Lecture Hall Back-Channeling 297
emmastory writes "The New York Times is running a story on the phenomenon of lecture hall back-channeling - now that many conferences and universities have wireless access, some people discuss lectures via instant message or weblog as they happen. Although the article quotes an instructor at NYU, I haven't seen much of this in lectures I've attended there. I would guess it varies from department to department, but laptops aren't yet as common in classes as one might think. Either way, some people consider the practice rude, others consider it progress, and good arguments can be made on either side."
Somebody get to work (Score:5, Interesting)
Heck, someone should develop a wireless
Distracting (Score:5, Insightful)
And really, like people are only going to chat about the lecture. Everybody I knew with a laptop in class was playing Quake.
Re:Distracting - The age-old question ... (Score:2, Insightful)
Clickety-click-click-click-tap-tappety-click-ta
The best lecturers will factor time into their lectures for questions and interruptions on difficult points or particularly relevant tangents. Lectures are intended not only to impart knowledge but to solicit interaction from the class, engender debate, encourage learning from peers and to allow interaction with the material.
Re:Distracting - The age-old question ... (Score:5, Funny)
If implimented correctly, all that clickety-tatp-tap-tappety could be no more distracting then the sound of pens scratching across the paper and calculator buttons being jammed to the contact pad.
I still can't shake the image I have of the first laptop I saw in a class... The guy was looking at porno on the second row of a C programming class on his new dell. After a little while, and due to several laughs from those behind him, the professor came over and walked up behind him.
After that, the embarresd student was given the task of being the note monkey at the front of the class for the slides. The proff never let him live it down. I don't think that kid will ever look at porno again without remembering the look on the professors face.
No, the kid was not me...
Re:No, the kid was not me... (Score:3, Funny)
>fell asleep - head leaning on hands - and awoke when his head slipped
>out of his hands. The sound of this collapse drew the attention of
>almost all - in particular of the lecturer who commented humourously
>upon the occurrence
Wow, your profs are pretty good-natured.
A buddy of mine (Jimbo) fell asleep during a lecture, sitting right next to a window. When the prof noticed, he got pissed. Since he had a piece of chalk in h
Re:No, the kid was not me... (Score:3, Insightful)
The best response was: "Either you make your lecture more interesting, or you run out of chalk. Either way, I win."
=Smidge=
Re:Distracting - The age-old question ... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Not a big deal (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, this class isn't mandatory attendance, but I want to hear the lecture. Not all of the 3 hour lecture, but being in the class Mudding is an occupation that allows me just enough leeway that when the professor comes to a subject that I don't already know, or would like clarification on, I can ask about it.
This is a suprisingly good idea, since the material that is being presented at _________(college name left blank so as not to offend) is not really
Re:Somebody get to work (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Somebody get to work (Score:5, Insightful)
Professors are not perfect people and what seems like totally obvious common sense to them may not come so easily to those who are learning it the first time.
Even if you listen intently, you won't understand everything all the time. This is why gaining a quick consensus on what was least understood while the professor is discussing it is important.
"If you want to discuss the lecture with people, wait until after it is finished"
If you wait until after the lecture, everything after the point where you did not understand will be gibberish in your brain. Then you have to find out about that one tiny thing, then you have to go back over the rest of the lecture to deduce what it means when the professor is not there. If you don't get to this by the start next lecture, then you'll be lost for that class too.
Re:Somebody get to work (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah...that's why I took notes in class. It's not that hard to just write down what somebody's saying, even if you don't understand it. I would put *'s in the section where I got lost, transcribe the rest of the lecture, then in post-processing with my study pals, would get over the hurdle, and voila my notes made sense. In fact, I would go so far as to say that getting lost and
Re:Somebody get to work (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Somebody get to work (Score:2, Insightful)
Have a teacher have an anonymous question drop box that he can look over and address a few of them the next lecture or at the end of the lecture.
Gadgets in lectures will only distract you.
