<p>Annasdad – just curious, are you a teacher/professor either currently or formerly?</p>
<p>For introductory physics courses, at least, I think the best solution to the web-surf-during-lecture problem is to drop the lecture format.</p>
<p>LBowie-> depends on your definition of “teacher.” Many years ago in a Navy technical school, occasionally in the interim with adults in the workplace, and very briefly as an adjunct. But not in a traditional sense.</p>
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<p>Romani, I’m with you to a certain point on this one. I think it depends on the student and the material at hand more than anything. Someone can easily take careful notes and pay perfect attention, spend hours prepping for the exams, and still do poorly while someone else can Facebook chat/text/post on CC/Skype simultaneously and still pass with flying colors.</p>
<p>^ Exactly! And I’m not saying that it’s the right way for everyone. I completely understand that most students can’t do it the way that I do it. But I’ve TRIED lecture classes without the laptop distraction and I just don’t pay attention. I can’t. Couldn’t in high school either. Can in the “real world” because my meetings rarely have more than 10 people so it’s not a “lecture”.</p>
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<p>I am curious–when you are deciding whether or not to access the internet during class (other than when you are supposed to, as part of the class) do you ever think about what other students will think of you for doing so? Do you ever think that you might be bothering other students? Do you care?</p>
<p>For the most part, though, paying attention in class is still the way to go. I’m pretty lazy about recreating the lesson if I don’t pay attention, (which often takes longer than a class period, anyway), so I do for the sake of taking my down time very seriously.</p>
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<p>I don’t think anyone cares if you surf one way or the other. </p>
<p>To be perfectly honest, the most distracting thing I ever experienced in class was a girl editing a peer’s essay for a creative writing class in the middle of lecture. The writing was nothing short of pornographic. </p>
<p>No.</p>
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This is where your generalization is probably inaccurate in the large majority of instances. Just goes to show that this is a nitpicky, micromanagement concern for most of those against it. Nobody is more qualified to decide what students need to do and not do than the students themselves, and most of them take full responsibility for their grade, regardless of the circumstances.</p>
<p>Regarding the claim that it’s rude and all these examples of “going to a friend’s house and taking off your shoes because it’s their rule,” that really doesn’t apply unless a professor explicitly bans the use of laptops or browsing Facebook. If they don’t specifically do this, then how is it rude? It’s not against the rules, and the student is perfectly free to make and capable of making their own decisions as to how they spend class time.</p>
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I’m telling you exactly what goes on at the end of every semester. The student who has not been paying attention, has been texting, sleeping, late to class, or has missed many classes is now emailing begging for a better grade and making all kinds of excuses. He has at least 10 of these spread across his classes every semester.</p>
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<p>You have not even started college yet. And I can tell you that many of the students my H has had have blamed everyone and everything else for a low grade except themselves. It’s H’s fault because he did not give them enough information, he gave them too much information, he did not tell them specifically what would be on the test, they were absent and he wouldn’t tell them what they missed, their computer wouldn’t work, their email didn’t work, they couldn’t log on to blackboard, they lost their book, etc. He has heard them all. They are the same students that are sleeping, texting, totally disengaged, obviously not listening. He can tell how often they log into the class info online and it is not very often. He does have his good students. But it’s always these students at the end of the semester that are whining (and yes, they are whining) about their grade. </p>
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<p>Many people have already stated on here that they do not allow the use of laptops in class. It is clearly stated in H’s syllabus. It’s also stated that texting, emailing and surfing on phones is prohibited. So I guess because it’s specifically stated and they do it anyway, it’s rude.</p>
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<p>Not listening when someone speaks to you is rude.</p>
<p>I understand that the words “rude” and “rule” look similar, but there’s no connection. You can break a rule without being rude and you can be rude without breaking a rule. And you should know the difference . . . unless you’re planning to spend your life on a desert island by yourself.</p>
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<p>I have served as a TA for several courses and I must tell you that this is patently untrue, especially for freshman and sophomores.</p>
