Net.
Browsing helps ... to a point (Score:2)
For me... (Score:4, Funny)
professor "You see, you must first find the limiting reagent, then..."
Me BOOM HEADSHOT "PWNAGE!!!!!"
professor "What in god's name was that?"
*raise my hand from the back of a crowded study hall* "Me pwning"
Run a chat room (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Run a chat room (Score:3, Insightful)
And I think that the chatroom could help with this. Students could see that others have the same questions as them, thus sorta embolden them to ask it in class. I think a lot of the time people don't ask questions because they think they might be alone in not knowing it and don't want their classmates to think they don't know.
Though who kn
the more things change the more they stay the same (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:the more things change the more they stay the s (Score:2)
How they handle it at Harvard (Business School) (Score:4, Interesting)
Draconian, perhaps, but very effective at keeping us focused in class.
Re:How they handle it at Harvard (Business School) (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:How they handle it at Harvard (Business School) (Score:2, Insightful)
A very good point. Two possible responses
(1) the admins want the internet wirelessly available in common / collaborative work spaces in the class buildings, which their solution still allows (as long as you're not "collaborating" during class time)
(2) genuine lack of foresight (as you suggest)
Probably
Re:How they handle it at Harvard (Business School) (Score:5, Funny)
How they handle it at Georgia Tech (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How they handle it at Harvard (Business School) (Score:2)
Re:How they handle it at Harvard (Business School) (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How they handle it at Harvard (Business School) (Score:2)
Also
Re:How they handle it at Harvard (Business School) (Score:2)
Re:How they handle it at Harvard (Business School) (Score:2)
With our understanding of psychology today we could literally program people if we put the effort into feeding them this information in a way they could use it. Usually this takes repetition and creative forms of media and broadcasting, or multicasting, if you will. Collaboration among teachers may also help
This is no surprise (Score:5, Insightful)
The really good part of information tools is that they allow us to multitask on our own time, not the time schedule of others. The article hardly lends any time to whether or not the students who are surfing in class know the material well already or not. The wide variety of subject matter knowledge held by the students determines their own personal need to listen intently or not. If they don't require it, multitasking is a good use of time, and students who can multitask well will make good grades whether there is Internet access or not, likewise, students who cannot multitask will not make as good of grades.
Multitasking in a school environment means that you don't have to shut off the parts of your thinking that are not fully focused on the matter at hand.... you may be in a poli-sci class, but your thinking is on a project that you are working on for another.
There are three kinds of lies... lies, damned lies, and statistics!
Re:This is no surprise (Score:3, Insightful)
Among several incorrect assumptions, you suppose that people with ADD can't multitask. I don't pretend to know whether this is a problem in general, but I know of one person who is diagnosed with ADD and is an amazing multitasker. He, however, cannot focus very well on one task for long periods of time though he has figured a way around that problem.
My experience at WPI (Score:3, Informative)
students use time on the internet, news at 11 (Score:4, Funny)
Thus preparing them for the corporate world?
It doesn't matter how many distractions you have.. (Score:2)
Effects on others (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't know what the right solution is, since I think that in theory it's fantastic for students to have a laptop to take notes, perform calculations, and look up related issues during class. But it's a real problem when the abusers distract a group of students. I suspect that shutting off internet access during class is the best practical solution.
Re:Effects on others (Score:2)
Personally, I wouldn't mind if students waste their time in my class, but as you say, if they start wasting others' time (more often than not against their will, I've been sucked in by someone playing Quake 3 across the room) I'd be royally pissed off. There are plenty of re
Re:Effects on others (Score:2)
Don't know about where you are ... but I am a lowly grad student teaching physics labs, and my department has told me time and time again that I have every right to kick a student out of class
Filters? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Filters? (Score:2)
Job (Score:5, Insightful)
Killswitches. (Score:4, Interesting)
Awesome.
It's sort of like when we put projectors with laptop hookups in all of the classrooms in nice, integrated bunkers and then they decided that the laptops were too heavy to carry, and they wanted desktops permanently installed in there are well. Whee! I'll never understand why a professor can carry three different NPR tote bags chock full of paper, and the four pound iBook they've been issued is the breaking point.
--saint
Re:Killswitches. (Score:2)
By blaming the lack of adequate equipment in the room for a lack of productivity, the faculty can claim that it is not their fault they are not being effective teachers. Which misses the fundamental point: all the IT-provided bells and whistles will not make someone a better teacher; it takes work, skill, and dedication, just like everything else in life. (I'm not banging on teachers specifically here... we're all just as guilty. I mean, if
It's the curriculum, stupid (Score:2)
One even thought he was smarter than I was, and said so. $100K in debt, 5 years lost?
