… The new policy benefits all students, not just those taking laptop notes. Countless numbers of people know how distracting it is to see other peoples’ laptop activities. Whether people are playing games, chatting on Facebook or reading gossip sites, it attracts the attention of those behind and next to them. Losing access to the Internet not only keeps the attention of those who would be surfing, but also those who are distracted by their neighbors.
… Some students feel that they have a right to do as they wish during class – and as long as they sit near the back of a lecture hall, how will the professor notice what they’re really doing? Simply put, goofing around during class is disrespectful to professors. For an expensive education time in the classroom should not be squandered. If you really can’t live without the Internet for an hour, don’t bother to go to class.
… [B]anning the Internet during class time reduces the amount [should be number] of distractions and helps students concentrate…
The editors of the Indiana University newspaper argue that professors should have the ability to cut off students’ internet access during class. They quote the dean of the University of Chicago Law School:
[S]tudents and faculty [need to be] focused on the exchange of ideas in a thorough, engaging manner.
April 27th, 2010 at 8:47AM
A small point, as an alum of Indiana University, it’s never called the University of Indiana.
April 27th, 2010 at 9:37AM
Many thanks, jcopeau. I’ve fixed it.
April 29th, 2010 at 6:30AM
At the Dagstuhl conference center (www.dagstuhl.de), they have deliberately installed WiFi hotspots in conference rooms that have the same network ID as the general WiFi network of the center, but are *not* connected to the Internet. Windows selects by default the closest hotspot, so it selects the non-working one.
Dagstuhl is a conference center for informatics, and many computer science researchers know how to work around such petty limitations, but still, it’s a good reminder that the point of being at a workshop or conference is to listen to the speaker and meet people, not to answer email.