To continue this series on laptops in the classroom (see parts one and two) . . . There is another issue here and that is whether we need to change the way we teach rather than ban laptops. Both Chris and Tim mention it: even the lecture shouldn’t be a straight lecture, but should encourage active student learning. I’m a bit on the fence.

Before UCLA, I had never experienced discussion sections. The big classes at UCLA have large lecture halls (somewhere between 120-300 students or so) with smaller sections that meet once per week for discussion (around 15-25 students, depending on the department). So, I would like to agree with Chris and Tim about the need to change the passive lecture into a more active learning experience, but I would like to qualify it a bit:

In a class like those at UCLA (lecture sessions + discussion sessions), there seems no real point in making the lecture into something reserved for the discussion sessions — where active learning can be much more effective. On the other hand, the lecturer should work hard to be animated and to speak in a conversational style. As an avid podcast listener (and a former high school thespian), I am a firm advocate for the power of the spoken word.

The lecture need not be a dictation-transcription sort of relationship. Make it fun! I think the lecture should tell a story in a way that excites the presenter. Occasionally, students could be called up to volunteer and act out some sort of historical scene or to model the manner of statues in a particular age or the like. But the focus of the lecture should, I think, be on the transferal of information in an engaging way. I do not believe the lecture is dead yet, even if John Cleese is carrying it over his shoulder trying to toss it on the cart for the dead.

For a large course without discussion sections (over 50 or so), it’s difficult to create an environment of active participation. One of my Fuller profs handled it well by assigning small groups that would share electronic responses with each other each week. Another Fuller prof handled it by creating small groups that would consistently meet together as a portion of the long class time each week. I like both approaches.

I may have appreciated the course content in large lecture classes otherwise, but my learning experience suffered if the professors made absolutely no attempt at connecting the students in any sort of meaningful way. Having a few people speak up in response to questions during large lectures usually descends into having a handful of outspoken students “ask questions” that are mini-lectures in themselves to show off their “intellect.”

For a survey course with a smaller amount of students (under 30-40 or so), it still seems to me that some sort of “lecturing” needs to occur. It is a class surveying material and I believe that students should have someone who can ably guide them through that material. Again, the lecture need not be dull. But the smaller classroom, even if it needs to have some sort of basis in information review, also allows for more active classroom activity: small group tasks, debates, and the like.

For a seminar type classroom (maybe 5-15 or so), I believe there should be very minimal “lecturing” (aside from the occasional rant about some perspective or approach of the material) and mostly student discussion.

What happens to the laptop in all this? I believe there is a place for the laptop in all of these environments. In the lecture course, as an educator, I don’t want to babysit students. It’s really impossible to enforce rules about laptop usage unless you want to ban the laptop (and as I’ve noted in the past two posts, I don’t want to ban the laptop). Making your TAs enforce laptop usage is really unfair to the TA’s and makes them into police rather than educators. The policing can even be more distracting than the inappropriate laptop usage.

So, as I’ve noted in this little series, I think for lectures we need to treat students like adults and let them do as they will with their laptops. I think I like the idea of asking students who plan to distract themselves sit in the back, as one Fuller professor did. As the classroom sizes descend smaller into more discussion based sessions, I still believe laptops have a place, even if it needs to be regulated a bit (like taking a point off their final grade for inappropriate laptop use as I do).