If you’re reading this column in class, look up for a second and glance around the room. How many people do you see on laptops?
Chances are, if you’re in one of the bigger auditorium classrooms, at least one-third to a half of your fellow classmates are doing something on a laptop.
Whether it’s taking notes, looking up information about the professor’s lecture, checking e-mail or Facebook, playing a game or watching a movie, technology has overtaken the classroom and become an unspoken necessity of college life.
How many of your friends start college with a laptop? How many teachers assign some type of online assignment?
It’s almost safe to answer “all of them” to both of those questions.
However, some teachers are now banning the use of technology by students in their classes.
As a former engineering major, it was basically required that we bring our laptops to class with us — either to research more about the lecture during class or more easily interact with the designs and figures being discussed that day.
Now as a communications major, a laptop isn’t exactly required in some of my classes, and a majority of my teachers are telling us not to bring them at all.
What some teachers say about studies showing students learn better by handwriting notes or the information is better learned by writing first then typing makes sense. Not everyone learns the same way.
I’m the type of person who would rather write down my notes because I learn better that way. But the guy sitting next to me in class may have his computer out furiously typing away at every little thing the teacher says because that’s how he learns.
And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Hell, there’s not even anything wrong with someone else in the class blowing the teacher off completely and sitting in class mindlessly playing Farmville the entire time until they realize everyone is leaving because class is over.
As long as they aren’t distracting their fellow classmates with their cow-milking, it’s their prerogative if they want to pass the class they’re paying for or not.
It shouldn’t be up to the teachers and faculty or even the fancy-pants researchers to tell students how they should learn. It’s safe to say every student enrolled at the University is over 18 and is therefore an adult.
And while their actions in Tigerland on the weekends may not reflect their “adult” status, they are quite able to make the decision whether to show up to class or not — and if they do show up to class, whether they take notes in class or play StarCraft 2 instead.
The Internet is not always a bad thing. In classrooms outfitted with computers and huge projectors, lectures are enhanced with things like PowerPoint presentations, clips from YouTube and information from various encyclopedias online.
Just like lectures are improved with the use of technology, notetaking is too.
Since students are now required to pay technology fees to the University every year, it would only seem fair to allow the student the decision on how to use it — even if it does botch their GPA.
There’s been no official stance by the University, though the topic has been brought up to Student Government.
But, until there is more of a concrete stance taken by University officials — more than just random teachers’ syllabi — there should be no reason to ban the use of technology in the classroom, as long as no one is watching any porn or worse, Justin Bieber videos in class.
Adam Arinder is a 21-year-old communication studies senior from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_aarinder.
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Contact Adam Arinder at [email protected]