Can I have your half-attention, please?

By Karen Pinchin | February 6th, 2009 | 2:03 pm

Profs say laptops are creating culture of 'constant partial distraction'

I’m sitting in the back row of a darkened lecture hall at the University of British Columbia. Nearly half of the 200 students have their laptops open, giving off a piercing blue-white glow that reminds me of driving at night.

A girl directly in front of me is toggling between two chat windows, a website of song lyrics, email, her Facebook profile, and, every now and then, her lecture notes. It’s hard to concentrate. I feel a pang of sympathy for the professor at the front of the hall. His multitasking students are certainly busy, but by bringing their online lives into the classroom, are they paying enough attention to him—or their educations?

Université de Montréal business professor Jean Boivin decided enough was enough a few years ago, when he read in the newspaper that one of his students had lost thousands of dollars in the stock market—while trading online during a lecture. Boivin was then at Columbia University in New York, and in consultation with students, he banned laptops from the classroom. It’s a rule he brought with him when he returned to Canada.

“I’ve never had any students complain about the policy,” says Boivin, He says bright, flashing computer screens, particularly when used for surfing the web, are a terrible distraction. He believes the laptop ban has led to his students paying better attention and scoring higher on exams.

But ask many other students and the idea of forbidding laptops is practically sacrilegious. “My attention span only lasts so long. I don’t know what I’d do without my laptop,” says Stephanie Poato, a second-year communications student at Simon Fraser University, whose laptop screen shows a large Facebook profile photo of herself. “Plus, I pay for this class, and it’s my money, so if I fail I only have myself to blame.”

Students are under too much pressure to concentrate exclusively on any one thing, says fellow second-year student Nadia Saeker. “I know you can’t really be focused on everything at the same time, it’s just not possible,” she says. “But we all have jobs and are trying to get everything done at once. I don’t have the luxury of sitting here and concentrating only on my lecture.”

While some professors seek to exclude the devices from the classroom, others are creating multimedia-rich curricula in which students can draw on online resources and interact with each other. Banning laptops is just plain wrong, according to Don Krug, associate professor at UBC’s department of curriculum studies. He says students are adults, and the best a professor can hope for is a “respectful learning environment,” where students limit their own behaviour. “If they really want to learn the information, they will. They’re paying a lot of money,” he says. “We’re better off teaching them how to be responsible learners.”

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Tags: classroom • laptops • lectures • multitasking • Simon Fraser • University of British Columbia

There Are 9 Responses So Far. »

Comment by Lynn on 6 February 2009:

My experience is just the opposite: I am a humanities/social sciences grad. My first two years were spent laptop-free, trying (sometimes desperately) to pay attention to the prof and keep up with note-taking, often getting a hand cramp as a result. If I was able to stay awake and alert, I was writing, scribbling, going back and forth between books and texts and notes and trying to figure out what was where.

In my final two years, which were much more academically challenging, I had the luxury of a laptop. Suddenly, my notes were more cohesive and comprehensive, because I type roughly five times faster than I write. I didn’t get a hand cramp. I had five seconds to actually hear what the professor was saying. I had the ability to digest the material – see it, hear it, and type it out. The simple (though pricey) posession of a laptop meant I was more organized.

My grades were roughly 15% higher in third and fourth year than my first two years. And yes, I was rarely “just taking notes” on my laptop. I’ll admit I engaged in a game or two of solitare and some IM while in class. It’s incredible what little some professors have to say that isn’t already in the reading materials they assign. Others, if I wasn’t paying full attention to my typing I’d miss as much as if I had to hand-write my notes. But that’s a lesson I learned quickly; I can’t speak for others.

Let’s leave aside that for those in the humanities and social sciences (at least), so much of one’s grade is decided by activities that are pursued outside the classroom. Lectures – while I would never advocate intentionally missing them – are just a piece of the puzzle.
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Pingback by That Awkward Transitional Stage . . . « Higher Education Management Group on 8 February 2009:

[...] Can I have half of your attention, please? Posted by Keith Hampson Filed in Uncategorized [...]
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Pingback by EduGeek Journal » Blog Archive » Shame On Those Pesky, Distracting Laptops on 10 February 2009:

[...] so I’m showing my constructivism bias here. The article I am reading, Can I have your half-attention, please?, actually is an interesting read about how instructors are getting over their technophobia (and [...]
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Pingback by Laptops in lectures | Tony Bates on 10 February 2009:

[...] K. (2009) ‘Can I have your half-attention, please?’ On Campus Macleans.ca, Feb [...]
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Comment by Leah on 11 February 2009:

200 Hundred students eh? Is that metric for 20,000?
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Pingback by Online Northwest 2009 Wrap-up « The Waki Librarian on 17 February 2009:

[...] is an article on how students use laptops during class lectures. This is so frustrating as an instructor when the students are paying more attention to their [...]
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Pingback by e-Strategy Update » Blog Archive » Getting the Half Attention of Students on 12 May 2009:

[...] Getting the Half Attention of Students By Ted Schellenberg Old fashioned books are good for holding your head up in class… “I’m sitting in the back row of a darkened lecture hall at the University of British Columbia. Nearly half of the 200 students have their laptops open, giving off a piercing blue-white glow that reminds me of driving at night.” Karen Pinchen writes in the February edition of MacLeans on Campus. [...]
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Pingback by More on laptops in lectures | Tony Bates on 12 May 2009:

[...] article that follows on from the Macleans OnCampus article, with additional references to work by Michael Wesch (Kansas State U) and Judy Hardy [...]
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Pingback by Laptops in Class: Good or Evil? « The Blog of Dane Low on 1 June 2009:

[...] wasted in each traditional class of 1 hour and 30 minutes. The point being made is that laptops are not the “distraction enemy” of the professors – the duration of the class [...]
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