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<p>If you think the only things that are rude are things that explicitly break rules, you have some growing up to do.</p>
<p>Surfing the net, shopping online, visiting Facebook, tweeting, texting, playing video games during class - they’re all rude. The professor has given their time to prepare this lecture for your education. Lectures taken an enormous amount of time to prepare. They are now standing in front of you trying to give it. Playing on your computer in the middle of it is extremely rude - just like it would be rude during a business presentation for/by a client or a special talk given by a foreign ambassador or anyone else you may have to listen to in your work life.</p>
<p>Some things in life require sitting quietly and listening attentively. It says a lot about this generation when we not only can’t sit still for an hour and 15 minutes, but get indignant when people tell us how rude we are being.</p>
<p>And Facebook IS disruptive. I’ve gotten multiple complaints from students sitting near their classmates who are fooling around on things they aren’t supposed to be doing. The constant scrolling, flashing, whatever, is distracting to those trying to pay attention. If you want to play on Facebook, stay home from class and waste your own time.</p>
<p>SeekingUni post #68 – just because something is not “against the rules” or banned doesn’t mean it’s not rude. I can think of a lot of things that would be very rude that would not likely to be in a syllabus as explicitly against the rules. Would you put on a big pair of headphones and listen to music during class? If it doesn’t disturb anyone around you, why not? Why? Because it would be RUDE and OBVIOUS that you are not interested in the lecture. Are you saying that since the instructor can’t see what you are doing and for all s/he knows you could be taking notes that for that reason web surfing is acceptable etiquette? </p>
<p>And for those of you who complain the lecture or instructor is boring or bad at delivering the material – don’t add to the problem. It’s demoralizing lecturing to nobody. Instead, make it better. Ask a question, challenge the professor on something. The dynamics of the lecture environment are not just in the professor’s hands alone. When the semester is over, if it was that bad, put your comments in the course evaluation. Those are used by the department when the professor comes up for a raise or promotion. They aren’t just for the professor him/herself.</p>
<p>And yes, why bother coming to class if you are not going to contribute and the material is not interesting to you? Don’t go. Figure it out on your own, take the test and ace it. It does not show good time management skills if you are going to sit there wasting time for an hour and a half sitting through something so dull you can’t help but surf. You could be in the library studying.</p>
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What bemuses me about this discussion is the apparent belief that there was some magical time before laptops when students all gave their full attention to lectures, no matter how boring they might be. That’s not how I remember it. To me, the only thing that’s new is that it’s easier for others to observe that you’re doing something else. I guess that makes it somewhat ruder. But I’m not convinced that students are giving any less attention on average than they ever did.</p>
<p>I think you’re right that those who yearn back to the time they were in college and everybody always showed up awake, sober, and vitally interested in what every professor had to day are mis-remembering things as they actually were.</p>
<p>But I suspect the problem is worse now, given the addictive qualities of some of the technologically fueled alternative time-wasters.</p>
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<p>I think the internet (facebook especially, and email) is more of a problem. It is just so tempting that it distracts students who otherwise would be paying attention. (I don’t think this temptation is unique to students; I have seen similar behavior by my peers at conferences.) And it is more bothersome to others.</p>
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<p>Last summer, I was helping out during the sophomore orientation at my D’s boarding school for incoming students and their parents. I was amazed at the number of parents who, during the (mandatory) information sessions on expectations for students, student discipline issues, student health services, etc., spent the time on their iPhones and Androids. I was standing at the back of the room and could see what they were doing, and there were many who were playing games or browsing the web. One gentleman had his iPad and I don’t think looked up from it once during an hour-long session.</p>
<p>And I would rather strongly suspect that these are the same parents who howl with outrage when their kid gets disciplined for something stupid the parent has facilitated - like taking them off-campus without checking them out - then claiming they didn’t know about the rule.</p>
<p>Annasdad, you might appreciate this: [Stupid</a> Teenagers Are Texting While Driving Because Their Parents Do: DCist](<a href=“http://dcist.com/2012/05/stupid_teenagers_are_texting_and_dr.php]Stupid”>http://dcist.com/2012/05/stupid_teenagers_are_texting_and_dr.php)</p>