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Less Technology in Schools. Seriously?


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He's saying turn off WiFi in the classrooms, so students that can't help themselves aren't compelled to surf Facebook and other websites during the lectures. It can be quite disruptive when you're trying to pay attention and someone next to you or infront of you is just goofing off on the web and not paying attention. It's especially a problem in seminars where people are expected to contribute and they're barely paying attention. Frankly, that's a good idea. If you're bringing your laptop to class, it's one thing to have your course materials and documents on it, but it's quite another if you're not paying attention and it's disruptive to others.

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He's saying turn off WiFi in the classrooms, so students that can't help themselves aren't compelled to surf Facebook and other websites during the lectures. It can be quite disruptive when you're trying to pay attention and someone next to you or infront of you is just goofing off on the web and not paying attention. It's especially a problem in seminars where people are expected to contribute and they're barely paying attention. Frankly, that's a good idea. If you're bringing your laptop to class, it's one thing to have your course materials and documents on it, but it's quite another if you're not paying attention and it's disruptive to others.

Learners need to be connected, from elementary ages to university students. Things are different these days cybercoma. Learners need to be stimulated in schol and teachnology such as smartboards are vital.

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Learners need to be connected, from elementary ages to university students. Things are different these days cybercoma. Learners need to be stimulated in schol and teachnology such as smartboards are vital.

That's like saying kids when I was at school should have been allowed to read comics in class because reading was allowed in school. There's not a kid out there who doesn't know that WIFI exists and how to use it. If it isn't required for a particular lesson, it should be off. That said, kids should not be allowed electronic devices on in class anyway.

Edited by bcsapper
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Where are the parents in all this? My father would've kicked my ass if I tried anything like what these kids today try. It's obvious which kids are raised properly and which aren't when we(as parents) attend school events.

Socialist seems to think that children should be free to do whatever they want. According to socialist kids don't need to hand in school work on time or at all in order to pass and now kids don't need to listen t o teachers and can surf the net as they please while in class. Absurd. He has to be trolling, I find it impossible to believe that some can really believe these things.

bcsapper, agree 100%.

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That's like saying kids when I was at school should have been allowed to read comics in class because reading was allowed in school. There's not a kid out there who doesn't know that WIFI exists and how to use it. If it isn't required for a particular lesson, it should be off. That said, kids should not be allowed electronic devices on in class anyway.

Isn't that how students take notes?

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He's saying turn off WiFi in the classrooms, so students that can't help themselves aren't compelled to surf Facebook and other websites during the lectures. It can be quite disruptive when you're trying to pay attention and someone next to you or infront of you is just goofing off on the web and not paying attention. It's especially a problem in seminars where people are expected to contribute and they're barely paying attention. Frankly, that's a good idea. If you're bringing your laptop to class, it's one thing to have your course materials and documents on it, but it's quite another if you're not paying attention and it's disruptive to others.

I disagree with most of he editorial, but I agree that the internet and cellphones are distracting to students. The internet during a lecture can be useful if you want to quickly look up a concept on wikipedia that the prof is talking about, but other than that I agree that it's a good idea for wi-fi to be turned off during lecture at the discretion of the prof. However, I'm not sure how feasible this idea is, since most lecture rooms are small (ie: 50-75 students or so each) and I doubt wifi signals can be limited room to room without massively refitting things at a big cost. That doesn't solve the cellphone problem.

On the other hand, university students are adults and can do whatever they want. They don't even have to come to class in most cases so if they aren't paying attention in class that's their own faulta and will reflect in their grades.

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iphones, smartboards, ipads are all tools that engage learners, something you know nothing about Mr. canada. smartboards, for instance help learners focus and keep their attention on the lesson being presented. i dont expect you to know that as you haven't been in a 21st century classroom.

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iphones, smartboards, ipads are all tools that engage learners, something you know nothing about Mr. canada. smartboards, for instance help learners focus and keep their attention on the lesson being presented. i dont expect you to know that as you haven't been in a 21st century classroom.