Re:Somebody get to work (Score:5, Insightful)
One thing that is important to remember is that most knowledge builds off of preexisting knowledge. If you fail to understand something early in the lesson, you could end up missing large amounts of material as the lesson progresses. That is why it is so bad when the student has to go back to the teacher afterwords to get a clarification on something taught earlier in the day. By the time they get the help they need, they're going to redo half of the lesson to catch up. Most professors and TAs don't have enough time to reteach entire lessons to the dozen students who didn't get it the first time.
The usual solution is for the student to ask the teacher to stop and clarify, but that is a tremendous time sink for someone who only has three hours a week to impart his knowledge. Once a class size becomes large enough, this solution becomes completely unworkable, and some students are left out in the cold. If used in moderation, these backchannels would be a great boon to most classes. IMHO
Re:Somebody get to work (Score:4, Insightful)
I took a class a few quarters ago when this project first got started. Students could log into discussions about the lecture they were attending and post questions and answer others' posts. Other students could vote for posted questions so the professor would know which were most relevant. Information (and screenshots) for this can be found here [ucsd.edu].
My experience with this was not very positive. For the most part, the professor would halt his lectures every few minutes to check out what the students were concerned with. It seemed more a hindrance than a tool. Maybe if a TA was assigned to attend lectures and monitor the online discussions so the professor didn't have to, the system would work out better. Also, perhaps because it was new at the time and perhaps becuase it was a CS class, the questions students posted gradually declined into flames and/or trolls.
Its an interesting concept, but I don't know if colleges are ready for it.
Google link (no reg) (Score:5, Informative)
PowerPoint (Score:3, Funny)
Let's see, there is another use for these laptops: blue screen the speaker's Windows box, or better, change its desktop background to somethin, uhmmm, more interesting. Should teach him to use Powerpoint!
Also useful if the speaker accidentally types passwords in the wrong field (visible) during a demo: now you can make use of these passwords during the lecture, before the speaker has a change to c
Re:Google link (no reg) (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Google link (no reg) (Score:2)
Try 'partner=slashdot' or 'partner=registrationsucks' and it will work just as well....
Jeroen
Our school won't install WiFi... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Our school won't install WiFi... (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm reading this to say that WiFi would enable you to pass answers to each other using laptops, so I'm assuming that some of you have laptops during tests or some other evaluated part of the education. In that case, has the school considered the possibility of students using laptops with buildt in WiFi in ad-hoc mode? And what would they do about it (assuming that the students are n
Wow - studenst discuss what's happening in class.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wow - studenst discuss what's happening in clas (Score:4, Informative)
If you really need access to the Internet in class, a single ethernet-WiFi bridge should connect anyone in the classroom if both a ethernet and power jack are close enough or in the room.
-Rusty
Discussing the *lecture*? (Score:5, Interesting)
*lecture*? (Score:5, Interesting)
I've heard some fairly good arguments to suggest that the lecture itself is a mediaeval form of presenting information and is now out of date as a way of transforming knowledge. What do students gain by sitting listening to the great master spout his wisdom?
Several lecturers I know have moved to providing their "lecture" online (e.g. hypertext document) and use the allocated lecture time for a follow up workshop, requiring the students to have already read and considered the "lecture" and to come along with some sort of academic response. Seems a far more effective use of teaching time to me, far more likely to be of value to students.
Tutorials in the Humanities (Score:4, Interesting)
That's been part of the teaching style of the humanities for a long time now: go read this paper or book by some smart dead dude (readings), then I'll tell you what I think about it (lecture), then we can discuss (tutorial).
It's pretty obvious that a lecture can be converted to a meta-reading and put online, but the big question right now is whether tutorials can also be as effective online. Of course, never underestimate a university student's desire to be passive: many would rather snooze through a two-hour lecture than spend that time reading. And tutorials at anything below an advanced level are pretty dismal, at least at my alma matter: two students team up with the professor to mock the one student who will actually voice a minority opinion, while the rest snooze.
If the Internet can fix any of this, I'm all for it.
