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posted by on Sunday May 28 2017, @07:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the worse-than-useless dept.

Researchers from the University of Seville have published the study "To take or not to take the laptop or tablet to classes, that is the question", which has been selected for publication by the internationally recognised review Computers in Human Behavior, which deals with the social implications of new technology. In the article, the socio-economic factors that determine the use of laptops and tablets in university classrooms in Seville are analysed, as well as the factors that limit their use. It also explains the possible Trojan horse effect that inappropriate use of such devices might have, especially tablets, on a lack of academic engagement.

The study, carried out by the researchers José Ignacio Castillo Manzano, Mercedes Castro Nuño, Lourdes López Valpuesta, Teresa Sanz Díaz and Rocío Yñiguez Ovando, concludes that the profile of the laptop user in the classroom is different from that of the tablet user. In the first case, maturity takes precedence, that is to say, they are students who have experience in the use of laptops in pre-university education or who have been at the university for several years: as well as having different socio-economic characteristics like living away from their parents, without having any family member to look after. For their part, tablet users are usually female, they live with their parents and they have just left school.
...
For the authors, the high correlation between student tablet use and greater activity on social networks is worrying. For the teacher José Ignacio Castillo, these devices, especially the tablets, "are a double-edged sword, and, as other studies have also highlighted, they can be the Trojan horse in which online entertainment invades the classroom in a massive way. It would be justifiable to evaluate limiting access to university Wi-Fi for contents that have little or no academic value, at least during class hours, if we don't want the utopia to become a dystopia".

The study also showed that there are no intellectual or technical barriers to the use of these devices in a generation of clearly digital natives, so their use is not linked to the students' technical knowledge, nor even to the marks they obtained at school.

For Castillo, according to the demands stated by the students in the study, the construction of this new paradigm demands an active role on the part of universities, improving both the physical infrastructure, especially the number of plug sockets in the classrooms, and the virtual infrastructure, especially the quality of the Wi-Fi connection. At the same time, the involvement of teachers has to be encouraged, by financing support programmes for teaching innovation, so that it is easier for teachers to encourage greater use of mobile devices in the way they teach. According to Castillo, the results of the study clearly show that the students want to get greater academic benefits from their devices in the classroom, to compensate not just for the economic investment that they have made in their laptop or tablet, but also for the personal cost of carrying them around every day.

Do laptops and tablets in the lecture hall do anything but distract students from the lesson?


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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 28 2017, @09:03AM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 28 2017, @09:03AM (#516688)

    Should they?

    Tablets may be ok for reading, or certain electronic design/art classes, but they would be horrible for everything else, especially digital copies of books which can't be resold and may only last for a semester.

    Laptops are useful for taking notes for those of us with atrocious handwriting/professors who want work submitted typed. But other than ensuring sufficient sized desks, there is nothing special with using them in-class compared to book and paper, other than discussions on cheating, which can be solved with wifi/cell phone jamming if necessary, assuming material isn't already on the device (which indicated the professors haven't been shuffling up their curriculum enough to avoid rote cheating off last semesters/years' notes.)

    Just in my experience over 10 years of college from the 'everything must be done on paper' through the 'nothing other than rough drafts will be done on paper' era, it made little to no difference in studying style for class, the only differences were in more rapid revisioning during class with typed papers, and in classes that allowed it, the ability to find and cite more references from third party sources/broaden technical research for classes that allowed it. Any professor worth their salt ensured their tests required practical knowledge of the subject sufficient that someone could neither look up nor borrow another notes and have sufficient time to fill in the test via cheating anyway. And midterm/final projects which were actually projects rather than tests took care of the rest. Professors that didn't do either usually relied on scantrons, short word answers, or long essay style tests that never 'really' got read anyways, and writing sufficient vaguely smart sounding gibberish could often get you a passing grade, although some professors were so subjective that ensuring you would get an A required further ass kissing, be it the professor or student aid who was responsible for reading the papers.

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday May 28 2017, @10:40AM (3 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Sunday May 28 2017, @10:40AM (#516705) Journal

    other than discussions on cheating, which can be solved with wifi/cell phone jamming if necessary, assuming material isn't already on the device

    What the hell is wrong with an "open books exam"?
    When faced with a problem in real life, you usually have access to internet and perhaps heaps of journals as well, why does the exam need to be different?

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Sunday May 28 2017, @02:35PM (2 children)

      by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Sunday May 28 2017, @02:35PM (#516754) Journal

      In general, I agree with your sentiment, if not necessarily the implementation. I can see very good reasons for times to allow an "open books exam" that also allows internet access, too.

      There are two primary reasons -- from my perspective -- that it can be helpful to restrict exam materials, though (maybe not all the time):

      (1) Efficiency. I'm NOT a big proponent of exams that test speed by forcing students to rush like mad. But it's a different skill to be able to answer a question on demand during a meeting about a basic issue vs. "Here's a problem -- go figure out how to do it and come back in a week." My experience is that students with open-book exams don't study as much. They think they can just "figure it out on the fly." I personally realized the flaw with this strategy when I first encountered a "bring anything you want" type exam as an undergrad. I dutifully loaded my backpack with my notebooks and a stack of maybe 7 or 8 books -- and realized after that test that I didn't have time to look at any of them if I actually wanted to complete the problems in time. (Or if I did look at one, I needed to know EXACTLY where to find the info I needed, not search blindly for info about the general topic for 10 minutes.)

