Academic

Laptops and the transcript issue

By Gordon Smith, Christine, Hurt, Vic Fleischer, Fred Tung, Lisa Fairfax, David Zaring

While we?re on the subject of teaching, the Socratic method, and laptops, I thought I?d post a version of a little speech I gave my Corporations class yesterday. We?ve been having the laptop discussion at Georgia for a while, and one of the major complaints people here have is that students inherit ?scripts? from prior classes, and thus are primed with the ?right answers? to the professor?s questions. I extemporized from my notes, but this is the gist:

I want to talk about what we?re doing here. I?m talking, you?re listening and typing. I?m asking you questions, you?re responding, and we?re wending our way through business organizations.

This could work differently. I could talk and you could type rather than listen. I could bring in a tape player to play the lecture; you could bring in recorders to record what the machine said. But instead we have a dialogue of questions and answers. I want to use this place and time for you and I to engage in the material. To think differently, to think critically.

Many of my students have had laptops over the years, and there are, I know, scripts and outlines floating around. Having an idea of where I?m going is comforting to you; I can understand that. But my advice to you, in terms of getting the most out of class, is not to look at any material from past classes. There are three reasons. First, in terms of what?s out there?it might not be right, it won?t be exactly what I cover because a student answer might take me a different direction. I read the material anew each year and see different things, go different places.

Second, as the syllabus specifies, you can?t use it in the final, only notes that you create. The exam will have a question that will address an issue that you?ve never seen?to test your ability to read the code, to find the answers for yourselves. You won't have a script for that.

Finally, it?s for the same reason I don?t read the prefaces to books or movie reviews before I?ve watched a movie. I want my first reaction to be MINE. Authentic, real. I don?t want anyone else telling me what I should think, or coloring my perception. I?m not using the Socratic method to put you on the spot, but to talk with you. So I urge you to come to class fresh and ready to talk, but without a preconceived idea of where I might be going. Otherwise I think you?re losing out.

Full post as published by Conglomerate on August 27, 2008 (boomark / email).