A survey involving Canadian universities last year revealed that, while some students use computers and tablets for note-taking purposes, most use them recreationally.

Henry Kim, a business professor at York University, practices an innovative way to prevent Internet distractions in the classroom, according to a Nov. 3 article by therecord.com.

Kim requires his students to sign a pledge each semester promising not to use computers and other devices for recreational purposes during lecture. His pledge, however, differs from most. If Kim asks a student what a fellow classmate is watching on his or her computer, the student must tell him what he or she sees, according to the article.

Snitching, essentially.

“It’s not meant to be punitive — it’s almost like a thought experiment, and the whole point is to create a new social norm in my class,” Kim said in the article. “Where using the laptop in distracting ways is embarrassing not just for you, but for other students who may be asked to report on you.”

The professor is not against technology, though. He shows YouTube clips at times to enhance presentations and uses an iPad to help identify students by name. Kim said in the article his philosophy is more based on a student’s inability to multitask during lecture.

“There’s not an ounce of scientific evidence that students can actually multi-task and learn,” Kim said in the article.

Other professors are following Kim’s example and adjusting classroom policies to eliminate distractions posed by Internet use. Paul Thagard, a philosophy professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada, banned computers and cellphones in his class two years ago. The article said his assistants caught students watching the reality TV show “Jersey Shore” reruns and browsing Facebook in class.

“The cognitive effects of laptop distraction on learning are disastrous,” Thagard said in the article. “It goes against everything we know about how the brain works and the number of things we can hold in our mind at once.”

Thagard said in the article that he and his students have appreciated the lack of Internet influence in class. For Thagard, class no longer feels like a lecture to “a wall of screens instead of students,” and students have been able to pay closer attention to course material.

But opposition to Kim’s in-class policies still exists. Tyler Epp, the director of advocacy for College Student Alliance, said in the article how strange it is to ask students “to turn each other in.”

“That’s got to create an uncomfortable atmosphere between students,” Epp said in the article.

The article said Kim has asked students to leave class if they are caught on Twitter or other social media sites. Although this action upsets policy offenders, some of Kim’s students, like Kesavan Ganeshalingam, agree with his stance against computer distractions.

Said Ganeshalingam in the article: “I think the pledge against laptops is perfectly fine. Technology does interrupt our daily lives, even though we need it.”

 

Published on November 8, 2012 at 1:35 am

Contact Andrew: asmuckel@syr.edu