…[F]or students at the University of Chicago Law School, use of the Internet in some classrooms is no longer available.The law school announced late last week that it has removed wireless Internet access in most classrooms to reduce distractions and to enhance the value of the learning experience. “As soon as we discovered that we had the capacity to turn off Internet access during class time, we felt that we ought to move in that direction,” said Saul Levmore, dean of the law school, in a press release from the university.
… “When a student visits my office, neither the student nor I would dream of surfing the Web or e-mailing while communicating with one another,” Levmore said, stressing his belief that the same level of attention should be expected in the classroom.
But what do law students at the U.of C. think about their school’s recent decision?
“It may not be popular among students, but there’s no denying that it has pretty much eliminated e-mail sending, instant messaging, and blog and New York Times reading,” said Nick Soltman, a law student at the University of Chicago.
And that may be exactly what Dean Levmore is hoping to accomplish.
“We need to think of Internet business as inappropriate in the classroom, much as everyone recognizes the need to shut off cell phones and to refrain from ostentatious newspaper reading in class or at business meetings or at Thanksgiving dinner,” Levmore said….
medill reports
April 16th, 2008 at 9:26AM
It is gonna be a matter of minutes before the students start screaming that depriving them of the wireless access is a violation of rights/freedoms. That is a losing battle: kids will all have iphones soon enough and they will surf via phones instead of laptops. It is like any other diversion for people: if you want it badly enough you can get it.
My students wouldn’t know what to do with themselves if they couldn’t surf/text 24/7. That is reason enough to ban it.
April 16th, 2008 at 9:56AM
Jeff: Actually, student responses to laptop bans are kind of interesting. In many cases, there isn’t much protest at all. Students seem to be expressing gratitude that someone’s keeping them from habits they can’t themselves control…
April 16th, 2008 at 12:01PM
This seems like a great, great idea to me. No one–or almost no one–actually *needs* the internet during the kinds of Literature and Writing classes that I teach. They just seem to *think* they need to check the web.
Although my problems with students lately have been with their being excessively ‘textually active’ (great term, by the way), I’ve had a few laptop users in the past who use them to take notes, with the occasional foray into Facebook, AIM, etc.–one was a girl who sat in the front row, all of 5 feet away from me. Usually, telling them to cease and desist in front of the class did the trick.
Someone, though, will find a way around it. After all, they may really need to check their Facebook page vis-a-vis our discussion of Huck Finn or Captain Ahab.
April 16th, 2008 at 5:10PM
A couple of my students thanked me for my own ban on these devices. One admitted that she could not control herself when an internet connection was available and she was allowed to have her laptop on.
I recently attended a wake where the college-aged bereaved spent the entire evening texting their friends and ignoring their own relatives and old family friends present.
April 16th, 2008 at 5:13PM
Yikes. A wake?
April 16th, 2008 at 9:31PM
Ye gods, Maude.
We have to go to something called "Grand Rounds" on a weekly basis. There we are told by docs things like: "We are not really interested in science.." when some fairly basic questions are asked…
I love to log in on my laptop and find out what the hell is going on. What is the structure of that molecule and how does it work. Docs, even though they’ve all been to their great distress forced to take organic chemistry – could care less about the molecular basis of anything.
You can pry my laptop, complete with university supplied internet access, from my cold, stiff hands. And yes I am paying attention and fully engaged.
Best, Bonzo
What are you all afraid of? If the stuff you are putting out is worth listening to, why are you worried? (I admit this is a bit of a rhetorical question, but still.)
By the way, UD has some wonderful stuff at her "other site," including the talk that she gave at GW that was mentioned here recently.
April 16th, 2008 at 9:39PM
I decided that I needed more than a comment to respond this time
http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2008/04/humiliation-and-modern-professor.html
April 16th, 2008 at 10:12PM
Pretty funny, Ira.
I think we might actually be on the same page on this one – or have I misinterpreted something?
Your friend, the modernist,
Bonzo
April 16th, 2008 at 10:18PM
Bonzo, I think we’re exactly in-line here. There are very few people out there I either agree with or disagree with on "everything" – and if I found any, how dull would that be? But yes, a modernist will know progress when he sees it? right?
Cheers!
April 17th, 2008 at 7:33AM
Yep, UD, a wake.