Computers in the Classroom
Observations and Suggestions on the use of Laptops in the Cornerstone University Classroom
Faculty Development Seminar
In case you weren’t able to attend the CELT faculty seminar on March 27, we wanted to share with you the concerns, suggestions, and ideas that were discussed.
Three areas of concern and interest were discussed by several members of the Cornerstone Faculty:
* theoretical ideas concerning the use of laptops in the classroom
* pedagogical strategies and objectives for the use of laptops in the classroom
* polices and procedures for the use of laptops in the classroom
Like any other tool, laptops can be used to benefit the classroom. Laptops can be used to stimulate higher order thinking skills and activities. While there are a multitude of possibilities for this, one example would be to have students send the professor an email during the last five minutes of class to summarize the main ideas and concepts of that class period.
Laptops can be a source for student engagement. They can provide opportunities for connecting the content and concept of classroom activities to the world outside the classroom. In-class research can be carried out during the class period itself.
Computer technology can also be a course objective itself. Some disciplines (accounting and teacher education, among others) must learn how to use technology as part of the training for a specific career.
Laptops must also be used with intentionality as they can also become distractions in the classroom (as can all teaching tools). While they have the potential to be a positive force in the classroom, they can also challenge other positive classroom goals, such as developing community; maintaining student focus on the class activity, the professor, and fellow students; and distracting individual students as they attempt to multi-task.
And, while laptops can be used to promote higher order thinking, they can also detract from it. Sharon Parks, a recent education specialist who spoke at Cornerstone, cautioned, “You don’t have an intellectual life without contemplation.” The multi-tasking nature of laptops may not advance the goal of contemplation in the classroom.
Professors have a great deal of say in how laptops can and should be used in the classroom.
Some general principles that might guide the use of laptops in the classroom:
1.) Decide which activities can be enhanced and/or supported by laptops. Two examples are taking notes on lectures and/or finding real world example of classroom content and concepts under the direction of the professor.
2.) You as the professor have the ability (and perhaps obligation) to set standards on when laptops are appropriate (open) and when they are not appropriate (closed). These standards are best set at the beginning of the semester during review of syllabus information. Professors may wish to intentionally shift between laptops activities and non-laptop activities several times during the class period so that students will be comfortable moving to the non-laptop mode.
3.) Use proximity as an informal check on the use of laptops. When you teach from several different locations in the classroom rather than just the front behind the podium, you will likely enhance student attention.
In conclusion, the faculty members in attendance both
* affirmed the educational value of laptops in the classroom and encouraged creative integration in the content and concepts of the lesson, and
* maintained that it is appropriate for professors to require students to close their laptops when the professor decides it is in the best interests of classroom goals and objectives.
