No Laptops in College Courses?

[MorinkhanMT]

It's sad they feel they have to police this kind of thing... and sadder that too many students don't care enough about their education to have caused the problem in the first place.

[Tolanin]

really if the people fail the class cause they werent paying attention then oh well problem solved itself. passing or failing a class should be based on whether you know the shit or not, not on whether you played minesweeper during lecture.

That 5 percent grade drop thing is really fucking stupid.

I dont think the business meeting type thing really applies, in a business its the managers responsiblity to maximize everyones production, in a school its the professors job to present the material and then judge how well the students learned that material, its not comparable at all.

[MorinkhanMT]

Of course it's comparable. Do you think teachers/profs have no responsibility in how well their students learn the content they're providing? If all their students are failing, they're either not teaching well enough or marking too hard... both of which they'd be called to task about when their work is reviewed.

Plus... omg, newsflash... good educators actually care about their students, both personally and in terms of what they're learning. They want you to succeed and grow, not waste your time playing Minesweeper.

Plus, it's annoying as hell when you work your ass off planning your curriculum, laying out your lesson plans, trying to come up with interesting ways of engaging your students' minds, just to see them giggling over Facebook in your class hehe.

Teachers really get a bum wrap. It's an extremely demanding job, both time-wise and emotionally, and you get paid crap. That's actually one of the main reasons my Ed degree is now collecting dust... I got tired of putting in 30-40hrs a week OUTSIDE of school time preparing lessons for students who didn't care enough about themselves or their future to try.

[brekk]

Originally Posted by MorinkhanMT

Teachers really get a bum wrap. It's an extremely demanding job, both time-wise and emotionally, and you get paid crap. That's actually one of the main reasons my Ed degree is now collecting dust... I got tired of putting in 30-40hrs a week OUTSIDE of school time preparing lessons for students who didn't care enough about themselves or their future to try.

a primary school teacher, and a tenured professor are two very different things.

my labs, tests, hw were corrected by TA's. TA's ran the lab classes. All the professor did was talk in lecture each week, and have limited office hours to get one on one help.

[FulorianC]

It's easily justifiable. If you're doing anything but taking notes, you are distracting others in the class, and they can't really help being distracted. You can bring down the class average just by playing your games - don't play the 'it's my life motherfucker!' card here, because it's not your life. You're hurting everyone around you.

[Burkex]

Originally Posted by MorinkhanMT

It's sad they feel they have to police this kind of thing... and sadder that too many students don't care enough about their education to have caused the problem in the first place.

I both agree and disagree with your statement, because imo it depends on the class and the situation.

I have to say if your college major is business (Finance, Accounting, Marketing, Economics, etc.) and you have to take some stupid electives, like a science elective and you take the rock for jocks Earth Science class just to fulfill the elective requirement, it is okay to use a laptop to pass the time. First off a class like that is probably boring as hell and easy as hell and I don't think goofing around on a laptop in a class like this is not caring about your education.

Personally I think the elective thing in college is lame. If someone wants to be a business major and take all business classes they should not be forced to take crazy electives that they have no care in the world for like History, Science, Philosophy, and Theology. Isn't that what grade school and high school is for; to get a well rounded education? In college you should be prepairing for your career. Never in my investment banking career after college have I ever gotten any benefit from the lame electives I had to take in college. Yes certain electives are necessary like Math, English, a computer class, and writing classes because they are used in all prefessions, but theology? Come on!!! I would use a laptop in a college theology class in a heartbeat to prevent myself from falling asleep.


**Note: I went to Boston College and I was a business major. It was required for everyone to take 2 Philosophy classes, 2 History classes, 2 Theology classes, a black studies class, 2 science classes, and some other bullshit that I can't remember. That is like a full year of classes where I could have been taking more business classes, what a waste. I wish I had a laptop for these bullshit classes, hell even a cell phone would have been nice, but cell phones were moble phones at the time and pretty rare.

[Fender]

Stupid.

1. If people are fucking around on the internet during class and miss out on notes that is 100% their problem. Their grade will sufficiently penalize them...no need to even waste teaching time policing web surfing and shit.

