Three Professors’ Fight Against Tech in the Classroom
It is difficult to imagine navigating university without a laptop. Most classes at Stern have integrated technology into the classroom, and they require students to use personal computers to access e-reserves, submit assignments or use various online platforms related to the subject matter. However, after making use of digital tools for years, several Stern College professors are switching back to pen and paper, and have disallowed laptops in their classrooms, often to students’ disappointment, but ultimately for their own good.
The Commentator interviewed three professors: Professor Jill Katz of the sociology department, Professor Seamus O’Malley of the English department and Professor Alan Broder of the computer science department, who banned laptops in his Data Structures course. Of the three, O’Malley has the longest standing policy of three years, while Katz and Broder both instituted their policies within the last two semesters. All say they are satisfied with the results and have no intention of discontinuing their policies.
Both Broder and O’Malley likened the laptop ban to their already extant rule against using cellphones in the classroom. Many professors in Stern have a no cellphone policy, and banning laptops is a natural extension of that policy.
“Public schools across the country are slowly banning phones in class, or even in school, because of the attenuation of attention spans that it causes,” O’Malley told The Commentator. “I just see my policy as part of that same wave.”
Broder cited research that states that even the “presence of a cell phone, face down on a desk, diminishes cognitive capacity.” In order to ensure that students learn computer science to the best of their ability, cellphones are absolutely forbidden in all of his classes.
All three professors cited distraction as the primary reason for their policy to ban laptops. Without laptops, students are forced — or free — to engage solely with the contents of the lecture. Notably, each professor described the experience of teaching to students with laptops as “competing with” whatever students may be doing behind their screens. Broder told The Commentator, “No matter how engaging my lecture is — and I do try to keep things interesting — the internet is inherently more compelling.” Professors Katz and O’Malley made comments along similar lines. Teaching with laptops in the classroom can be difficult and frustrating because the already difficult task of engaging students becomes nearly impossible.
With students focused, the whole classroom environment becomes more conducive to learning, and so the lack of distraction benefits even students who did not multitask on their computers. O’Malley’s final straw before instituting the ban was one distracted student’s wide smile during a particularly tragic discussion. This was just one strong example of a phenomena he noticed over and over: “When students are visibly disengaged from a course … it lowers the overall intellectual temper in the room.” Broder cited research to make a similar point: per a study, students who do not multitask on their laptops, but sit near students who do and can see what’s going on on their screens, have poorer comprehension of lectures and perform worse on exams. Moreover, taking notes in longhand allows for better processing than typing on a computer. Therefore, the ban on laptops betters the learning experience for all students.
When asked whether they noticed any change in students’ participation, all of the professors answered in the affirmative, to varying degrees. Katz was most emphatic: she told The Commentator, “[i]t is between night and day. The students are much more engaged in the classroom. Their performance on tests has improved markedly, and their participation has improved. Learning is an immersive experience. It is nearly impossible to have that experience when you are constantly being interrupted.”
Katz was also the teacher least willing to reintroduce laptops into her classroom for any reason. In contrast, O’Malley told The Commentator that he sees the benefit of having a laptop in class, but he would only consider reintroducing laptops into the classroom if he could block internet access because “it’s not worth the tradeoff.” Broder teaches most of his classes with laptops in the room, and even in Data Structures he instructs students to use their laptops for internet polls. He, too, spoke about the cost-benefit analysis of using laptops. He distinguished between courses “where it makes sense” to ban laptops and courses where laptops are necessary. In Introduction to Computer Science, for example, the benefit of coding along during the lecture outweighs the cost of potential distractions, but even so he stresses the importance of not multitasking to his students.
While O’Malley did note that he receives pushback about his policy toward the beginning of every semester, the other professors indicated that student feedback regarding the laptop ban has in general been positive. Said Katz, “The students seem to appreciate the distraction-free learning experience. I think they are aware that using computers during class has hurt their educational experience more than they realized.”
Moving forward, each professor plans to continue with the laptop-free classroom policy. When asked whether other professors should consider banning laptops, too, Katz and Broder answered, “Absolutely.” Broder encouraged professors not to “simply accept the status quo” but to “critically evaluate whether open laptops provide specific learning benefits that outweigh the inevitable distractions and reduced intellectual capacity caused by their use.”
O’Malley was more hesitant to reject laptops in college classrooms completely, differentiating between classes that are primarily discussion-based and classes that are primarily lecture based. However, in the absence of a specific benefit, he does not see the appeal of using new innovations like laptops. In an apt comparison, he told The Commentator, “I remember when I was ten and we got our first microwave. It came with a big fat cookbook and promised to replace our conventional oven. Forty years later, no one makes Thanksgiving dinner in their microwave.”
In most courses, laptops in place of old-school methods do not provide a specific additional benefit, even if students can make use of them. Therefore, the benefit of using laptops may not outweigh the significant costs, and students may find it is worth refraining from laptop use even in classes without an explicit ban.
College education is a privilege, and ideally, it should take place in an environment in which students are thinking and focused. If not using laptops allows students to think and focus, they should at least consider minimizing laptop use when it does not provide a specific benefit.
Photo Caption: Austrian classroom in 1935
Photo Credit: Austrian National Library / Unsplash