Re: *lecture*? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: *lecture*? (Score:2, Interesting)
Our whole education process/system is antiquated (Score:2, Interesting)
So
Re:*lecture*? (Score:2, Interesting)
what do students gain by listening to a lecture? they gain reinforcement of the crap they're going to be tested on. learning works best by seeing, hearing and doing. read the chapters, listen to the lectures, and do the lab work. it's amzaing how easy it is to pull off A's when that formula is followed.
Re:*lecture*? (Score:4, Interesting)
Agreed. I took a chemistry course like this several years ago. This course had reputation for being extremely difficult and you heard scary stories about it around the lunchroom table. The people who actually did the work before the lecture (including myself) did reasonably well (70-90%, and 80+ was a flippin' good mark for that class.) The people who fell behind on the readings were in a pit too deep to possibly climb out. They dropped, failed or barely squeaked by.
Of all the courses I have ever taken for anything, I think this chem one was the one where I learned the most. I liked the format because it really causes the information to stick in your head. Also, it weeds out the people who are not committed and really forces everyone else to actually learn. Four years later I was helping my brother learn the same stuff and I could correct or guide him on the material from memory because I remembered it.
Re:*lecture*? (Score:2)
For example, I am not the greatest person at Stat Mech. If there wasn't a teacher up there, I'd probably never learn it. I can read and re-read a Stat Mech book and absorb about 10%. Lecture it to me, and I suddenly learn.
Naturally, discussion is infeasible (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course that was undergrad at a Historically Black College (HBCU). I went to grad school at a regular American University. They are very different. The teachers don't provide nearly a
Re:Discussing the *lecture*? (Score:2)
> conversation -- but none of it really pertains to
> the lecture. Most students who do this are too
> busy doing personal browsing and conversing to
> pay attention to the lecture.
[Yoda]That is why you fail
Speaking from the lecturer's side of the fence here - I used to find it annoying that some students weren't paying attention to the lecture. These days, as long as they're *quiet* and not annoying someone who *is* paying attention, I figur
Re:Discussing the *lecture*? (Score:2)
Some lectures are valuable... Kurt Vonnegut spoke at Michigan State once and That man can captivate the entire class for hours, while the english lit professor was able to put insomniacs to sleep within minutes of opening his mouth.
The problem is not what student
Re:Discussing the *lecture*? (Score:3, Interesting)
While I saw and was part of some of the type of on-topic conversing going on back then, it wasn't a large part of the usage of the laptops. Aside from where they were explicitly used as part of the lecture, I used mine for about 1/2 on and 1/2 off topic.
For instance, during math
Re:Discussing the *lecture*? (Score:2)
Most students who do this are too busy doing personal browsing and conversing to pay attention to the lecture.
Here's an idea: Wireless packet sniffer; I heard of one that let you see the images people around you were downloading. Sniffing conversations shouldn't be too hard.
The program could draw attention to people browsing / chatting, and they could be told off -'Mr jones, if you want to browse porn, do it in your dorm room'. Or all in-lecture conversations could be published on the lecture's web
weblog? what? (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course it's rude! (Score:2, Insightful)
I had an instructor once who was fond of saying "This isn't like TV, I can see you guys too!".
Hope they dont get that at my university... (Score:5, Funny)
It's already enough I have to put up with that strange guy at the front talking loudly about stuff... sheesh.
Meeting Back Channel (Score:5, Interesting)
Rude? Probably... but anything on the IM back channel was in our heads anyway, so perhaps it's just good therapy :-)
Passing notes? (Score:5, Funny)
[annoying IM noise]
"Are you passing notes, Mr. Smith? Forward that to me so I can read it out loud to the class... hmmm... a slash s slash l slash pick wan two cyber? What is this crap?"
Re:Passing notes? (Score:2)
In a *crowded lecture hall*? Dear God, I don't think even OU is there...
Hydra and Conference Sessions (Score:4, Interesting)
The process was quite interesting and helpful for me since it allowed me to interact with other participants and gain new perspectives on the session topic.
