As my last post on cold-calling seemed to stir the pot, I’m going to close out the month by trying to do it again. But this time without being a nattering nabob of negativism ($200 in Jeopardy! if you can identify the source of that line – answer below the break). (As to cold-calling as a means of generating participation, by the way, I admire the alternatives suggested
Comments
I want to call attention to the part of your post I liked the most, which really underscores my problem with most of the conversation around laptop bans. Namely, you’re exactly right – the data we have is on populations, not individuals. The data is entirely consistent with the existence of individuals who may perform better *with* laptops than without them, even if the *averages* are higher for non-laptop users.
Generally, when one is being “paternalistic,” one is forcing someone to do something they don’t want to do, but that is actually better for them. Laptop bans aren’t even paternalistic, because they have the effect of forcing at least some proportion of people to do something they don’t want to do and that is actively going to be bad for them. I’m not willing to do that. If part of my job is to correct my students “epistemic deficiencies” (which is such overly academic jargon for “things they don’t know,” IMO), then I’m happy to share with them what the research says so they can reflect on themselves and make their own choices. I’m not willing to decide for them, especially since one of *my* epistemic deficiencies is that I am incapable of knowing what is best for any particular student.
And while I agree this is controversial, and even though it comes up in every post like this and people don’t like to accept it, I still firmly believe that laptop bans are discriminatory against people with disabilities that make it difficult, if not impossible, for them to take notes by hand. Even exceptions to the ban for disabilities calls attention to people in a discriminatory way. I simply can’t see a way around laptop bans furthering discrimination and I can’t forcing already marginalized students to bear the costs associated with whatever potential benefits may or may not exist from implementing a ban. That’s just me though.
(I basically agree with all your other points as well, but this is one of my high horses.)
Posted by: J | Aug 7, 2018 7:08:55 PM
As I have noted in other places I don’t respond to anonymous comments, but ctr and I had a nice exchange privately. I think, in fairness, ctr thinks I am displaying undue hard-boiled wit here and to the students at the expense of an accurate description of how I actually feel.
I agree completely about my epistemic advantage in the “what” and “how” to learn. I suspect what stokes my curmudgeonliness is stuff related to taking responsibility like, for example, reading the syllabus or the instructions to the exam that I post a month before the semester ends. And if I can’t assume adulthood and professionalism now, then when?
As to laptops, bottles of whiskey, bocce balls and their family resemblance of “wrongness” in particular settings, I may be able to test this empirically. I’m going to bring a laptop to the next faculty meeting and, about ten minutes in, quietly and non-disruptively put it away and take out instead a bottle of whiskey and some bocce balls!
I’ve also let DKG know that I use a lot of PowerPoint but like any tool it’s all in how you use it. I never use it in the traditional mind-numbing bullet point manner which bores and annoys me to no end. I see no difference between posting bullet points of the text you are lecturing and simply reading your notes.
My stuff is all graphics or occasionally a piece of shared text we are analyzing. Occasionally it’s a bit of humor as when I point out the facial resemblance between Benjamin Cardozo and Conan O’Brien.
Posted by: Jeff Lipshaw | Aug 3, 2018 11:08:28 AM
I am more willing to impose some paternalism; after all this is a school. They are here because they seek to overcome a certain epistemic deficiency, which likely applies to both knowledge and meta-knowledge. My experience and education provides me with epistemic advantages as to both what to learn and how to learn it.
More generally, a bachelors degree is no longer a strong proxy of professionalism and adulthood (if it ever was).
But I think there are also plenty of non-paternalistic reasons to keep all the students in the class focused, engaged, and non-distracted. A laptop makes only a little more sense than a bottle of whiskey or a set of bocce balls. Wrong time, wrong place, for what we (collectively) are trying to do in this room.
Posted by: ctr | Aug 3, 2018 10:40:00 AM
Thank you for those thoughts, and agree with 99% of your suggestions. But do you really use PPPs? I try to avoid those at all costs, they even bore me while I am presenting them. I feel like it’s an automatic way to induce eye glaze and resort to the very laptop facilitated entertainment that we try to avoid with laptop bans…
Posted by: DKG | Aug 3, 2018 9:59:55 AM
This is pithy, but surely not true. “Nobody in this building will care more about and work harder at leading you to water than I will, but nobody will care less than I about whether you choose to drink.”. If you don’t care about whether your students actually learn, then why not double your salary and go back into practice?
Posted by: Ctr | Aug 3, 2018 7:38:20 AM
i appreciate this thoughtful post and enjoyed it. thank you. (even if my own practices differ from yours considerably–i enjoyed the thoughts and experience you convey.)
one note on the laptop issue. after much research, i have begun discouraging (but not outright prohibiting*) laptops, and in doing so, i started feeling guilty about how much i “multitask” during conferences, as howard also mentions. multitask of course means basically zone out.
So…i’ve been trying to survive most conference sessions, at least ones in my field, with just a legal pad and a pen. And…so far so good! I’ve learned a lot more, is the honest truth, and come away with lots of substantive notes and questions. (as for faculty meetings…no way.)
* i do prohibit internet use, although i haven’t yet busted anyone for violating this “prohibition.”
Posted by: cbprof | Aug 1, 2018 3:47:27 PM
I like the sit-where-you-like idea except: 1) The majority of students seem constitutionally incapable of keeping their name cards; 2) I use a combination of the cards and the seating chart to help me figure out who is who (something I am not good at); 3) I use that combination to remind myself after class who participated and how, thus allowing me to grade class performance. I do use sit-where-you-want in smaller classes. Unsurprisingly, everyone sits in the same seat every class.
A tepid defense of cold-calling and assigned searing: The only class in which cold call is Evidence, which is almost entirely problem-based. We work through a couple hundred evidence problems based on a set of materials, splitting the room into sides on a problem and going around the room. I need assigned seats for that to work.
I have made my views on laptops clear over the years (although touche on law faculty at faculty meetings or any other kind of conference or meeting–we’re the worse offenders). I accept that I am being paternalistic on this one–I don’t care.
Posted by: Howard Wasserman | Aug 1, 2018 1:45:11 PM