Comments on: It’s Not the Tool, It’s the Craftsman http://www.notnews.org/education/its-not-the-tool-its-the-craftsman/ Philosophy, public affairs and pop culture. Thu, 01 Mar 2012 02:35:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Dave Thomer http://www.notnews.org/education/its-not-the-tool-its-the-craftsman/#comment-16236 Dave Thomer Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:25:18 +0000 http://www.notnews.org/?p=867#comment-16236 Thanks for the comment. You're right to bring up the effect on others in the classroom. There's definitely potential for distraction to spread throughout the group. I don't know how to get all (or most) students to agree on their obligations to their fellow classmates. I don't know if that's something you can impose with a policy or if it's something students need to build themselves. You also have a good point that laptops and other devices do allow more potential for distractions than plain old paper, and I don't want to minimize that. There is some research that suggests that if students have laptops in a traditional lecture class, they retain less than students who don't have them. I think that points to two things. We're always going to have these devices, so we better learn to tune them out when we need to. And teachers are probably going to need to change the way they do things to account for the ways that our current society operates and communicates. Thanks for the comment. You’re right to bring up the effect on others in the classroom. There’s definitely potential for distraction to spread throughout the group. I don’t know how to get all (or most) students to agree on their obligations to their fellow classmates. I don’t know if that’s something you can impose with a policy or if it’s something students need to build themselves.

You also have a good point that laptops and other devices do allow more potential for distractions than plain old paper, and I don’t want to minimize that. There is some research that suggests that if students have laptops in a traditional lecture class, they retain less than students who don’t have them. I think that points to two things. We’re always going to have these devices, so we better learn to tune them out when we need to. And teachers are probably going to need to change the way they do things to account for the ways that our current society operates and communicates.

]]> By: Saskia http://www.notnews.org/education/its-not-the-tool-its-the-craftsman/#comment-16235 Saskia Tue, 30 Aug 2011 19:13:47 +0000 http://www.notnews.org/?p=867#comment-16235 Thank you for the post, I agree with you that students were distracted without notebooks too. However, the nice thing with notebooks they are more or less flat on the table, and the interaction of the student with the notebook is not unlike notetaking, in general. The problem I have, as a student, with fellow students using their laptops to do all kinds of things that are not related to the course is that the screens are upright and there are bright colours and moving things on them, so they keep attracting the eye. Whenever I am in a course, I try to sit as much to the front as possible in order to avoid this, but sometimes you still have students sitting in the very front row and doing heavens knows what. It is very annoying for me as a fellow students. I think that students who are not interested in the course should either not attend or sit in the back where they do not distract other students. Thank you for the post, I agree with you that students were distracted without notebooks too.
However, the nice thing with notebooks they are more or less flat on the table, and the interaction of the student with the notebook is not unlike notetaking, in general. The problem I have, as a student, with fellow students using their laptops to do all kinds of things that are not related to the course is that the screens are upright and there are bright colours and moving things on them, so they keep attracting the eye. Whenever I am in a course, I try to sit as much to the front as possible in order to avoid this, but sometimes you still have students sitting in the very front row and doing heavens knows what. It is very annoying for me as a fellow students.
I think that students who are not interested in the course should either not attend or sit in the back where they do not distract other students.

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