I could see how a lecturer might not appreciate Hydra, blogging or anything else like it since it could basically be a way to silently pass notes, chat, and otherwise not pay attention to the lecture. But, there isn't much the lecturer can really do other than making it important to listen and pay attention.
Doesn't sound like a great idea (Score:2)
And that's a good thing? Don't students have a hard enough time paying attention to lectures? I was a student once; I know!
Re:Doesn't sound like a great idea (Score:5, Interesting)
"And that's a good thing? Don't students have a hard enough time paying attention to lectures? I was a student once; I know!"
I've certainly known it happen at many conferences. People will often look up the website of the speaker, try out their tools, look up their papers while they are speaking. A very good thing.
Of course others do spend lots of time checking their email, or doing other work. But this is the nature of the beast. At many conferences most delegates are not interested in all the talks, but you often do not know whether you are or not, till a couple of minutes in. So now the choice is between listening to something you are not interested in, or email. A improvement from when you could listen, or fall asleep....
Phil
Re:Doesn't sound like a great idea (Score:2, Insightful)
Giving students too much credit (Score:5, Funny)
Come on!
Has it been THAT long since you've been in school?!
Here's a typical back-channel discussion:
"Heh heh the professor said BUTT"
"No, he said BUT, moron"
"Check out the rack on the girl in the third row on the right"
"Sweeeeeet"
"Yo, that guy with the stupid hair fell asleep. HAHAHA look he's drooling on his desk!"
"HAHAH! Thats awesome! Hey is anybody on this channel near that guy? Throw something at him"
"Yeah I'm behind him. Watch this."
"HAHAHA"
"Hee Hee Hee Hee"
"Score!"
"Yeah! ROTFL!!!"
depends on your major (Score:3)
I don't know how it is these days, but back when I was in the pipeline, half of all qualified med school applicants just plain didn't get in. The fierce competition really turned some people into boneheads.
A typical in-lecture chat (Score:4, Funny)
Laptops in lectures (Score:2)
I've seen people IM'ing while in class.. but I've also seen people watch movies or play games in class. There are many classes people go to because we might have a pop-quiz or something along those lines, and the only way to stay away is find anything to do besides listen to the instructor.
I'd
Potentially valuable (Score:2, Informative)
If one could set up a system whereby an ongoing dialouge relating to the lecture is occuring so as to ask those stupid questions that are of limited value and to increase the overall
I can imagine it now (Score:3, Funny)
Wikkid84: asl?
37337: Dudes, my warez server is up, some and get some pr0n!
Re:I can imagine it now (Score:2, Funny)
Who would use their zipcode as a handle?
Yes that was a lame joke.
-1, retarded.
University must be too easy (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe it's a matter of course material. I don't honestly thing that University is getting any easier--probably the opposite in fact--but laptops and wireless might be leading the charge away from frantically taking page after page of notes with a cramped hand, while trying to absorb the information at the same time. If so, it's probably a Good Thing. (Of course, some fields are harder to move to the computer. Writing out the formulae in phys. chem. and quantum mechanics strikes me as still a pen-and-paper exercise)
sounds like a great idea! (Score:2, Interesting)
Also, it would be great to get WebEx or Netmeeting or something like that working with it too to provide interactive whiteboard/diagram support. Perhaps even interacting with Smart whiteboards like are installed at my University, perhaps the whiteboard could be input realtime to each of the laptop clients
Best of Both Worlds (Score:5, Funny)
And there are some people who consider progress in general to be rude.
Re:Best of Both Worlds (Score:3)
stop him! (Score:3, Funny)
Back-channeling Shirley MacLaine (Score:5, Funny)
I'm all for IM in class (Score:3, Funny)
*frantically raises hand*
Yes! Yes! I think it is a great idea. I'm all for IM in class. It is probably one of the few reasons I stay awake through class. The only persistent problem is the professor's droning voice which keeps distracting me from my engaging conversation with Blondebomb25 and Super_gal22.
