This is the luddite in me speaking, though I
am not one. (How could I be one while teaching in the
College of Computing and almost all my research and
publications during the past few years mostly in Computer Science?)
The very fact that an instructor has to spy on the students
during the class tells something must be wrong. For years
I fought against having computers in my classroom, but
lost the battle when I had to teach in a so-called "technology"
classroom the past two years. I have resisted temptation to
use computers in the classroom except to display my class slides
(I do not use PPT, but write my own in LaTeX). My syllabi usually
have a strict instructions on surfing in the classroom, but am a bit lax
on enforcement, being keenly aware of epidemic hormonal disorder among
the students.
There is a ridiculous conception that we are some how modern
(or sophisticated) when we can tap on the keyboard and gawk
at the monitors; even a monkey could do that. My own experience
tells me that computers in the classroom is a great distraction from
learning, and that it impedes one's intellectual growth. It gives
students an erroneous impression that acquiring mechanical
ability to point/click, drag/drop enhances learning, and that one
does not have to learn the cognitive content of the academic
area where computers are being used.
It also imposes unnecessary burdens on the tax payers in case of
public universities.
I am, however, all for the student exploring problem solving on the computer
on her own, with some hand holding by the instructor. Such self-
discovery hones intellectual skills and improves self-confidence.