I've seen what my younger brother and older cousin got from college: unemployment and bad attitudes.
Re:It's the curriculum, stupid (Score:2)
Oh dear... I wouldn't go bragging about that in a public form. That was his way of telling you that he'd already decided there was no way in hell he'd ever work for you.
Dadgum youth of today... (Score:4, Funny)
This youth of today expects their fancy degrees and book learning to get them a big shot job in the city without the perserverance and elbow grease we old-timers had to invest. Why, just t'other fortnight, this young whippersnapper came strutting into the factory like Little Lord Fauntleroy, looking for a job. When I asked him if he was willing to dedicate his life to the High God of Shoes, to prostrate himself before the Terrible Majesty of Zapato, He Who Shods Man, I swear a slight look of unbelief crossed his naive visage as he politely excused himself and fled the factory, no doubt to go read another book on how to be mighty smart but ignorant of the ways of the world. Pfeh! Run ofta yer Ivory Tower, you Harvard dandy!
Re:It's the curriculum, stupid (Score:2)
"I guess you dont wanna work for a stupid guy. Bye."
Re:It's the curriculum, stupid (Score:2)
Re:It's the curriculum, stupid (Score:2)
Yeah, that suits me fine.
Not the Universities nor the Professors problem... (Score:3, Informative)
If I were teaching, I would tell everyone that I get 'paid' and the school gets your money whether or not you pass or fail. Grow up, this is college. Look to your left and look to your right, next semester either one or both of those individuals will no longer be here.
In order to pass this course, you will need to do all of the assignments on the syllabus and turn them in on time. You will need to attend all the lectures and read the assigned reading. You will need to spend time studying and researching your own answers and you will need to participate in class discussions. You will get out of this course what you put into it.
Now we have some very cool technical toys to share and use in this course but it's up to you to not let them get in the way of learning. So go ahead, surf away and play stupid games, chat with your friends, take a nap on the bean bag chairs, etc. But if you fail this class, it's your own darn fault. If your parents are paying your way, then you will have to explain to them why you failed. There is no such thing as a parent teacher conference in the real world!
Is the study realistic? (Score:3, Insightful)
As a College Student... (Score:4, Insightful)
So is wifi ruining college? No more than any other service provided on campus. I can still shut down the laptop and not pay attention to the professor the old fashioned way, like reading a book, or sleeping. A boring professor is a boring professor whether there's wifi or not. It's my choice to use it knowing the consequences of my actions may lead to lower grades, and as long as I'm not disturbing or otherwise interfering with my classmates who actually want to pay attention, I don't see the problem.
Re:As a College Student... (Score:3, Insightful)
This is the real problem. Go to a class where the professor is engaging and entertaining, where the material taught is relevant and the students are engaged. You'll notice a lot less people slacking off.
Re:As a College Student... (Score:2)
GASP. (Score:4, Funny)
Yesterday versus Today (Score:2)
What is the difference between students reading the paper, doing the crossword, or sleeping during class (ie, what went on when I was in school) versus Internet use during class? Both scenarios just represent students not paying attention. In general, students who don't pay attention get lower grades.
Latops have helped me (Score:3, Interesting)
I've been toting my laptop off and on since high school, and until a few years into college I was one of the only people in my class to be doing this.
In high school, I used it to take notes; I can type quite a bit faster than I can write, and they come out looking a bit more organized and legible than they otherwise would have. Also, having a computer for some reason would help me stay focused; I was practically raised on computers, and you might say it is sort of a comfort thing. Whatever it was, it helped me study.
In college, things became more interested. I started off taking primarily computer science courses. I taught myself to program when I was younger, and this process involves a great deal of fiddling around with new concepts in order to fully grasp them. I would sit in class during the lecture compiling away, doing examples that the instructor was giving me and seeing how I could push the envelope. On one occasion I was even able to correct my instructor on the usage of particular syntax.
Being the kind of person that learns scientifically (I like to observe the process and alter test conditions to evaluate the results), a computer is a very nifty tool for giving me the means to gasp the material during the lecture. While my original methods did not employ the use of wifi, having connectivity would be useful in case I needed to look up or download something on the fly; I would just have to be disciplined enough to turn off my instant messenger and mail client so that I don't get too distracted.
