So the faculty at my college- an elite women’s school- have this obsession with technology. Specifically, they want to eradicate it from classrooms (except for when it supplements their teaching). They claim technology is ruining the “academic experience,” and lament that they can’t “compete” with computers. Many of my professors have banned laptops from their classes, allowing only special needs students to use them. This is problematic in a number of ways:
1. It demolishes special needs students’ legal rights to confidentiality. When only special needs students are allowed to use laptops in class, everyone in the room suddenly knows who has special needs and who doesn’t. You may not care about this, but the beauty of this situation is that it doesn’t matter whether you care or not, because special needs students are guaranteed those rights by law.
2. It reduces incentive for professors to improve their teaching techniques and approaches. This is particularly troubling to me, because students are tirelessly pushed to be unique, creative, and to think out-of-the-box. How can the faculty expect students to produce never-before-seen work when they can’t even manage it? They should lead by example. The world is constantly and rapidly evolving, and if colleges and professors want what they’re doing to remain relevant, they need to evolve, too. They should plan unique activities, and make the classroom more compelling and involved with small group competitions or written-talk activities. The content doesn’t have to change, but the delivery should. And yes, I know, not everything in “life” is interesting. But I don’t have to be interesting with everything in life, either, and I sure as hell don’t have to pay upwards of $40k/year for it. And, in the “real world,” I’ll be paid for the day in, day out boring shit I’ll have to do, and the rest of the boring shit I can either do myself (as it doesn’t take long) or pay someone else to do it. Or, hey, I can get technology to do it. Helloooo auto-bill pay!
3. Students are 18+ year old adults, and need to learn how to manage their lives on their own. If they use a computer to browse Pinterest while a professor is droning uncreatively on, they have the choice to either pay attention, or not pay attention. If they don’t, there will inevitably be natural consequences for it, like a bad participation grade. Sure, the teacher will feel disrespected (boo-hoo) and the students will be pissed, but there’s a natural lesson that should be learned for both involved parties, isn’t there?
4. College is supposed to be preparing students for the real world. The faculty are in a very unique position to teach students how to balance their lives with technology and focus despite its temptations instead of eradicating their lives of it altogether. What kind of job will those students ever get that doesn’t have a computer involved in it? Some preparation college is, eh? The fact of the matter is, I don’t think professors themselves have figured out how to balance their lives with technology. Of course, if they can’t figure it out, how can anyone, right?
5. Banning computers/technology in the classroom greatly reduces the learning experience, much as professors disbelieve it. In the middle of class discussions, I can research a word’s definition in a matter of seconds on my computer to understand the conversation better. In a flash, I can look up that study that informed my opinion on the topic of discussion so others can learn about it. I can type 80+ words per minute, which is much faster than I can write, which means I’ll take better notes. And don’t give me that garbage about “writing notes is better,” because my grades haven’t changed a bit since switching from writing to typing. In fact, I’m MORE apt to review my typed notes because I know I can go back and edit or add to them in a hot second. However, my written notes often have various legible qualities depending on the length of my day, span far more pages than is necessary (typed notes are environmentally friendly), and include less material. Oh, and I can also phrase-search an e-book to find the passage I want to bring up or ask a question about in class, instead of spending eons detached from the conversation while I thumb through all the dog eared pages of my text.
In short, faculty at colleges need to get over the computer thing, stop being so offended by reality, and think of new ways to fix the problems that technology obviously highlights, like their uncreative, tired teaching styles. Technology is an invaluable part of the learning experience, as long as there IS any learning experience to be had in the first place. Professors need to reinvent the way they do things to make their lessons more engaging. Just because they’ve been doing something the same way for FOREVER, that doesn’t make it good, or even effective. Sure, the material can only be so interesting, but the sky is the limit as far as the delivery goes. Everyone’s having to reinvent nearly everything they do to keep up with the changes in the world, so why shouldn’t professors?
The more they resist the evolution of the world and its expanding incorporated technology, the more they contribute to their obsolescence. By failing to model moderated, balanced lifestyles that incorporate a healthy use of technology, and by failing to give the students the chance to make mistakes and learn how to be independent by banning technology, professors fail to do their jobs.
~Jacoby
GUERRILLA ELITES 