Should Electronics Be Banned From Classrooms?

For what you pay the full lecture should be available on thumb drives handed out to the students...and listened to repeatedly until the student feels satisfied that full comprehension has taken place...This is a distracting world we live in, and when I'm paying, I want things my way....

My own experience was that taking notes was a distraction, and I was more successful devoting full attention to what the professor was saying. (I guess I must have a one-track mind.) But I can't believe it's not distracting for most people, that they don't miss the next point while writing down the last one.

I would not say only having a lecture on thumb drive would be sufficient. The advantage of having a live instructor is that it allows 2-way interaction with the students -- students can ask questions and the instructor can vary his presentation to more efficiently communicate with the students.

So, having a video of the lecture as back up in lieu of taking notes sounds like the ideal solution.

Agreed....and I would add a support group for that class on line, which probably already exists, to assist students in learning, with the professor making periodic visits to mitigate any ambivalence...

The answer should take into consideration what kind of class. If my aged brain is remembering correctly, I took very different notes in science and math classes than in languages and social science. Science classes all had recitation and/or lab sections where I could ask questions. In other classes, the need to take notes depended in part on the teacher -- quality and organization of lectures, clarity of expectations, that kind of thing. Study groups were helpful because everyone had somewhat different notes, depending on their estimation of importance.

And I know for a fact that I remember stuff better if I write it down longhand. Maybe my old fogey brain is wired differently.

Not exactly a direct answer to the question, but related: my elementary-age children's school issues each student a Chromebook for home/school use in sixth grade. Every parent I've talked to spends all year freaking out about whether their twelve-year-old is responsible enough to maintain a school computer and transport it to and from school. The short answer is usually no.

Well I think a large part of education is teaching children all about the feeding and care of computers and how to navigate online...The occasional cost of replacement just comes with the territory, that's why you start with something cheap(haha)...I think use under supervision should start early and progress to full autonomy over a course of years....

My freshman student carries a school issued laptop back and fourth every day. It will be in the same condition when he returns it as it was when he got it. He is already planning for college.

My 7th grader uses a laptop at school, in English class, where it's quiet and dark. He is excelling in English and composition, finally, because of it.

I do agree that sixth graders are not ready for the responsibility. But, don't stress out over it.

Better accept the change, cause we can't go back.

When I went, the professor lectured in an auditorium. Some were remoted to TV's through out the campus. I never saw two professors, let alone to ask them anything. They were too busy changing the chapters in their required text books so you couldn't sell your old book. (UT Knox 60's). You wrote the questions and asked a student assistant in a typical classroom setting scheduled sometime after the lecture. Must agree with @SolarEagle

The issue I see is plagiarism, and penmanship is a lost art

Oh my goodness, when I read your first sentence I thought "That sounds like UTK when I was there (1968-1972)." I remember people changing the channel on the TVs in an intro psych class so we could all watch that guy who taught geography. Can't remember his name but he was a much more interesting lecturer than the psych guy, who grew bananas as a hobby. Also happened in physics.

Do you have a degree in engineering from UT?

No, I left after two years. Money issues. Knew several engineering types. One was a genius, started in '65 at age 16. Can't remember his name.

In a seminary environment, I used a laptop to take class notes that would be printed and shared immediately after class with about 5 students whose first language was NOT English. I included in those notes an occasional explanation in my own words of some phrase or humor that was cultural to the US, so they could understand more. All those students were taking their own notes also, but every one found the printed notes I gave them to be critical to their work.

I guess that the process of the occasional interpretation and the knowledge that others depended on my notes encouraged me to think and not just to mindlessly type. The speed of typing compared to writing definitely made the notes more complete and useful.

--JMM

The process of thinking about what you're writing -- whether how to summarize a thought or, in your case, listening through the ears of non-native speakers of English -- - really helps memory. Maybe it's also the writing down, but the thinking comes first.

I dislike blanket edicts in education. I am not surprised that those students who just take dictation and never study their dictation notes do poorly in class. I also hated how some professors would blaze through a topic faster than my pencil and brain could capture a lesson.

The class that stunned me for note taking was an analog filter design class. The professor virtually banned taking class notes. Instead, he handed us our notes at the beginning of every lecture. He then flew through the network analysis and derivation of the final results we had in our hands. To this day I can derive the transfer function of an active gyrator circuit.

Yes I think learning is a two step process, comprehension and memorization...nothing I think helps more with memorization than doing several examples, putting the concept into actual use...and nothing helps more with comprehension than asking questions for clarification, and understanding the answers...