问答题
Lectures vs. Laptops
Inn Ayres
Something alarming happened in my contract law class. I asked that laptop computers be used only for note taking, and my students went ballistic.
Solitaire and Minesweeper are everywhere now in university classes. At Yale, where classrooms are wired to the Internet, students can also surf the Web, send e-mail or even trade stock. Soon the wireless Internet will make this possible at all schools.
Not all students do this sort of thing. But the abusive use of laptops is getting to be increasingly prevalent. Students toggle between windows during any part of the class they deem to be boring—often when their fellow students are asking questions or answering them. Seeing the person in the next seat playing a video game while you are trying to puzzle out a law question is demoralizing. And students who surf are not fully present to ask or answer questions themselves.
Admittedly, students can mentally check out of the class in other ways, for instance, by daydreaming or doodling. But not all activities are equally addictive, I should know. I might be the only law professor to have asked for cybersitter filtering so aware to keep me from surfing the Web too much at my office.
Still, I was surprised at how brazenly my own students resisted to my laptop restrictions, both in class discussion and in virtual chat room (which, perversely, they could post to during their other classes.) they argued that they were multi-tasking, staying productive during dead or badly taught portions of class. They said classroom surfing reduces sleepiness, increases their willingness to attend class. allows them to research legal questions being discussed, and so on. They said the professor has incentive to teach more effectively when he or she must compete against other more interesting claims on students" attention.
Their arguments could apply equally well to the opera hall，the jury box，or the church pew. Will the lure of technology stimulation someday overwhelm current mores about paying attention in those places, too? At least we should try to stem the tide in the classroom. Few students say in their admissions applications, after all, that they intend classroom solitaire to be a central part of their education experience.
【正确答案】
【答案解析】
Should Laptops Be Restricted in Class?
New technologies offer promising opportunities for schools to move away from the factory-style instruction model to new educational models, and students to enjoy new ways of learning. As many of the personalized learning projects in some schools have hinged on connecting students with laptops so they can be plugged in anytime, anywhere, laptops are visible all over, wherever it is in class, in opera hall, in jury box, just mentioned in the article, even in churches. Agreement and disagreement on the issue whether laptops are allowed in class exist simultaneously. In the article, the teacher set a limitation to the use of laptops, which stirred up feelings of dissatisfaction among students. Personally, I don"t take sides with this teacher.
It"s true that, just as the teacher said, some students are pretending to take notes while playing video games, chatting on Facebook, sending E-mails or surfing the Web for various purposes, which not only distracts their own attention and affects their study, but also has negative effects on other students. Admittedly, this abusive use of laptops does exist. However, we cannot throw away the apple because of the core. To some extent, I still believe that the advantages of using laptops far outweigh its disadvantages.
First and foremost, while some students are slacking, others are actually taking notes using note-taking tools like OneNote or Evernote, recording lectures or looking up supplemental information. Maybe motivated students are constructing their own learning systems for the sake of better review. Secondly, we have to admit that in general, lectures run the gamut from "total waste of time" to "too much important information at once." In both cases, laptops come in handy. Some professors ineptly read lectures to the class in a dull monotone, and oftentimes this same information is easily found online. During bad lectures, students uses their laptops to study for other classes and generally do tasks they would otherwise have to do outside class time instead of studying or doing other school work. Besides, during class discussions, students can look up things relevant to the discussion, which enhances their understanding and makes them a more informed participant. On the other hand, teachers also benefit from students" use of laptops as it alleviates the burden of teachers so that they possess more time to do more research.
In conclusion, restricting the use of laptops won"t force slackers to pay attention. It only hurts the motivated students. So for the benefit of both students and teachers, also for the purpose of higher efficiency in learning and higher quality of teaching, we should let free the use of laptops.