What it means... (Score:2)
Certainly, there are some people who will just abuse the ability for the purpose of joking around and waste time, but I know that I would personally use the same idea in so
Re:What it means... (Score:5, Informative)
I'm a teacher, and I think you're exactly right about what this says about openness to questions. A couple of things you notice as a teacher:
I can also see how the appropriateness of this kind of thing could depend on the situation:
Interesting.. (Score:2)
Plus you can go surf /. if you get bored off your ass (read: pure teaching from the book). =p
MUD Xperience (Score:5, Interesting)
Since we were spread out across several floors & buildings, we had a telnet chat server running, basically doing IM functionality.
We got into the habit of holding tech-only meetings via this server, with following benefits:
- Less waffle, it's harder to digress on a keyboard
- People actually thinking before "saying" something
- Instant meeting minutes (a GREAT bonus)
Unfortunately, this only works if ppl can actually type more than 5 words per minute, hence I don't forsee this reaching the mainstream anytime soon.
Only very few of the managers understood the benefits, the natural assumptions was geeks+network+server = "this can't be work, they must be playing"
did this (Score:3, Interesting)
what would really work . . . (Score:2)
As a full time computer engineering student, I believe that instant messanging would be a terrible thing for the classroom. People would talk about what they will be doing the upcoming weekend, play games, talk abotu other classes, and genereally not pay attention. Only two or three students in a lecture of 120 people usually have a laptop in my electrical/computer engineering class. The real value of IM/email/general internet connectivity comes after class when people need help, need to collaborate, or nee
Re:what would really work . . . (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm all for interaction, but this kind of simple-minded requirement just leads to awkward, stupid, and obvious things being posted by people who either 1) can't think of anything better or 2) were already beaten to the punch in asking a truly insightful question.
Re:what would really work . . . (Score:2)
Laptops In Classrooms (Score:5, Interesting)
Our faculty has in recent years discovered how to pace lectures by listening to the sound of keystrokes in the audience. If it gets too quiet they can talk more quickly, too much keyboard noise and it's time to pause.
Re:Laptops In Classrooms (Score:2)
Hey Eric!
Not just the law school... think about the CSC department and a bunch of others. LOTS of classrooms have hookups.
not like it used to be (Score:5, Funny)
Kids these days...where are their priorities?!
now-a-days... (Score:2)
( and you KNOW I snored through my DiffEq class! It was at 10 am! It didn't help that I was also the ONLY ONE in the front row...)
Thought provoking (Score:2)
Rus
Been There, Done That (Score:5, Interesting)
It seems that in the CS and EE classes that I take, the profs are pretty glad to see students taking an active role in the lectures rather than just sitting and obsorbing information. However in my general requirement classes (sociology, history, blah blah blah) I've found that instructors HATE the concept of deviating from the time-honored teaching methods. Pulling your laptop out in class seems to get the same reaction as if you pulled out an assault rifle.
Re:Been There, Done That (Score:5, Interesting)
He would also call on people in the class to answer questions, and did this by randomly pulling a name from the database of students, and displaying the name in huge letters on the massive projection screen at the front of the lecture hall. Slouching at the back of the room hoping to avoid being spotted and questioned? Completely ineffectual!
Re:Been There, Done That (Score:2)
Change? We fear change...
Heaven forbid they actually have to evolve and innovate. Most of them have been using the same lectures for the past decade. I've dealt with a few who were borderline Luddites, insisting on whipping out Vis'a'Vis markers and an overhead projector in a class of hundreds.
And let's not forget that the books could have been carbon dated.
Nothing really new (Score:2)
As for meaningful discussion via backchannels, I have yet to see it in action. The audience members would have to communicat
This is common in technical meetings (Score:3, Informative)
I think overall that this tends to improve things, however, in a classroom it might be too distracting and I can see Professors banning it.
