Review #10 (finally!)

From the Student’s View: Laptops In (and Outside) the Classroom

Citation:   Bruff, D. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/library/articles-and-essays/the-teaching-forum/from-the-students-view-laptops-in-and-outside-the-classroom/.  Originally published in the Fall 2002 issue of Vanderbilt University's Center for Teaching's newsletter, Teaching Forum.

Review:  The writer interviewed several students at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management and School of Engineering.  At the time this was written, the schools had a new requirement that each incoming student must purchase a laptop computer, and the schools had accordingly equipped buildings that housed these schools with wireless Internet access.  Students were asked how the technologies affected student/faculty interaction, ways that the technology facilitated in-class group work, how laptops assist with out-of-class group work, whether having a laptop helped the students use their time better, and in what ways laptops were helpful in classes that focused on software applications.

Reflection:  If this article were written today, I am sure some of these questions would have had different answers, but although today's Vanderbilt freshmen were starting 3rd grade in the fall of 2002, many of them have not had mandatory laptops in the classroom prior to entering college.  Certainly, some have gone to schools in systems (or individually) that were progressive enough to allow students to use laptops in class, but many have not.  With that in mind, some of these answers might not be all that different now than in 2002.  I chose this particular article because I was on Vanderbilt's Center for Teaching website looking for possible professional development opportunities for myself or potential summer programs for my students.  Although we are at the end of the school year, I like to use this more laid-back time to think about potential enhancements for next year.

I wasn't in college in 2002, so I don't know how many courses were offered completely online at that time, but I would venture to guess that the number was much, much lower than what it is now.  My daughter, currently in her third year at Lipscomb University, has even taken online classes there while living on campus!  Obviously, delivery methods are changing from year to year and it's impossible to know exactly how that will affect education in the future.  I am excited to see that this means a college education is within reach for a lot more people who, for any number of reasons, can not drop everything and enroll in a college many miles from home.  On the other hand, I wonder how many universities will suffer negative impact from this shift.  Will more people lose their jobs?  I hope not - we have enough of that as it is in this country.  Will young people continue to move into dorms and have the "college experience"?  I believe some will.  My own children had the opportunity to live at home and attend a community college or even APSU because we do not live that far from campus, but both have chosen to live on campus because my daughter did not want to "miss out" and I didn't want her on the road all the time, and my son chose a college a little too far away for a daily commute.  However, if I'd been given a full scholarship from the community college nearest my home, I wouldn't have gone to APSU and lived on campus nearly rent free because I didn't really WANT to leave home.  If we'd had the online option back then, that's what I would have done.

Another reason I wanted to read this article was because when I opened it, I saw questions to which I honestly wanted to read student answers.  For example, "In what ways do these technologies facilitate in-class group work?"  I believe what I read was one of the earliest examples of today's "hot new idea" of the flipped classroom.  The professor made his PowerPoint presentations available online, expected the students to read the lectures before class, and assigned the students to develop marketing plans in class.  I believe out-of-class group work is much easier to do now than it was eleven years ago, and they thought it was pretty nice back then!  

I have to say that even though this was the oldest (and probably the shortest!) article I have read for this class and blog, it was actually quite informative and insightful.  I will definitely check out the Center for Teaching's resources more often.  I have curated it on Delicious to have it wherever I want to access it.