And that's not what the article is about. There's nothing wrong with professors using Smartboards and whatnot, but when students are constantly distracted by and distracting others with their extra-curricular technological activities it's a problem.

Frankly, I don't care if students do that in class because they paid to be there. If you don't want to learn, the professor is not responsible for making sure you do. Just don't distract the other students that are actually trying to learn something.

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A few points, said with recent experience, as I was both taking and being a teaching assistant in university classes very recently:

- Technological tools have their place in the classroom, but many professors and departments drastically overestimate them. Professors that use computers to present their course materials, most commonly through powerpoint, are almost invariably less effective than those that use more traditional methods such as a blackboard, whiteboard, or overhead projector. This is because having to write out your points, equations, or draw your diagrams sets a certain natural pace, which usually is in fairly good synch with the rate at which students can take notes and absorb the information being presented. Professors that throw up powerpoint slides have a tendency to either go far too fast, or too slowly, or to merely point at the giant projector screen and say "there's the equations" rather than going through the relevant thought process step by step.

- Smartboards are a novelty more than anything, and a simple whiteboard will serve the same educational purpose just as well in most scenarios. I saw a smartboard put to effective use only once, and that was in a computer lab where we were learning to use a finite element analysis program, and we could connect our monitor outputs to the board, and then go up to it and collaborate with other students and have the professor look at what we were doing in front of the class, etc. For collaborative problem solving related to tasks that are being done on computers by multiple students simultaneously, I could see these being a useful tool. But they are certainly not necessary in most classes.

- Note taking is still fastest and most effective on paper, with a high quality pen or mechanical pencil. If one wants a computerized copy, one can later scan the pages, and even run a text recognition algorithm if one wants searchable/indexable notes. Laptops are great in content-free opinion classes where the only things one needs to note down are words and you can take advantage of your 100 WPM typing speed. However, university classes that present useful information invariably make extensive use of diagrams, graphs, complex equations, non-English characters, etc. Copying a diagram or graph by hand is far faster than doing so on the computer. Even if you have a nice tablet and stylus so you can draw things right on your screen, the sensor resolution of even the most advanced commercially available touchscreens is nowhere near the accuracy with which a person can draw lines on a page. I say this as the person who usually had the neatest and most well organized notes in most classes. Many other students would come to me to copy/photocopy/study from them, and on several occasions I actually had the professors or the deparment ask for them so they could use them as course materials for future years.

- Students in university have the right to do whatever the heck they want, they are adults, but professors have the right to set certain rules about what goes on in their classrooms. Generally disruptive behavior, such as talking loudly to other students in the middle of a lecture is usually frowned upon. If someone is doing something equally disruptive with their laptop I would view that in the same light. However, if someone wants to chat on facebook rather than pay attention to the lecture, that is their prerogative. If a lot of people are using their devices rather than paying attention, obviously that will degrade the quality of learning, but since we are talking about professors and university: it really doesn't matter. The students are paying to be there, their educational outcomes are their own responsibility, and the professor can rest assured that those who find the lecture valuable and are genuinely interested will pay attention, and the rest can do whatever the heck they want.

Anyway, technology should be used where and when appropriate in the classroom, but not overused, and professors are, unfortunately, not yet very good at knowing how to put it to its best uses.

Edited by Bonam
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Smart-boards (a canadian invention) are in EVERY japanese office and a vital tool for capturing detailed schematics and actions for numerous parties involved. Priceless.

Any and all phones should be handed in in public schools. There is absolutely no need for them in a funded learning environment. University and college., waste your own time of. Your own dollar.

To lump smart boards into the same category as Iphonez is idiotic....

