Life skills and career tips for Canada's lawyers in training
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teaching techniques. He now uses the internet during lectures, and often has students consult material on the inter- net. He says professors at the University of Ottawa have weighed the net ben- efit of laptops in classrooms, and many note that potential distractions have al- ways existed. "The reality is that all of us went through law school, and all of us at some point were either doo- dling or doing other things other than listening," he says. "So the fact that a student will respond to an e-mail while the prof is answering a question that the student has under- stood — is that the end of the world? Probably not. Does it cross the line when somebody starts bothering others? Yes, and then we do address it." Overall, Émard-Chabot says the potential exists for laptops to hurt the classroom experi- ence, but so far the benefits as a teaching tool outweigh the negatives. University of Western On- often being transported to another place in time," he says. "I can tell when a student's got this when they've got a wild grin, they've got an intense stare, they're temporarily hearing-impaired, and they've lost all use of their periph- eral vision." In order for lecturing to remain en- joyable, Lynk says he must choose now of the internet . . . I don't know how deal with that." She admits, however, that her per- spective may be biased. "There might be a jealously thing at work," she quips. "If that's more interesting than me, I feel bad. Therefore, I'm going to be jealous of whatever is able to distract you from my fascinating presentation." Arnal admits she "I find students with a laptop in front of them during a lecture, they're student's got this when they've got a wild grin, they've got an intense stare, they're temporarily hearing- impaired, and they've lost all use of their peripheral vision." tario Faculty of Law profes- sor Michael Lynk says laptops have created a divide among faculty members: those who are tech- savvy and can grab students' attention with multimedia lecture presentations, and those who prefer to teach in the tra- ditional way. Lynk is in the latter group, and he finds laptops lead to less class interaction and discussion. "It's a problem because, for most law professors, they want to be able to use an interactive form of pedagogy, of instruction, to ensure the points are being absorbed, to get students thinking about what's being taught, and critically assess the debates that are in the read- ings, or even to challenge the professor," he says. The decline of the old system, says Lynk, has led to a more one-sided teach- ing experience for professors. "We're getting less of an accurate sense of how students are absorbing, thinking about, reacting, or critically assessing materials that are being lectured on." Lynk has observed in his classes an "affliction" he's coined "the big-screen stare." "I find students with a laptop in front of them during a lecture, they're — Michael Lynk, University of Western Ontario whether to become more tech-savvy or to pay more attention to his teaching style. "I've got to be able to project more emphasis on what are important points, which may be a good thing and force me to become a better performer in the classroom. If I'm going to rely upon traditional lecture methods, I've got to find ways of engaging students, prob- ably asking more questions to them, and I've got to occasionally, which all profes- sors hate and students hate, I've got to ask students by name if they're with me on this." McGillivray says she takes advan- tage of laptops by assigning internet- based readings for classes in classrooms equipped with internet access. She says she hopes laptops can be better integrat- ed into lectures in the future, but notes that some students will fail to benefit from such improvements. "People who are going to goof off are going to goof off anyway," says McGil- livray. "But the laptop makes it such an attractive goofing-off environment. When you've got the huge resources often being transported to another place in time. I can tell when a and her classmates surfed the web at times or checked Facebook during lectures. But she says some of her peers found it easier to absorb a lecture by multitasking on a lap- top. "A lot of deans' list students, who do very well, obviously, are on their computers and not always using it for Word," she says. "Some people just learn bet- ter when part of their brain is focusing on one thing and then they can use the other part to focus on the prof. I don't think it necessar- ily correlates to, if you're on Facebook all class you're going to do bad." But McGillivray says she disagrees with the notion that students can multi-task. She notes that a series of recent studies have suggested that when people think they're working on a number of things at once, in fact they're just shifting from one to the next, "which means you've tuned out whatever's happened in that interim," says McGillivray. "The brain doesn't actually multitask." So students watching a YouTube video are likely missing some important lecture points. Lynk, meanwhile, says he can't say the big screen stare affliction has de- tracted from the quality of students' work. "I don't necessarily see a differ- ence in what they've absorbed, at least on exams, at the end of the day," he says. "I do think, though, exams can't be the only measure of how all the students know the course. Because I see the de- cline in discussion in the course itself, I think there's some of the more nuanced points of law that aren't being absorbed by as many students." C ANADIAN Lawyer 4STUDENTS S EPTEMBER 2008 11