As class gets ready to begin, students open up their laptops and poise their fingers over their keyboards. As students try to listen to the professor’s lecture, they notice in their peripheral vision other students around them alternating between Facebook profiles, online shopping and checking e-mail.
What all the students may not realize is that at this point, all are now distracted from what is going on in class and the tool that is meant to aide their learning has now become a hindrance.
This epidemic of multi-tasking in class has led to the question of whether laptops are really aiding student learning or are they just another distraction, both on Creighton’s campus and throughout the country.
This fall, Creighton’s Social Work Department has instated a new policy prohibiting students from using laptops in the classrooms. Discussion about putting this policy into place began two years ago, said Herb Grandbois, chair of the Social Work Department.
“We didn’t take this lightly,” Grandbois said. “We monitored, examined the pros and cons of doing something like this and then we finally made a decision.”
The new policy is a trial run for the department and they are waiting to see what the affect is on the students. So far, Grandbois said, he hasn’t heard any student complaints or seen students pushing back against the new policy. When the department discussed putting this policy into place, upsetting students wasn’t their purpose, he said.
He also said that this is not an absolute policy. If a student needs to use their laptop for some reason, their department left it up to the individual professors to decide whether to allow the student to use a laptop in class.
“It wasn’t to make students angry or make them fractious about this. It’s about pedagogue and learning,” Grandbois said. “We are not trying to be punitive. We are social workers and being punitive is an antithesis of this.”
Grandbois also said this policy needs to be decided by individual professors and departments because the needs of each differ.
“Most of our classes are practice-oriented — and a computer is really quite intrusive,” Grandbois said.
As some students attempt to multi-task in class, the question that arises is why. Why do students feel the need to surf the Web instead of paying attention? And who should be held responsible – students or professors?
Vivian Irizarry, Arts & Sciences sophomore, said the blame can’t really be put on anyone.
“If it is a harder class or a more serious topic being discussed, this activity is reduced. It becomes a problem when students get bored or aren’t interested — if students aren’t interested, they aren’t going to listen.”
Irizarry admitted she has been guilty of checking her e-mail during class before, but she knows doing this hurts her in the long run.
“There are times when I feel the need to check my e-mail, but when I do that, I realize how detrimental it is to me. My luck, something important will be said and it will be on the next test,” she said.
Even though Irizarry prefers to use her laptop for note-taking in class to help her stay more organized and take more efficient notes, she understands why professors feel the need to ban laptops from classrooms. It can be a distraction for professors and for other students, she said. But, she also thinks it should be the student’s choice.
“If you are on Facebook, you aren’t going to do as well in the class and you aren’t going to get as much out of it. This is why I think it should be our choice.”
Cathy Fox, Arts & Sciences senior and a social work major, said the adjustment from going to class with her laptop to going to class without it was pretty easy.
“There are times when a teacher is lecturing that I would prefer having my laptop, but overall, it has been an easy transition. I have seen more cohesiveness and participation in my classes overall,” Fox said.
Grandbois said even if students are using their laptops for classroom purposes only, laptops can still be a hindrance to the learning process.
“By and large, even if you are lecturing, and trying to promote discussion and critical thinking, what occurs is that students are attached and focused on the computer rather than what’s going on,” Grandbois said.
Whatever a professor or a department decides on the use of laptops in classrooms, Grandbois said, it all about learning and students making a connection to what they have heard.
“Learning has to be personal. If a student or learner doesn’t make it their own some how, they haven’t learned it. They haven’t connected it to something. They have just taken notes,” he said.