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- Technological tools have their place in the classroom, but many professors and departments drastically overestimate them. Professors that use computers to present their course materials, most commonly through powerpoint, are almost invariably less effective than those that use more traditional methods such as a blackboard, whiteboard, or overhead projector. This is because having to write out your points, equations, or draw your diagrams sets a certain natural pace, which usually is in fairly good synch with the rate at which students can take notes and absorb the information being presented. Professors that throw up powerpoint slides have a tendency to either go far too fast, or too slowly, or to merely point at the giant projector screen and say "there's the equations" rather than going through the relevant thought process step by step.

I've taken university courses recently so can also comment from 1st-hand experience. I think you said you were an engineer of some sort I believe, so with courses using math/equation & I think you're right on this. I took a stats class once, and the teacher (a young, hip guy) did as you describes, never ever used powerpoint and always wrote equations on the chalk board and went through math problems on the board for everyone to see.

However, I take mostly social science/arts courses. I find power-point slides very useful, a good prof will put the slide up with basic points they're talking about (not too text-heavy so you aren't reading/listening/note-taking at the same time) so you can follow along, can put up interesting quotes, pictures, diagrams, maps etc. Then they'll usually post them online later for study reference.

- Note taking is still fastest and most effective on paper, with a high quality pen or mechanical pencil. If one wants a computerized copy, one can later scan the pages, and even run a text recognition algorithm if one wants searchable/indexable notes. Laptops are great in content-free opinion classes where the only things one needs to note down are words and you can take advantage of your 100 WPM typing speed. However, university classes that present useful information invariably make extensive use of diagrams, graphs, complex equations, non-English characters, etc. Copying a diagram or graph by hand is far faster than doing so on the computer. Even if you have a nice tablet and stylus so you can draw things right on your screen, the sensor resolution of even the most advanced commercially available touchscreens is nowhere near the accuracy with which a person can draw lines on a page. I say this as the person who usually had the neatest and most well organized notes in most classes. Many other students would come to me to copy/photocopy/study from them, and on several occasions I actually had the professors or the deparment ask for them so they could use them as course materials for future years.

In math-based courses I'd agree with you, but in humanities and similar courses it's definitely faster and neater to type notes on a laptop, plus you can share them easily with classmates. A big bonus I found is that by the end of a 3-hour lecture your hand isn't cramping from scribbling notes on paper. I suppose it depends how fast you can write vs type.

I think overall it depends on the subject and type of course/lecture in implementing technology properly.

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iphones, smartboards, ipads are all tools that engage learners, something you know nothing about Mr. canada. smartboards, for instance help learners focus and keep their attention on the lesson being presented. i dont expect you to know that as you haven't been in a 21st century classroom.

My god your an arrogant bastard, i have two children in highschool, neother of whom use or are required to use any of the things you seem to think they need, they also happen to be near the top of their classes, one of them volunteers teaching children to swim at the YMCA and plays/practices football everyday after school. Neither of them uses or owns a cellphone and neither of them cares to own one, i've asked. They have laptops at home, they use them ocaisionally when they need to type an assignment, i was doing the same 20 years ago, so it seems you don't need all of that bull shit you mentioned to be successful in school, only an idiot would believe that.

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Radsickle - do not engage insults - see Rules & Guidelines.

http://www.mapleleaf...ncement=11&f=15

Yea it's too fucking bad that you don't have rules against abject stupidity, instead you celebrate it by allowing the person in question insult everyone who disagrees with him, open your eyes, if he was a right wing poster he would have been banned already.

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Yea it's too fucking bad that you don't have rules against abject stupidity, instead you celebrate it by allowing the person in question insult everyone who disagrees with him, open your eyes, if he was a right wing poster he would have been banned already.

Hi. Sorry Admin. But can I ask which is a worse insult, "twit" or "arrogant bastard"? How about "idiot"? I think `twit' is mild in comparison to both....

I actually think it is quite rude for students to be surfing the net or texting each other during lectures but I can't blame them for using a digital device instead of a pen to take notes, it's simply more efficient.

Gunrutz, as a leftie, I refrain from the reactionary, more hurtful insults that the right can't help but use. It is a question of etiquette and apostrophes.... tongue.png

Edited by Radsickle
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