The remarkable spectacle of university students reminding their professors of their basic pedagogical responsibilities continues. This Emory student has done more than most professors – he has reviewed the now-extensive literature on the vile effects of laptop use in most college classrooms, and he has arrived at the obvious conclusion. As have many responsible professors. But so many others who continue to allow laptops – are they lazy? cynical? – have not.
January 24th, 2020 at 6:44AM
They are afraid it will hurt their evaluations. And they’re not necessarily wrong.
Student evaluations, of course, also harm both students and professors. Or at least the student-prof relationship. Let’s get rid of those as well.
January 24th, 2020 at 10:08AM
Anon: Some form of feedback makes sense though I’ve rarely seen a student evaluation process in place that wasn’t stupid/degrading/guaranteed to produce professors tempted to suck up to students and some of their worst instincts. On no laptops, however – my guess is that professors who ban them – at respectable schools – are likely to get some positive reviews because of it.