Classrooms on the Anti-Tech Bandwagon

I’m now seeing professors proudly banning technology in the classroom. And even those who don’t are giving students lectures in class about how we should ban e-books at the university library. They’re telling students who use laptops in class they should really be writing in a notebook, that is, if they really want to learn. Some even go so far as to add notes to their syllabi, such as this recent example:

Policy on Electronic Devices:

In order to ensure attentive participation in lecture, use of electronic devices, laptops, and e- readers is not allowed during course time.

Why would a professor treat tech-savvy students like deviants rejecting an established practice? Do these professors really believe that learning styles are one-size-fits-all or that how they learned is the only way to learn? Or are they, perhaps, simply annoyed that students are more interested in what’s going on online than in the classroom? But instead of leveraging that student interest and passion for an engaging online social space and for using technology, they ban it. The result? I’ve watched students leave the classroom to check their phone. Not the outcome the professor was hoping for, I suspect.

Of all people, I would hope academics would be wise enough to see the echoes of history here, when teachers would tie the hands of left-handed students behind their backs to force them to use their right one. Banning technology in the classroom says to students who use technology to learn, who need technology to learn, “I don’t care how you learn, you will work my way using only the approved tools — or you will struggle and fail.”

Would these same faculty ban students from wearing glasses? Of course not, because glasses are accepted as pervasive, standard, assistive technology.

Banning other technology in classrooms is just as wrong as banning glasses would be. It only ends up hurting the best students — and it certainly doesn’t help those with the biggest difficulties. Everyone loses. Here’s why:

Most young people today grow up learning to write on a computer (or tablet, or phone). Taking away the tools they use in all other contexts in life doesn’t help them in the classroom. Students who have grown up typing now think and compose in terms of copying and pasting. They move text around in ways that you cannot on paper.

After learning to write with the assistive technology of a computer, professors give them exams without those tools. Really? Is this a test of their ability to write, synthesize information, and think critically — or a test of their ability to survive without the tools they normally use? If professors require students to hand in papers typed on a computer, double spaced, why do punish them by making them write in exam books?

Would you force the class to use quill and parchment to write the exam? Then don’t make them use pen and paper.

The skills students need are not about retaining information, but organizing it. The study noted in the Vox article shows that students who take notes on paper about a lecture do better when tested on material in that lecture. Is this really what we aim to do in the classroom? How many students remember just enough to take a mid-term and forget it all after?

The study cited in the Vox article said that laptop use “results in shallower processing.” This might be true for some students in the short term, but what about those students who use the technology as part of a deeper process of learning over the course of a class, or a college career, or a lifetime? What about students who refer back to these notes again and again — who draw from them years later because it only takes a few clicks or keystrokes or a keyword search to pull them up? To me, deep learning is integrating the record of your thinking and education into your life for the long term.

The skills we should be prioritizing in the classroom are not retaining facts for an exam — but rather synthesizing information and organizing thoughts. Whether students end up working in a corporate office or going on to graduate school, they need to know how to record, archive, organize, and search through information, not just memorize a name or date for an exam.

Does it really prevent learning if students are engaged with social media in class? Graduate students and faculty go to conferences and engage with social media, participating in multiple levels of interaction while listening to papers and debates. Live tweeting discussions has become a vital part of the academic conversation. Students can do the same — and classrooms can engage academically and socially as communities, both online and off.