Usually I am opposed to computers in the classroom because of such things as funding and underemployment (of the machines themselves), but when the computers are owned by the students themselves, then I'm able to see more benefits (if you're going to pay a grand for a gadget, you're going to learn how to use it). Whether the computer ultimately helps or hinders your classroom experience depends on how good of a student you are, and typically good/bad students get the grades they deserve with or without wifi-enabled computers.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
What does this do to P2P? (Score:2)
I Play Games (Score:2)
Cornell Student Responds (Score:2, Interesting)
I've noticed that when class discussions get interesting, heated, or something other than monotone, and I have an interest in actively participating, I close my laptop and listen mor
The article identifies the REAL problem (Score:2)
From the article: In any event, even when multitaskers can't keep track of the professor, it probably doesn't matter much. In lectures at large universities, especially in the humanities and social sciences, class time is usually taken up by the broad outlines of the subject. The real learning occurs when we bear down and pore over the hundreds of pages assigned every week....
As someone who has been through graduate school, and taught there, and have a spouse and siblings doing the same, I'll say this: th
Legend of Zelda (Score:2)
I didn't know you can play Legend of Zelda online. That's what I've been keeping the N64 around for. See what I've missed by not going to college lately.
Slackers will always slack off (Score:2)
If WiFi was unavailable, we'd just see an annoying increase in the use of cell phones. I for one would rather hear the clicks of trackpads, than the jabbering of cellphone users.
Brain types (Score:2)
The kind of brain that can handle multiple channels of information is called "female". This so it can remained focussed on finding fruit, roots and mushrooms, comminicating with the social group, watching for danger and keeping an eye on the baby hanging off the left nipple.
The other kind of brain is designed to focus intently on one task: To determine its changing position in space, deduce its future actions, th
Placing blame (Score:2, Insightful)
Ignore the duration (Score:2)
For my part, the internet has always been first one big reference library, and everything else second. I can guarantee one thing - the "A" students sure as HELL aren't the ones visiting drudgereport.com!
Multi-tasking (Score:3, Insightful)
It's also certainly possible that the kind of brain that THINKS it can handle multiple channels of information is also the kind of brain that can't.
Since none of them have your full attention, doing four things all at once makes the odds pretty good that all you're doing is screwing up four things at once.
Of course, I expect plenty of people here are going to tell me they're experts in this regard... much like the "90% of all drivers think they're above average" statistic.
Boredom (Score:2)
Depends on class (Score:3, Informative)
Some classes require lots of focus and attention.. think of math. Professor is spending most of the time doing proofs, examples, etc. You can't goof off on Slashdot at the same time the Prof. is doing an example of something and understand what he is doing.
Other classes just present casual bits of information that can easily be summarized as the professor goes along.. this is like a humanities class, for example. I just jot down details I think are important while I sit around and read Slashdot or whatever. Yes, and truthfully, I don't pay as much attention because I don't find it interesting in the first place. I'm not going remember a single thing I learn here by the time next semester rolls around.
I will also note that I have ADD (perhaps computers are the cause, or perhaps my ADD causes my obsession with computers). If I dont bring a laptop, I will have no source of distraction. My mind will tend to wander quite a bit and I'll just never be able to have any concentration whatsoever (this is why I tend to do poorly on tests in general, because I lose focus rapidly - something no one understands or believes). At least with a laptop, I can sort of satisfy my desire to be distracted for brief periods of time while not totally losing focus of what I need to learn from class. In this sense, laptops are a godsend for me.
I don't even bring my laptop to class anymore (Score:2)
Ideally, the device that would most benefit me in class would be electronic paper: a 16 color device, thinner, lighter, and with much better battery life than current Tablet PCs, with both a stylus and a keyboard (I personally would prefer physical and on-screen, but on-screen alone would work too). Its primary use would be to take down and organize notes, but I could imagine i
Law School (Score:4, Insightful)
What amazes me are the people who chat on aim the whole class, or browse facebook, or play MMORPGs (seriously). Even if you're a freakin' genius and don't need to listen to the professor and class discussion, it's distracting and just plain rude. The corolary, of course, is that it's natural selection in action
[As an aside, I actually find law school fun and, while not easy, certainly not hard. It is a feeling shared by the other handful of hard-science and engineering grads. We're basically used to the workload, if not the type of work . (No worries Slashdot-crowd, I'm not in it for the money and I'd sooner commit seppuku than work for the likes of the **AA.) ]
So What? (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't think we need to treat the Internet differently from bringing, say, a book or magazine to class. If I bring my textbook to class, and use it to follow along with the professor, it's helpful. If I bring the textbook for another class and study in downtime during class, it's only me that's losing out. If I bring Playboy to class, it'd be a distraction to others, and then we have a problem.
We give professors a means of turning network access off, but few professors do. I applaud this: I've used the Internet for a lot of constructive stuff during class. Looking up related material, getting the document we were supposed to print out and bring to class, etc.
Yes, sometimes I'll notice classmates chatting on AIM or doing other stuff of no adademic value, but they're only hurting themselves. I really don't think schools have any need to try to regulate usage in classrooms.
