A seemingly incessant ramble about laptops in classroom…
My experience with laptops in an “academic” setting has been quite vast. Now you may be wondering why I put quotations around the word academic. Well, because a great majority of my “academic” career has thus far taken place in High School, which at least for me, was as far away from academic (in the real sense of the term) as President Bush’s approval rating is from 100%. With that said, yes, my school provided laptops, and no, nobody (myself included) used them for what they were intended to be used for. To illustrate, I would look to my right, and Joe was on Myspace presumably sending a love note to his girlfriend. I would look to my left, and I see Katie shopping for her new homecoming dress online. I lean a bit to the right to get a peak at Mike’s monitor ahead, and he’s watching some basketball game on Youtube. So in an atmosphere like this, I had the option of setting an example for everyone else to follow by actually doing my work, or I could just go to Newgrounds and play some flash games (guess which path I chose). So I type up the URL, and what do I get? ACCESS DENIED!? Luckily, Joe heard me gasp and turn red from shock and disbelief. He let me in on a little dirty secret about how he was able to get past the secure servers and get on Myspace. Not too long afterwards, I remember telling him that I was so impressed with his knowledge that, had he turned water into wine, I surely wouldn’t have thought much of it. That’s it for this enthralling and exciting paragraph. Stay tuned for the next paragraph to see if Missak will actually make a coherent or rational thought. Will he make another ingenious joke about Bush that is Jon Stewart worthy? Will he actually fall in love with Katie and ask her out to the homecoming dance? Will he actually even end this paragraph or will he just continue asking “Will he” questions? Continue to the second paragraph to find out (Ah, the memories…I actually used a similar transition in one of my English papers back in 9th grade on my Introduction paragraph to amuse my teacher…he, suffice to say, wasn’t amused).
Engraved somewhere deep inside the monumental wall of text above is the idea that laptops were a hindrance to my education. Granted, it was my fault that I wasn’t wise enough to follow my teacher’s directions, but peer pressure was a big thing in High School for me. I mean, Big Billy behind me kept on kicking his feet behind my chair while chanting something to the degree of, “I am quite disappointed in you Mr. Artinian. Instead of doing something meaningful with your time at school, like viewing pornography as I am productively viewing as I speak, you succumb to the very system that the system wants you to succumb to. What is the system, you may ask? In one hand I have a red pill, and in the other, I have a blue pill. Take the red pill, and I will show you exactly what the system is. Take the blue pill, and enhance your performance level dramatically.” *cough* Where was I?
Oh, laptops were a hindrance to my education. Why? I assume because of the non-academic atmosphere. I will be completely honest when I say that I haven’t once visited Newgrounds or played any flash game, for that matter, in Dr. Campbell’s class room. I think it’s because: 1) Dr. Campbell has some deep and stimulating discussions during class, which engenders spontaneous and relevant interaction with course material. This contrasts starkly with High School teachers who just give you an assignment, hand you a laptop, and then sit down at their own desk as they surf the Internet themselves. And 2) Everyone around me is actually doing their work, whether they’re on Del.icio.us, or reading some article about some book that Dr. Campbell just mentioned in class, which completes that academic atmosphere experience that was absent in High School (for me at least). And finally, 3) I’m actually paying for my education. If I want, I could go to Newgrounds and play flash games to my heart’s content, and unlike High School, no one would care (getting caught on Newgrounds or Myspace, to name a few, meant suspension in High School), but unlike High School, I’m paying big bucks out of my own pocket.
So what’s the bottom line and what am I getting at here? I think that laptops can be extremely productive in class as long as there is some motivation. Part of that motivation must come from the student to learn, and the other part from the instructor to teach. As long as there is this mutual relationship between both parties without rigid rules that could potentially hinder education, then the possibility of growth increases, whether with a laptop, or without.
Why don’t we end this blog post with a joke: I stay on topic on my blogs almost as well as Dick Cheney shoots a shotgun.
Comedy Central. Contact me. Please.
Jokes aside, I think the way technology is used in the classroom these days is in serious deficiency in relation to its capability. As Papert said though, it may take a generation or more for the use to catch up with the technology. And with computer tech getting better every day, I don’t think we’ll ever actually catch up.