2. If someone is indeed causing a disruption (sound not muted, giggling like a retard, etc. I guess?) boot that individual out of class. Do not boot every laptop out of class.

I really cannot understate how useful my typed notes were in college. I would be one unhappy individual if I went to that school.

[Kuriin]

I can't imagine using laptops for taking notes that require graphs. It's easier to use paper and pencil. BUT, if you're just writing down sentences, then I would prefer to type it as I type faster than I write and some professors (who don't use online lecture notes) talk VERY fast.

[cdyhybrid]

Banning laptops is stupid. In addition to the already listed reasons, the people who don't pay attention during class will just end up playing games on their cell phones or iPods or DSes. You just fuck over the people actually using it to enhance their classroom experience.

[Tyen]

Irrelevant to the thread but this drove me mad.

I was a Computer Science major in college and I used to get dogged on by every single one of the technology professors because I played a college sport.

We would have a professor that would ramble and every now and then I would zone out, for some reason every time I zoned out mid-ramble I would get called on to answer some inane question (Usually involving something irrelevant to our subject matter). If I paused or gave an incorrect answer he would always reply with some snide "anti-sport" comment.

Our networking teacher constantly made snide comments to students who played sports because we had games during some lecture day and had to play catchup with what happened.

My business classes where pretty laid back and cool about everything but if you have ever played a college sport and you get a professor who is all in depth about technology you will be assaulted with rude comments.

This is all my experiences of course and I just felt like ranting about it.

[simeon]

derail

[tikkus]

Originally Posted by Tyen

Irrelevant to the thread but this drove me mad.

I was a Computer Science major in college and I used to get dogged on by every single one of the technology professors because I played a college sport.

We would have a professor that would ramble and every now and then I would zone out, for some reason every time I zoned out mid-ramble I would get called on to answer some inane question (Usually involving something irrelevant to our subject matter). If I paused or gave an incorrect answer he would always reply with some snide "anti-sport" comment.

Our networking teacher constantly made snide comments to students who played sports because we had games during some lecture day and had to play catchup with what happened.

My business classes where pretty laid back and cool about everything but if you have ever played a college sport and you get a professor who is all in depth about technology you will be assaulted with rude comments.

This is all my experiences of course and I just felt like ranting about it.

Haha, I had to lol. Thats something very odd indeed about Computer Science courses in college. In high school, if you were socially accepted by the general majority, you more than likely will be shunned by your peers in the CS department.

They just don't look at you the same when you have good hygeine, speak eloquently, dress respectively, and don't nerdgasm over Microsoft jokes.

It gets better as you go further in the coursework, people start taking you more seriously and don't assume that you're just some pretty boy who likes to play video games.

[Ham n Cheese]

I'm paying for my education like someone else said, it shouldn't be up to the professor how I take my notes if I'm not being a distraction. Like I said I don't even have a notebook for note taking (broke ass nigga) - but I think it's ridiculous to ban them in a class. And close them during a lecture? That completely defeats the purpose, I take notes OF THE LECTURE. If I had the memory to listen to the whole thing then write it all down later I might as well come home and do it since my memory is apparently bad ass.

If you're distracted by someone else using a laptop then that's your own shit. You can just as easily be distracted by someone sneaking text messages, or doodling or biting their nails. Nobody is making you look at their screen. A dude sat in front of me in history with a laptop, sometimes he'd be on youtube, sometimes I'd watch but most of the time I'd be on my own shit. I never once thought "i'd have a higher grade if that fucker wasn't on his notebook!".

And I'm with Zeste, if this ever happens to me personally I'm going to the head of the dept or the dean.

reminds me of the office when he's explaining about how valuable paper is then says "write that down" and all you hear is the clicking of keys.

oh and one more afterthought. Sometimes the notebooks helped me in class. If I found myself staring off and daydreaming and heard lots of clicking typing noises I'd be like oh shit I need to write this down, wtf am I doing

[Kilivek2.0]

i would just hire marge sweetwater.

[Goliath]

Originally Posted by Menoz

I had that same prof, tikkus.

Me too.