IM == distraction (Score:5, Insightful)
The result was repeatedly dumb questions being asked. And before you start with that non-sense of "there is no dumb question" let me define it. If I say "X is a Y", then you stop your typing and ask "Is X a Y?" then it is a DUMB question. And there was lots of that while there was IM access. Students would hear something [me] in the backround mention some idea and when they were done typing their after-work bar crawl negociations they'd have an itch to ask a question about that idea.
I resolved to doing two things. I'd often ask other students to answer the question -- hoping to make it obvious that I just went over that. Or I'd disconnect the room from the firewall. Since most IMs aren't P2P this worked fine. The typing stopped. Attention was back on the guy in the front of the room.
Unless the class is huge, I don't see the point of back-channeling as helping the students get questions answered. Most professors hope to hear questions from the students, because the question is a good indicator if the prof has gotten his point across. Wthout that feedback lecture quality deteriorates.
--
For good mental hygiene, shave with Occam's Razor twice daily
Laptops unnecessary (Score:5, Insightful)
Nor should they be. If all you need a laptop for is to take notes, it becomes more of a hindrance than an advantage, especially in lectures on mathematics or lectures with many diagrams. You just can't quickly record mathematical symbols or graphical diagrams with a computer. Classroom use may become more justified when handwriting recognition software matures, but currently there is no good reason to bring a laptop to class.
Good note-taking has nothing to do with the medium on which the note is recorded, and recording everything said in lecture (which may be possible if you type faster than you write) is often not desirable. You need to filter what you hear and discern the important points from a lecture, not record a dictation. A simple notebook and pencil are perfectly sufficient.
Re:Laptops unnecessary (Score:2, Insightful)
One way I've gotten around that is by combining the two. I type my notes in a notebook, and if there is a symbol, I have a pad of paper next to it. I enter a footnote on the computer, and quickly draw the diagram on the pad of paper.
Reason I do that is because I can type faster then I can write.
Re:Laptops unnecessary (Score:2, Interesting)
When i was in a real school, i used to use a combo of notes(paper& pen) and typed. I only used the notes for things i couldnt do in vi, like pics, etc. And since it was a lot of code, it just made sense.
The big reason the computer helped is that i could search through them insted of skimming my aweful handwriting.
I think the tablet would come in useful as you could do those drawings where needed, type where needed, etc. I know there is no handwritin
Re:Laptops unnecessary (Score:2)
RIT IT Wifi Everywhere (Score:5, Interesting)
Our entire building [rit.edu] (three floors, just recently expanded) is covered with 802.11b connectivity. Many of the students, including myself bring laptops to class. Sure, some kids abuse them, and surf or play games during lecture (I've been known to do the former during a very boring Intro to System Administration 1 class [rit.edu]), but there are some excellent uses.
I think the best is checking on something taught in class. More than once in that System Administration [rit.edu] class the teacher has mentioned something, I doubted it, googled for it, and either learned it to be true (there was a use for the sticky bit to keep programs memory resident, but in current linux the sticky bit's purpose has changed), or false (Windows 2K does NOT require NTFS to do software RAID -- you can use FAT just as easily). This is an excellent way to reinforce information being taught. Had I not had my laptop in class I would've gotten sidetracked, forgotten about it, and never learned the truth about these and other things.
In another class I took, Network Administration [rit.edu], the teacher, Bill Stackpole [rit.edu], would often take advantage of those in class with laptops. If he brought up a topic and wasn't sure about something he mentioned, he'd encourage those of us with laptops to research it quickly, and let the class know the correct technical data. If a student would ask him a question in class that he couldn't answer, he'd encourage anyone with a laptop to help out and find the answer. From even those few excellent uses of wireless connectivity in the classroom I feel its been a great addition to the technology classes at RIT. If someone is going to goof off using a laptop, then they are the same person who was going to goof off doodling in their notebook, nothing lost, nothing gained.
I could go on and on about the times the Wifi access has saved my ass in one way or another in the GCCIS building. (and maybe I will later) Come out of the wood-work RIT students -- I know you have more stories!
a point (Score:2)
Laptops in class (Score:3, Funny)
I can remember hearing about one guy who had a laptop computer which he took to every lecture.