      While I learned that pretty quickly, my experience is that many students don't. So you need to encourage them to study somehow, or else lower your expectations on what they'll be able to complete in the time of an in-class exam.

      (2) Actually "knowing stuff." I'm also NOT a big proponent of memorization for memorization's sake. But sometimes there's really basic knowledge that you need to have "in your head" or else you can't actually deal with more advanced issues in the subject. I think this justification is better for short quizzes that are ensuring that you are getting "the basics" without need to rely on detailed notes or other sources. But the fact is that many problems rely not just on your ability to look up an answer, but your ability to make relevant connections based on what you know already.

      There are various solutions and compromises to address these issues, but I don't think having ALL "open books exams" throughout one's entire education is necessarily the best policy.

      • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday May 28 2017, @05:29PM

        by kaszz (4211) on Sunday May 28 2017, @05:29PM (#516817) Journal

        They think they can just "figure it out on the fly." I personally realized the flaw with this strategy when I first encountered a "bring anything you want" type exam as an undergrad. I dutifully loaded my backpack with my notebooks and a stack of maybe 7 or 8 books -- and realized after that test that I didn't have time to look at any of them if I actually wanted to complete the problems in time. (Or if I did look at one, I needed to know EXACTLY where to find the info I needed, not search blindly for info about the general topic for 10 minutes.)

        People don't figure this out ahead of even the first exam?

        The golden rule of exams. If you are allowed an aid. It's because it will not help you anymore than a pencil can draw a line will help you ;-)

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday May 29 2017, @11:38AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday May 29 2017, @11:38AM (#517099) Journal

        I dutifully loaded my backpack with my notebooks and a stack of maybe 7 or 8 books -- and realized after that test that I didn't have time to look at any of them if I actually wanted to complete the problems in time. (Or if I did look at one, I needed to know EXACTLY where to find the info I needed, not search blindly for info about the general topic for 10 minutes.)

        Exactly my point: you need to learn/know them to be able to find what is relevant to the problem.

        ... my experience is that many students don't. So you need to encourage them to study somehow, or else lower your expectations on what they'll be able to complete in the time of an in-class exam.

        As opposed to what? Driving them with fear (about a gridded exam) into rote memorization, no thinking and no problem solving?
        This is cheating... nay, this is a conman job from the part of the teacher and both the student and the society (expecting good skills to come with the piece of paper called "graduation diploma") are victims.

        But sometimes there's really basic knowledge that you need to have "in your head" or else you can't actually deal with more advanced issues in the subject... But the fact is that many problems rely not just on your ability to look up an answer, but your ability to make relevant connections based on what you know already.

        It's the difference between the a seasoned worker, who hit the same need for the knowledge again and again, versus a beginner.
        However, I still prefer the students understand why they need the fundamentals first, even if s/he will need to go back and revisit them later to cram them into their mind. It will be easier for them to understand and really assimilate that piece of basic knowledge from the perspective of "that piece will fit here. Oh, wow, here too. And there as well".

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday May 28 2017, @01:43PM (2 children)

    by kaszz (4211) on Sunday May 28 2017, @01:43PM (#516737) Journal

    So are tables or laptops good for taking notes? I'll assume writing a formula will take plenty more time on a electronic device than simply using pen and paper.. And then the question is, what is really the optima learning scenario?

    It seems that shuffling people around the country to squalid accommodation to enable sitting in a big room and write down the same thing as everybody else is of little gain. Especially if the teacher/professor won't have time for questions or interaction. Students might as well watch a video of the whole thing and discuss the matter in discussion groups.

    • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Sunday May 28 2017, @02:56PM (1 child)

      by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Sunday May 28 2017, @02:56PM (#516760) Journal

      Tablets, particularly when used with a stylus, actually offer more solutions for writing formulas, diagrams, etc. than a traditional laptop. (Touchscreen laptops maybe could do something similar, but generally less conveniently.)

      Another concern with laptops is whether one actually takes "notes" or just "dictation." Students with decent typing skills often end up doing a transcription of portions of the lecture, rather than taking notes. (I think there was a study to this effect a couple years ago.) The difference isn't trivial: note-taking requires more brain processing (and thus aids memory). You need to listen, think about what's important, and write down summary bits. When you just transcribe what you hear, it's like random noise flowing from your ears to your hands.

      Of course, even before laptops you had lots of students who didn't know how to take notes: they'd just write down the few words on the blackboard or Powerpoint or whatever, rather than actually listening and thinking about what to write down. So I don't know that laptops actually make things worse in that regard -- just different.

      • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday May 28 2017, @05:25PM

        by kaszz (4211) on Sunday May 28 2017, @05:25PM (#516814) Journal

        Do tablet with a stylus really have that granularity? Seems like laptop + pad is the thing then.

        Maybe the key is to process the lecture in away such that it involves many neurological circuits and create a network where the given information from the lecturer is only one part of that network. This should give a good clue on how make the learning process efficient. The key is to process what is taught in many ways and use knowledge already within the brain to strengthen those networks.

        Recording the lecture and take notes in calm off hours seems attractive. At least to correct any note mistakes done during lecture.