8 Responses to “Googling During Lectures”

1. Allan Says:
   April 13th, 2007 at 5:12 pm

   With all due respect, I find your reasoning here to be a tad authoritarian. I would drop your class in a heartbeat if told I was “required” to turn off my wireless card. If I want to ask my questions of the web when in a class, then who are you to tell me not to? Some of us around here are actually capable of multi-tasking.

   I do respect your right as a professor to set the tone of your classes, but blanket policies like this are just asking for trouble. If I use my laptop to take notes, what are you going to do? Do spot-checks to make sure that I’m not violating your wishes? Line your class walls with tin foil?

   I think a better way to handle this would be through communication. Outline in your syllabus that you would appreciate students attention in class, and that you would *prefer* that they not surf the web during while you’re lecturing. Outline your reasons as you did above. Reiterate your wishes at the start of the course, and then deal with people on a case-by-case basis if you find that their habits are disturbing the class.

   By just saying: “turn your cards off!”, you cut off the myriad legitimate uses for the web, penalize students who are perfectly capable of both surfing the web *and* paying attention, and setup an atmosphere where people feel they have to deceive you because you setup silly rules like this.

   Please reconsider your policy, as I would hate to see my educational opportunities impacted by this type of restriction catching on with other professors.

   It’s a new media world out there; figure out a way to accommodate and enrich it, not strangle it.

2. Tad McIlwraith Says:
   April 13th, 2007 at 9:44 pm

   Fair points Allan … and I appreciate you weighing in. You’ve given me pause, partly because your comment makes me feel less savvy and sophisticated about technology than I believe myself to be. (Can I ask where you are a student or teacher? What are your specific experiences in this area?)

   Help me work through this, then. I am not entirely sure what the best solution is and I’m trying to work this out. To date, I have not seen students always acting responsibly with computers in my classroom. (And note that I have edited my final statement to reflect the fact that I am still thinking through this issue. Term is over here, and I can’t implement this until September anyway.)

   I am intrigued, too, that there are legitimate uses for the internet during a lecture. What are the myriad of uses you recognize? I’d like to know how to embrace the internet in my classroom — I do not believe I am a ’strangler’ of technology — but what do you propose? Are you truly suggesting that I am stifling the learning opportunities of students if I do not allow them to google during class?

   I guess I’m thinking there is a time and a place for the internet in the classroom. Maybe I should just let people do whatever they want. So far, I have not found that solution to be taken seriously by students. What is their responsibility here?

3. Colin Tether Says:
   April 17th, 2007 at 6:01 pm

   I agree with Allan on certain points. I feel that the “turn off your cards” approach is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction and as Allan points out completely unenforceable, so why bother?

   However, there are several interesting issues you raise in regards to the challenges teachers face when trying to incorporate new technology into the classroom, maybe from a student perspective I can offer some insight. First, I think that if teachers actually acknowledge peoples questions and treat even the silly ones with respect then questions will always be asked. I think that the insight you provide and your genuine encouragement of questions and comments will ensure that people participate in your classes. Second, it’s OK for you to not know the answer; that being said you are most likely lecturing in a smart class-room so you can ask the student what their sources are and throw the website up on the projector. This lecture might then turn into a lesson on proper academic sources or it might provide some new insight. Finally, and again this isn’t an issue I found in your classroom but in a psychology class that I had the instructor’s lectures consisted of power point presentations of the textbook, which I’m assuming were part of the teachers resource pack. The tests consisted of slightly reworded multiple choice questions derived from the text’s web resources and study guide (I’m still wondering what she was being paid for since she didn’t develop any course material and the tests were marked by a machine) and to make matters worse attendance was 15% of the grade. The reason I bring this up is to highlight a situation in which I am paying about $250 for a class that is dull, repetitive and redundant and yet being a warm body in the class was the difference between an A+ and a B+. This example contrasts your lectures that are vital to the course, fill out the material and provide a forum for discussion. So, in my opinion, eliminate the mandatory attendance and you will eliminate the ‘warm bodies;’ if your lectures are vital to the course and promote interaction people will attend and if the opposite is the case then your attendance will reflect that as well. The only thing mandatory attendance is helping is poor teaching.

