Last week I was in Lisbon taking part in a training of trainers week organised by Oxford University Press. The training week was very intense and could have lead to blog posts on many subjects but I’ve chosen a theme that caused me such puzzlement throughout the week.
One of my roles was to pilot some material we have written for a training course we are putting together on technology. As such on one of the days we asked the group to bring their laptops to the training room (not that this was an unusual request as a few of us always have them with us to use in sessions). This group has over 350 years of training experience between us so discussions were often long and thought provoking. On the day most of the group had their laptops a spontaneous discussion broke out over the fact people’s face were obscured behind the screen – the discussion being about what if these were students?
As the week went on it seemed that there was more and more consternation over some of us using our laptops in sessions, even leading to a night when one trainer asked us ‘Is it ok to tell people to close their laptops in sessions’. My answer to that is yes the same way we ask students to shut their books etc but I would expect them to be shut for a purpose.
We tried to explain that these days we use laptops to take notes, instead of paper but despite our assurances there seemed to be a level of paranoia over computer use which permeated through the week.
So I am confused, why the distrust of computer users? Why are people so anti them in training sessions or classes? (Bear in mind this was a closed training group NOT a conference so there was no tweeting of peoples’ sessions – something which can worry some speakers). It seems to me that by holding such views we are not accounting for the different way people learn or accepting that the people in the classroom (on either side of the teacher’s desk) are from a generation younger than our own.
Thinking back about the week (and asking my computer-using colleagues), we used our computers to:
- take notes on word (in place of pen and paper)
- take notes via mind-mapping
- look something up on google (related to things in sessions when we didn’t know words, the source of something and so on)
- collect information that we could then send to our colleagues via email
- pass notes (sending the occasional direct message via twitter)
- the occasional distraction (looking at our emails, blogs and so on)
What strikes me about this list is that that most of these things would take place without a laptop:
Students take notes, students pass notes (usually with far more commotion than a direct tweet) so how is the use of a laptop any more of a distraction? To say the laptop makes more of a distraction is simply not true – a distracted student is always a distracted student. In fact those times when I was looking at my email, I was being quietly distracted which I find much better than the little chats that break out by those neither engaged nor able to look at a computer screen. Here I reminded of a quote from Tom Whitby on twitter last week:
“If educators find their lectures are competing with Laptop distractions why ban laptops? Why not Ban Boring Lectures? Look to the lesson!”
Without laptops we can collect info, usually followed by some photocopying and it being passed around so if anything the laptop has helped make this a more time-efficient and effective way of sharing. This is certainly true of being to look things up – ok, a dictionary at hand gives me the ability to look up a word but with google my ability to look up is increased beyond measure.
This leaves us with the somewhat spurious allegations that those looking at our screens are not concentrating 100 percent or even more curious that it is impeding our ability to take part in discussions!
One final thing of note, in the breaks most people were happy to check their emails and go online, showing an acceptance of technology in the personal life but not yet able to see it as part of a learning life. Is this because our role as teachers / trainers is influenced by our experiences as learners? If not, what is it that they find unacceptable about laptops in sessions or classes?
I am genuinely curious, am I now so tech-centred now that I am missing something that is so fundamentally pedagogically unsound about their use? Or is that I am so lacking in social etiquette?
I very much prescribe to the view of each to their own so if a student is more comfortable using their laptop to paper so be it. I’ll leave you with this video from Joespicado’s youtube channel and look forward to you all putting me straight.