This was so unprecedented back then that he was nicknamed "Laptop". We're talking the days before mobile/cell phone proliferation and the days before widespread use of the World Wide Web.
This machine used to "bleep" regularly, royally pissing off some of the lecturers.
One day, it bleeped in the middle of a lecture about Industrial Relations (don't ask) and the lecturer shouted, "If I hear that thing make one more noise I will break it over your head!".
Laptop retired from the course shortly after this incident.
Don't know what happened to the lecturer, but if he's still there, he can't be enjoying life too much in these days of mobile device proliferation. Either that or he's suffered a few apoplectic fits...
Can you have a truly deep conversation... (Score:2)
Silicon Chalk (Score:2, Informative)
I recently met a group of people who are developing an application for just this purpose. It allows for communication throughout the classroom as the lecture is going on. Further, it allows for the instructor to stream his notes to his students as they come on the screen, students can add voice or text annotations to the notes as they see fit, and part of the chat feature allows students to type in questions to the prof while he is lecturing, such that he can read them as they come in and address them wit
The IMing isn't rude. (Score:2, Insightful)
Woohoo.. Time to unveil my Wireless Portal! (Score:2)
Maybe it's time to target the professors. The portal comes with a message board, multiple chat rooms, news, links, gallery, admin, stats, etc...
It's just been a fun little side project that I thought no one would ever want anyhow...
if you have an Opera Browser or WML - WAP Enabled Device
Point it to http://www.mcarterbrown.com/index.wml [mcarterbrown.com] - WaPortal (Wireless Access Portal).
and let me know what you think. I'd like to get s
The Laptop Dilemna (Score:5, Interesting)
I used to use a laptop in class, but found it ultimately more trouble than it was worth. It worked fine for the English elective (waste of time) or the History of Science courses I took, but not for my core Math & Science classes.
Basically, by the time you copy out a diagram or complex formula, it will take you so long (especially if you have to switch to Symbol to make half the characters), that it's simply not worth it.
Now, some profs distribute their lectures in PDFs/Word Documents/HTML files, which makes it much easier, but then many students just download the lecture notes and skip class, which professors tend to hate.
I think a great solution would be for all students to have wireless laptops, and have the prof stream the lecture to students as he goes. That way, there's an incentive to go to class still, and laptops become a worthwile tool.
I'm thinking along the lines of a custom program that feeds one page at a time into a PDF or something.
Alternately, documents with blanks spots to be filled in during the lecture can also work.
Or, finally, something like the Mimio [mimio.com] would also be very cool.
Possible problems... (Score:2, Interesting)
I have had a few different lecturers over the past three and a half years, some I remember fondly, others I remember in pain. I have suffered through hours of lecturers from people who I cannot understand (that was not intended to be racist, and anyone who takes it that way
My writing class sort of did this (Score:3, Funny)
On the plus side, I was able to browse slashdot during lectures. That was cool.
Re:Old fashioned name for this practice: (Score:2)
Re:Old fashioned name for this practice: (Score:2)
No wonder our school system is so great!
Re:Old fashioned name for this practice: (Score:3, Insightful)
Furthermore asking a question aloud that others already know the answer to wastes THEIR time. So simply asking one person about it is much more efficient.
Re:Old fashioned name for this practice: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm a senior at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and class lectures are largely not worth the time. The profs either parrot what we've already read in the text, or they spend their time answering inane questions from students of dubious intelligence. (Whoever said that there's no such thing as a stupid quesiton obviously never attended
Re:Old fashioned name for this practice: (Score:3, Insightful)
Nevermind, you sound like you have everything figured out, so you probably don't need this. But I don't want other (perhaps less talented) students to get the idea that skipping lecture is a good idea.
Here's a quick guide to how to get the most out of lecture:
- Write down everything the instructor says -- even if it is 'wrong'. The prof only takes the time to lecture on what he thinks is important. If he
Re:Old fashioned name for this practice: (Score:2)