More and more high schools around the country have been making the switch to laptops in the classroom. Instead of all the students walking around with notebooks in the their book bags, they now are carrying laptops. Some teachers like it because they don't have to worry about students losing assignments and also misplacing an assignment themselves. On the other hand though teachers don't like the laptops because they can't see what the students are doing on their computers so they don't know if they are taking notes or just goofing around on them. My old high school (Langford) just got laptops three years ago and I was talking to a couple of my old teachers and I asked them about their thoughts on the laptops. My History teacher said that he didn't mind them because they avoided the clutter and he said the main concern he had was with the note taking. He decided to have the students email him the notes they took in class at the end of each lecture to make sure that they were doing what they were supposed to do. The other teacher was my Math teacher and he said he rarely used them because it was so to do math on a computer even though the students have tablets (laptops you can write on). He was a firm believer in pencil and paper and thought that computers were just a distraction and made it more of a headache on the teachers because they had to keep a closer eye on if the students were taking notes.
So, is a clean room worth the headache of making sure the students are taking notes or not? Should schools go back to pencil and paper?
I don't really like the idea of having lap tops in the classroom because when i am sitting in class and see someone on their computer they are rarely taking notes. They are usually on the internet or playing some kind of game. My high school got laptops the year after I graduated and they were in a system where the teacher could look at any of the students laptop on her screen and see what they were doing. While this is a way to make sure they are doing their homework it is still time consuming to look at each students page on hers. i would very much prefer to keep laptops out out of the classroom and let them use them when they are working at home.
ReplyDeleteIn my high school we had handheld PCs that our school got through a technology grant. They were fun at first but soon became old. They turned out to be nothing more than a gimmick and when our teachers did try to get us to use them, we usually refused because it was easier and quicker to do our assignments manually.
ReplyDeleteMy experience has led me to consider when, and to what degree, I will implement technology into my classroom.
When using a keyboard, it's easy for information to go through your ears to your hands to the computer without ever passing through your brain. The old-fashioned way of taking notes works better.
ReplyDeleteI am not a big fan of laptops in a classroom. Clutter can be dealt with. Students should be responsible and not lose assignments. Teachers should also be organized and record grades promptly. If the grade is in, they can toss the assignments out or hand them back to the students.
ReplyDeleteDr. Marmorstein is totally right about the old-fashioned way of taking notes. One can type and transfer information from the ears to a keyboard rather mindlessly. If one is handwriting, neatly or otherwise, the brain has to work doubly hard and retains a lot more information.
Computers are useful to some extent, but I do not think that every kid needs to have a laptop. As a teacher, when I want the kids to use computers, I will take them to a lab (which will be infrequently because students will probably be inundated with technology in all their other classes, whereas my class will be the one class where they learn the way learning should be). Yes, it may cause more clutter, but just because the old methods are outdated by modern standards does not mean they are useless. Maybe we wouldn't struggle with illiteracy and reading comprehension in America if students had to write, edit, and read their own work instead of having spell check fix everything for them. I'll stick with paper and pencils.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone on wanting to use paper and pencils. I love taking notes on paper, and would rather rely on having my notebook with me, and not worrying on if my computer craps out, what happens to all my notes and papers?
ReplyDeleteAlthough I do think having your lesson plans in both electronic and hard copy form would be useful. And maybe being able to use computers for somethings like powerpoint presentations