4. Tad McIlwraith Says:
   April 17th, 2007 at 8:51 pm

   Colin … I appreciate you weighing in. Your points are fair and reasonable. I could imagine having the web ready to jump onto sites that people bring up during class. I am even open to other ways in which technology can be incorporated successfully into my classes and lectures. The powerpoints you describe are not for me … but there may be other useful kinds of technology that I am overlooking. Ultimately, my real concern is that people may be paying more attention to the search for the appropriate website than to the class and the discussion you seem to value.

   (Is it unreasonable to ask students to read the class materials before class, do their googling at home, and come loaded with the questions they’d like to discuss in the classroom? Why does the googling need to occur during the lecture?)

   On and off line, people are making the point to me repeatedly that calling for people to turn off their cards is unreasonable. It may well be … but I don’t think it is authoritarian nor do I think it is stifling people’s ability to learn or to engage the class. What is likely, though, is that I will discuss the appropriate use of technology in the class with students at the beginning of term.

5. orange. Says:
   April 28th, 2007 at 2:04 am

   Thx for sharing, Tad. It’s much different in Germany still. I don’t believe kids are told to take notes on the computer in school here, so also the running of laptops during lecture in university is anything else than broadly accepted. Germany has always been less progressive towards new popular technologies (not talking of surveillance this time) than say GB or Finland.
   When I came back to uni from my offtime in 2004 I noticed laptops have appropriated the campus. Uni meanwhile had installed a campuswide wireless and campaign-like had cooperated with a near-by computer shop to offer reasonable laptops to students. The project officially was called “Notebook University”.

   “What I am not getting used to, though, is people using google to find out more about the lecture when they do not fully understand what I am saying. Rather than put up their hand and ask a question or for clarification, google becomes the in-class tutor..”

   This represents students’scaryness of asking silly questions. As a student, one never knows whether one’s notunderstanding is justified or just is caused by a personal lack of either knowledge or intellect or both or so. Some don’t care to make a fool out of themselves and speak up and by chance then even are lucky to objectify their questions. But many don’t and technology here fits into an attitude that already exists.
   And this fits into something I wondered about when I saw all these monitors on campus in 2004. Everyone not or differently socialized than those who group themselves now was given a perfect niche for their breaks between seminars which is the place in front of their monitor.

   Still-the problem you describe is grotesque. How big are the classes you mention?

6. Tad McIlwraith Says:
   April 28th, 2007 at 10:51 am

   Thanks for contributing to the discussion, Anna. My classes are capped at 35. They are often smaller in size and sometimes a little bigger. Perhaps that is part of the problem. In a larger lecture hall, where classroom discussions are not as easy or encouraged, the use of laptops for purposes other than notetaking might be fine (although I still wonder why you’d come to class to play video games or to watch a movie).

   The idea that people google for questions they feel might be deemed silly is useful. I suppose the people who are now googling for answers during class might not have asked the question aloud anyway.

7. FieldNotes: for the Anthropology of British Columbia » More Thoughts on Laptops in the Classroom Says:
   May 2nd, 2007 at 12:42 pm

   [...] My recent post on laptop and internet use in the classroom received some attention. And, the conversation continues around the halls at school with students and other faculty. I am leaning towards folding laptop use into the existing policies on classroom disruption. Like typing on typewriters, hammering on stone tablets, passing notes, doodling, and answering cell phones, taking notes on laptops is simply subject to the rules geared to create a positive and effective learning environment. Use laptops responsibly and I am pleased to have them in the room. [...]

8. FieldNotes: for the Anthropology of British Columbia » Laptops and Google No Problem During Lectures Says:
   November 16th, 2007 at 8:48 pm

   [...] For all my angst back in April about inappropriate laptop use in the classroom and unexpected challenges to my lecture notes from Google, this term has been free of any laptop or internet-related issues. Apparently one semester of high laptop use is not a trend. I’m not sure why computer use has been so limited this term — although I did speak about the appropriate use of computers in class on the first day of term. [...]

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