How Students Are 'Evolving' With Technology

Scott Jaschik writes "A new study explores how "digital natives" (today's college students) have changing technology habits — and how those habits have infiltrated the classroom. What does that mean for professors and their teaching methods?"

Re:Note taking

[jimstapleton]

If I wrote down notes, I tended to miss parts of the lecture, usually important stuff.

I didn't have that problem with the notebook.

Re:Note taking

[jhutch2000]

The biggest problem I saw was that the tap-tap of typing is extremely annoying, especially in smaller class sizes (granted in a huge lecture hall, the general noise of the room drowned it out).

Re:Change along with technology required to be hea

[CastrTroy]

That's not always true. I've seen a lot of professors who were able to capture the students' attention, and actually have them learn the material quite well, with only a blackboard and a piece of chalk. I've also seen a lot of professors with all this tricked out technology and completely fail at teaching, either by not getting the students interested, or completing failing at getting the point of the lecture across. So, while technology can help, especially if the professor understands it, I would say that the majority of professors who are bad, can't be helped by just throwing more technology at the problem. And professors who are already good, don't need high tech gadgets to teach.

The real advantage IMO

[The Living Fractal]

See, technology does has its advantages. Let's talk learning here. To me, when I was in school, there were two types of lectures, two types of classes, two types of professors/teachers. I could usually tell right away which type a particular class would be, and that would set the stage for me and eventually my final grade.

The two types:
- Rote memorization
- Conceptual learning

Back before google was a verb I couldn't just 'google' my question and get the answer within seconds. It was advantageous to use some of my (maybe a lot of it) on simple rote memorization.

But now, with so much information literally at my fingertips, I see no reason to fill as much of my memory up with the rote knowledge and facts. I feel that I am better served by learning the art of skepticism, philosophy, conceptualization, and the general techniques used to analyze, logically, the goings-on in my daily life.

I think that in today's schools, if they choose to embrace technology in this way, you will see that in this sense this is advantageous over not having the technology at all.

Re:AntiSocial society

[pthor1231]

What were you doing being social in the library? I thought the whole point of them was to actually get away from distractions and be able to concentrate? In all seriousness though, just because someone isn't being social the exact same way you were doesn't necessarily make them anti social people. I honestly would never go to a laundromat to meet someone, partially because I never had the need to, but also because I just don't think thats a great way to meet someone I would have a lot in common with. So what if someone wants to have a get together of friends and play some games rather than going and tossing the disc in the park. Of course, you always have the people who take it to an extreme on either end. Don't let them be the base of your judgments.

Re:Note taking

[hedwards]

Perhaps, but why should other students in your classes suffer? Laptops in the classroom are just obnoxious if the people with them are doing anything more than keeping up with powerpoint slides, and even that isn't the most useful as the cost of a proper projector has come down in price quite a bit over the last number of years.

It does seem to me that using a computer really isn't a replacement for learning to write legibly. I can guarantee you that there isn't going to be an innovation in the near future which will make handwriting completely obsolete in most cases. With the exception of people with dyslexia or some other cognitive impairment, the ability to write legibly is something which comes with understanding the material.

I've spent quite a bit of time working with students that have various impairments running from aspergers to dyslexia to severe anxiety, and it really does a lot of damage to people that might have a fair shot at achieving things in class if they can't write in a legible way. Laptops, or any computer for that matter, cannot replace the work that writing things out requires. Sure they can be very helpful in the learning process, but they still cannot be as efficient as doing things in a handwritten form.

Re:Note taking

[Otter]

It's no doubt due to my Ivy League education, but I have no idea why that's obvious. Am I supposed to be a particularly good typist (false) or have particularly poor handwriting (true)?

mixed feelings

[Anne Honime]

Having spent a lot of time in the education system, both in front and behind the desk, I have mixed feelings about all this IT craze. When I was a pupil back in the 80's, I had to brew my own text processor (cp/m computer, wordprocessor still to be invented...). Wonderful experience, I typed back home my (terrible) handwritten notes. I still don't think it helped me a bit learning my lessons, but it taught me about computers when it was still quite new and shinny. Coolness factor at the time, about zero. Being a nerd wasn't hype then.

Reel forward : 20 years later, I'm teaching criminal law. Still a nerd, but mainly as a hobbyist. Still produce most of my work on computers, likes wikipedia (but know it's not a source of scholarly value), use fluently most parts of internet. Students in front of me are wired as much as they can lift. After letting them do as they please (we're at university, they should be grown up, FFS), I have to step in and forbid recording devices in my class room, read the riot act (throwing the lowest possible marks as if shot in burst with a M16) at those stupid enough to forget I too can google parts of their dissertation to find the true author, etc. Now, I don't even provide a powerpoint during the course, they f*ckin' have to listen to me and write things down with a pencil. If they don't like that, my door is always open and works both ways.

Finally, my feeling is IT is very good for homework, library work, and anything research-related. But it's the worst ennemy of the student willing to truly learn. I know many will swear that it's helping them, but that's self delusion. I too had a friend before internet who used to swear sticking colored stars next to chapters heads was helping him. It failed. he should have read the actual contents instead of fuzzing around. So have done successful students for past centuries, so will they for centuries to come.

Nothing replace hard personnal work. But there is still a place for IT : it's a considerable step forward for anonymity of dissertations, and it avoids students having low marks for the sole reason the teacher can't decipher them because they have a bad writing.

