In my freshman seminar, weeks passed with all of us typing aimlessly on our computers and staying silent when my professor asked questions to the group. Finally, she had all of us stand up as she walked by and checked our computers. At most, two students were actually typing up notes. She banned computers from then on, and class discussions improved drastically.
A Dartmouth student recalls her very wasteful freshman seminar professor.
Professors can avoid this scandalous waste of time and money by investing five minutes acquainting themselves with the state of research on laptops in the classroom.
July 8th, 2014 at 11:02AM
“A Dartmouth student recalls her very wasteful freshman seminar professor.”
Just so I’m sure on where to assign blame, when people fall asleep at the movies, is it the fault of the actors or the director? When people crash their cars while texting, do we blame the designer of the phone, the car, or the highway?
July 8th, 2014 at 12:41PM
Pete: In this matter, there’s plenty of blame to go around. Of course the students are also at fault. But the instructor sets the stage, so she bears special responsibility.