Been to an academic conference recently? (Score:5, Insightful)
It seems to me the reason is simple: a lot of what speakers say isn't useful, even in the case of good speakers and voluntary audience. Even when it *is* useful, the rate at which information is presented is usually an order of magnitude slower than the rate at which the audience can absorb it, with huge gaps of dead time between important statements. So, at lectures people spend an hour sitting in their seats in order to catch a minute or two of really useful information.
As someone who hasn't taken a course without lots of equations and diagrams in a long time, I've never had an excuse to bring a laptop to class. Instead, I have to spend all that dead time thinking about other things on my own without the benefit of a technological distraction.
The problem with laptops in the classroom is that it hurts the feelings of lecturers, who are forced to confront the fact that most of their audience isn't paying attention to most of what they say most of the time.
Reminds me of a story my grandson told me. (Score:4, Funny)
One of my grandson's friends ended up recording a soundfile that said "PENIS PENIS COCK PENIS PENIS VAGINA CUNT ANUS BUTTFUCK", and other sayings like that. They ended up putting it on their friend's laptop, and waited for a lecture when he left the class to go to the washroom. Once he was gone they turned up the volume, started looping that soundfile, and waited until their friend got back and sat down. As soon as he did, they pulled out the headphones, blaring out the audio.
I think he said that the professor flipped, and told the kid to get out of his class. They had a meeting later on, and my grandson's friend was told never to bring the laptop to class again.
Laptop can be a distraction (Score:3, Insightful)
I use laptop in my classes. And yes, it can be a distraction. I find myself checking my mail, reading comics, cnn, updating information on a portal I (with my friends) own. But most distractions do not come from the Internet, they come from what you already have on laptop. You read articles you have downloaded last night, you write documents for your other classes, you prepare your projects, you write your own materials (ie. personal web page or a blog entry to be uploaded later when finished, projects, programs, finish job tasks), try out new soutions (software), audit and configure your PC and do a lot more. So blocking Internet acces is not a good solution!
And blocking Internet access is bad for a number of other reasons as well. The first thing I do when I ge to class, I try to download the latest materials about the subject (and check the classes web page for updates). I also use the Internet to find materials relating to the subject (that can be very handy if you want to "take on" the tutor/presenter/lecturer ;)). Also finding alternate viewpoints to the materials can be helpful when trying to understand the lecturer or trying to confront him/her. Finding translations (from estonian to english or french or latin in my case) of terms is a challenge by itself. The downside is you understanding the amount of false information on wikipedia :p.
For people having trouble paying attention to class I have a suggestion. Try to make notes. Not handwritten (you won't be able to read those anyways - that is the reason why I started carrying my laptop to classes at first place), but make notes using Lotus Notes, Microsoft Word (or Excel), KWord, AbiWord or OpenOffice.org Write. If you are some kind of a Linux/Unix geek, you might even take notes in *TeX (which I wouldn't suggest to anyone else). It is especially useful if the class does not yet have an online conspect as then you will be the first to write one and it can be an opportunity to get credit or extra income.
I have seen most laptops in physics and economy classes, a bit less in computer science followed by law and then other social and real sciences and finally others. But I see the use of laptops increasing every week. I consider the use of laptops and Internet in classes more of a necessity than of distraction. It gives you much more opportunities than takes away. Ideally colleges and universities should be able to supply laptops to students in need as I can't see uncomputerised learning possible in ten years. E-learning, i-learning and learning from remote and independent is becoming more and more common. Classrooms are becoming more and more like (student) corporation rooms - places where people with similar interests can gather. It is even possible to graduate an university eithout actually ever visiting the university building (of the university you are to graduate) today. Why should we spend time for commuting between universty and home or university and work or university and cafe or ...? And why should we reserve certain times a week just to go and listen to one person talking if you could listen to the recording of his talk any time anywhere? We shouldn't!
Problem isn't always the students (Score:4, Interesting)
The main purpose is notes, but as the term goes on, it takes on a whole other secondary purpose: Giving me a reason to be there. Frankly, 75% of the professors I've had so far in college (I'm in my second half the junior year) are dull, read off slides, don't know what the hell they're talking about, or are incomprehensible. However, most don't tell me when tests/quizes/homework will be ahead of time, so I go to class to make sure I know. While in class, I either work ahead in the book, do homework, or browse the internet. I once played Half-Life during Chemistry.
There's no reason for me to do otherwise. Either the professors have such high curves that I don't actually need to learn the material to pass, the book gives me all the info I need so the professor is useless, or the professor is actually good and I am actually taking notes. The presence of my laptop generally has little to do with my overall grade, regardless if I use it to take notes or not, but the level of the professor has a profound effect.