Ravi Blogs about IT Topics

I was at the ATR yesterday (Thursday, Nov 2, 2006) where the topic of discussion was “Laptops a go-go”. The increased use of laptops in the classroom and how it is changing the classroom experience for both the instructor and the students was discussed. As one can imagine, this is a very complicated and challenging topic and several differing viewpoints were presented. I found an interesting article on this subject that appeared in the Chronicle in June, 2006.
Here is a summary of the discussion:

• Use of laptops in the classroom is increasing and it is a distraction in the classroom – the noise from the fan, clicking of the keyboard in a small classroom; the screen being a barrier between the student and the instructor; other students watching the screens in front of them, sometimes showing inappropriate materials;
• One faculty member uses is as a part of the instruction playing interactive marketing games, for example; some allow it because it does not bother them; one faculty member allows under the condition that the students turn off their wireless access.
• The student participant told us ways in which she uses the laptop for note taking in the classroom and stressed how important it is for her to be able to do it.
• There was a consensus that developing some policies or guidelines on this subject would help both the students and the faculty.
• Questions came up on if there is a technology solution to this. This is a hard problem because trying to do this by blocking signals into classrooms at the source (access points) will not work. Because if we find a way to turn them off when a class is in session, then no one in the vicinity will have access. Also, we need to make sure ALL access poitns from which signal can travel to a classroom are identified and turned off. So, one possible solution is to bring a shield of some kind at the classroom level to block incoming signals I will spend time discussion the various options below.

I think it is a great idea to develop policies and guidelines for use of laptop in the classrooms and we will be happy to play a role in advising the group on what technology options exist. The struggle here is matching the learning habits of this generation of students with how an instructor wants to run the class. Obviously, this is pretty individualistic and as someone pointed out during the discussion, in such cases where there is conflict between the two, the instructor makes the call on how to proceed.

The laptop issue in the classroom falls into the following broad categories in my mind:

• Ban the use completely – easy to do. The instructor announces this at the beginning of a class or lists this as a requirement in course listings (may be dangerous!!!).
• Limited use – laptops will be allowed, but somehow the instructor can use levels of access to the network. For example, the instructor sets the level of access for course through a web interface to be either no network access, access to wesleyan resources only or fully open access. Obviously, there is a cost associated with implementing something like this.
• Tablets – to avoid the screen issue, require tablets. I don’t think that requiring everyone to buy a tablet PC for this purpose will work. Instead, seek funding for loaning tablet PCs for use in a class. The network access to wesleyan servers will be required here because the notes will have to be saved on a network server for the student to pick up later. VERY EXPENSIVE proposition.

The Chronicle article talks about Bentley college implementing an internet kill switch. This solution is based on enterasys solution. Since we are not an Enterasys customer, this is not an option for us. But, we certainly should be looking to see how hard it would be to implement such a solution – either look to Cisco and Bluesocket to see if they have any solutions or see if we can build something.

We should also seriously look to see if there are protective devices that reflect wireless signals away from a physical space and see how much this costs. Trying to do this for wireless phones is apparently illegal in the United States!!!

Either way, this is going to be a resource intensive proposition and will no doubt require changes. For ease of use, we now allow guest access through wireless. In order to implement a solution such as this, I am sure, will require authentication. Trying to manage this in a way where certain areas of campus (like the library) to allow for guest access but not other locations will be a nightmare and any classrooms near a library will not be able to use the service.

Before we start putting enough resources to research such solutions and possibly implement them, we need a clear directive to do this from Academic Affairs.

While we are on this subject, we should also remember the following:

• The solutions we are talking about will not prevent communications amongst the laptops in the classroom. Technically savvy students can easily set up a network (be it Bluetooth or standard 802.11 networking) amongst themselves and continue to be disruptive.
• Even if we ban the laptops in the classroom, cell phones are increasingly coming with capabilities to go to the internet, chat, check and respond to email. They are much smaller and can be less noisy. The advantage is that it will be less disruptive, but those students won’t be engaged in a class. But, I thought I heard that we have always had a few students who for various reasons are this way and that we have not had too much control over this issue anyways… So, this may be OK after all.