Less Tech, better discussions
Chronicle of Higher Education Teaching Newsletter
Elizabeth Drummond, an associate professor of history at Loyola Marymount University, was discouraged by how students’ use of laptops and tablets in class was dampening conversation. Not only were students distracted by their own screens, they were distracting their classmates.
So Drummond borrowed an idea from a colleague and banned screens while introducing collaborative note-taking. The results, she writes, have been “transformative.” Students are engaged and talking with one another, and they appreciate the respite from their laptops.
Drummond began using this approach in the fall of 2024 and has had a successful three semesters since. Her classes are relatively small and include both lower- and upper-division courses that enroll between 15 and 28 students.
Here’s how her strategy works:
- Two students are assigned as note-takers for each class. All students, except those with note-taking accommodations, do this twice during the semester.
- Assigned note-takers use laptops to put their notes directly into a class notebook on Microsoft Teams, the technology Drummond uses for class instead of a learning management system.
- Students with accommodations contribute by adding key takeaways from three or four days of class, such as an issue to discuss further.
- Laptops are banned otherwise, and students are encouraged, but not required, to take notes by hand. They can use a tablet similar to a notepad if they prefer.
- The laptop ban is lifted on occasion, such as for group work.
“There’s sometimes some grumbling at the beginning, but students quickly adapt, and many come to appreciate the low-tech/no-tech classroom,” writes Drummond. “The assigned note-takers each day understand that they have a responsibility to their classmates and almost always take better notes than I saw from students when they were all taking their own notes. [Students] are freed up from trying to ‘get down everything’ in the notes and able to be more engaged in the class, because they know that we have a class notebook with a set of notes available to all.”
She has found that this method also serves students with accommodations, almost all of whom have opted not to use their computers.
Drummond reports that the class dynamic has improved significantly. “Class discussions have been more vibrant. In the case of a student who has been in a class with me where I allowed computers and a class where I did not allow them, that student’s performance has improved dramatically — that’s a function of the student’s improved work ethic, but the student has also said that not having the computer in class has helped significantly. Another thing that I’ve noticed is that students are interacting with each other more in those minutes before class, rather than all being locked in on their screens.”
I’m intrigued by this idea of how limiting technology can improve classroom dynamics. Have you tried anything similar in your class and found that students have become more present? If so, write to me at [email protected] or fill out this Google form. Your example may appear in a future newsletter.
ICYMI – low-tech edition
- The Washington Post describes how a psychology course at Loyola University Maryland taught students how to digitally detox.
- Geoff Watkinson, who teaches writing to first-year students, explains in this Chronicle advice essay why he decided to have his students write only in class, and by hand, and the value it has brought to their work. As one student told him: “When I write on paper, my mind feels less cluttered.”
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