Re:AntiSocial society

[kebes]

Actually I see some technological trends in the opposite direction. Sites like Facebook enable people to be connected to each other more quickly and pervasively than ever before. Organizing events is easier. Photos from parties get posted and commented on within hours of the party ending! Keeping in touch with old friends is now so much easier than it used to be. I actually think that this increases socialization for many people. In particular, those on the "more awkward" end of the normal distribution (e.g. "geeks" and "nerds") now have an easier time of becoming socially connected (both online and offline). Sometimes it can actually be a bad thing, of course--people are spending time socializing online (and planning more offline social activities), which can disrupt other pursuits (e.g. learning!).

With regard to the library... I've never thought of the library as a social-hub. In general, for every hour that is saved by using a more efficient online resource, instead of walking to the library, that's an hour that can be spent doing something else (e.g. learning something new or hanging out with friends).

So, I'm not at all convinced that this technology is making people anti-social. For every anti-social anecdote I've seen, I've also seen instances where the technology is drawing people closer together, and helping forge friendships. Humans are social animals. Technology can't change that--if anything, it reinforces it.

Re:AntiSocial society

[speaker of the truth]

By your own examples the technology isn't causing people to become antisocial. Its simply changing where the socialization happens. Those that are uncomfortable with change will of course have a wide range of reactions including mild discomfort and proclaiming all new technology to be the work of the devil.

Who says you evolve with technology?

[jollyreaper]

I can point to several religious websites that will refute that very notion. I'm not sure if I find it ironic, tragic, or maddening that religionists will use the latest in multimedia technology, the product of the scientific method and research, to spread their anti-intellectual and anti-science message. And they would certainly take great umbrage at the use of the word "evolution" to describe the changes in their evangelism strategy. We're talking about using satellite and internet communications to promulgate the tribal superstitions of poor, ignorant goat-herders. Ugh! If we were still listening to you guys, you wouldn't have satellites and TV! You wouldn't even have PA systems!

Oh, well. At least the Muslims have been known to use the technology to party [youtube.com]. I've heard of sucka MC's but never mullah MC's.

Re:Sure... digital is cool but...

[jollyreaper]

but I do believe that in my generation (college) people still generally prefer to have a non-digital medium for actual learning. I've rarely run into anyone who would rather read a digital textbook then have some sort of physical document/book in their hands.

It all boils down to what you're used to and what makes you feel comfortable. I love reading books on a palm device. I can curl up in bed and it's every bit as nice as having a physical book. I've been doing some computer certs and the books for the subject weigh about 50lbs in total and would never fit in my laptop bag but the books DO come with CD's, complete with pdf's! I can bring the whole kit and kaboodle to class and have it running on my laptop sitting right beside my workstation. Bright, legible screen, full text search functionality, I love it. I can also have ten different books open for cross-referencing. If I were using paper books like the rest of the class, I'd barely have enough room to keep one open.

It's one of those things that boils down to the question of "what works for you?" The problem with modern education is that they often say "to hell with the individual; what's the most effective way of cranking the students through?" Lecture-style learning in large classes, pointless multiple choice exams, etc. If they decide that laptops and ebooks are more efficient, that's what they'll mandate. If they decide it has to be paper books, they'll mandate that instead. But it seems like there's no flexibility for any give and take, it's just whatever they decide to railroad through and fuck you if you see things differently.

Re:Note taking

[Anonymous Coward]

I would have thought it's more because humanities lectures are more likely to just be the lecturer talking about something as opposed to say an engineering type lecture where there are more likely to be diagrams and the like.

Re:Change along with technology required to be hea

[ceoyoyo]

I've found that if a lecturer isn't very good he's going to get worse if you give him Powerpoint.

Re:What a superb article

[Your.Master]

Just because Evolution with a capital E often refers to the modern theory descended from Darwin's theory of natural selection and descent through modification, doesn't mean that evolution stopped being a perfectly legitimate term in unrelated scientific and lay contexts.

There's nothing wrong here except for the fact that the article uses scare quotes around "evolution" where they are really unnecessary.

Re:Note taking

[hedwards]

Sigh, it isn't my opinion, it is a long standing tradition in the academic world that people not make unnecessary noises during a class period. It is a distracting and rude thing to do. It really isn't any different than talking in class or popping bubble gum.

The decision to ban extra noise from classrooms isn't based upon what the least distracted people think, it based upon what the more easily distracted people think. If laptops were a genuine necessity, then there would be an argument that these people are being unreasonable, but laptops don't confer a unique benefit for the majority of the users, they can and should be kept out of the classroom.

I do take issue with your assertion that handwritten notes and letters are already obsolete. That lacks a certain degree of awareness of why one writes in the first place. One doesn't write because there aren't any other ways of communicating, one writes it out because you can be guaranteed of being able to do it anywhere that you can get a writing implement and something to write on. One also doesn't need to have electricity to show others what was written. For millenia there have been cultures that don't write at all, they just had to memorize the information. Handwriting is still the best way of learning to organize thoughts that one is trying to communicate to others. I guarantee that a computer can't do that now.

And PS thanks for highlighting the fact that it isn't just young people that are getting less and less polite as time goes on.

Novelty effect

[edittard]

Maybe if he stops using it it will go up even more [wikipedia.org].

Only if you can prove students actually benefit

[fantomas]

The killer sentence is in the second paragraph

"Most students (60.9 percent) believe it improves their learning."

Most students also believe drinking 10 pints of beer and farting loudly is really funny and will improve their chances of getting laid....

What the students believe and what is actually true may be two completely different things. I should imagine most professors will turn round and ask to see proof that the technology really does improve student learning before adopting a different teaching methodology.

(disclaimer: I'm a university researcher working in technology and education)