The use of laptops: needs for students

Attentiveness

Engagement

Learning

When students can pose questions via their laptops, the number of questions is higher than in traditional classes.

Students with laptops received slightly higher grades.

However, students reported that their laptops and those of their classmates are a distraction.

LectureTools is an interactive suite of web-based tools designed to allow questioning practices in lecture that actively engage students and go beyond the multiple choice format typically supported by classroom response systems (clickers).

LectureTools gives students the ability to take notes and make drawings on PowerPoint slides, rate their understanding of each slide, pose questions anonymously during the lecture, and review the recorded lecture after class.

LectureTools is a great way to take notes and stay alert in class. It helped me learn a great deal more.

Students with their laptops in classes spent more than ten minutes per class using social networking sites and email. 

Many students appear to weigh the options of using or not using laptops during class and make decisions based on what may be most helpful for their own learning. 

Lecturers need to

1. Know how and when to ask students to use their laptops, rather than simply allowing students to bring them to class
2. The questions posed by the instructor in LectureTools helped them better understand and learn lecture material.
3. Faculty will need to think carefully about their approach to student laptop use and how they can maximize the benefits while minimizing the distraction.
4. Set a laptop policy and communicate it to students
5. Students are not encouraged to bring laptops to class. A closed laptop rule during lecture will be enforced and other communication devices will need to be on silent during lecture.
6. When you use laptops during class, do not use laptops for entertainment during class and do not display any material on the laptop which may be distracting or offensive to your fellow students.
7. Laptops may be used only for legitimate classroom purposes, such as taking notes, downloading class information, or working on an in-class exercise. E-mail, instant messaging, surfing the Internet, reading the news, or playing games are not considered legitimate classroom purposes; such inappropriate laptop use is distracting to those seated around you and is unprofessional.
8. Identify a laptop-free zone in class

References

Tomorrows-professor Digest, Vol 62, Issue 1