Rethinking Laptop Bans (AGAIN) and Note Taking

Annually, we go through the outrage cycle around laptop bans. Student Erynn Brook took to Twitter to speak about her own experience as a student with ADHD and how she uses her laptop. Here are some highlights:

If I’m on my laptop in class I have the following things going on: 1. The day’s lecture/slides open. 2. The day’s assigned readings open. 3. My usual tabs. 4. 2048. Yes, the game.

— Erynn Brook (@ErynnBrook) March 12, 2018

You’re probably wondering about the 2048. I’m an aural learner. And 2048 is a fidget. Once upon a time I used to be the world’s most annoying pen clicker, but 2048 hasn’t gotten me the same number of stares and sighs.

— Erynn Brook (@ErynnBrook) March 12, 2018

Now let’s get to the laptop bans and what happens for me as a student with ADHD when I don’t have access to tech in the classroom.

— Erynn Brook (@ErynnBrook) March 12, 2018

2. If they’re that distracted by me playing 2048 then the lecture is INCREDIBLY BORING. And that’s not on me.

— Erynn Brook (@ErynnBrook) March 12, 2018

I would read the entire thread (which, because technology can be awesome, is already a patch in a new Open Learner Patchbook), especially when she goes after “flipped” classrooms that are still just lectures. But the other side of this is how she has figured out how to learn, take notes, and use her laptop as a tool (personally, I’m more of a Candy Crush girl for a fidget, but I can see how 2048 would work, too). Back in MY day before we had laptops to engage with and use as learning tools, I was a pen clicker, a pencil chewer, and then a poetry writer (I wrote just about ALL my poems during lectures).

But it does bring up the important issue of if our students even know how to take notes effectively, particularly on devices. George wrote about this (looks at calendar, screams silently in head) almost two years ago. Recently, Mind/Shift published Digital Note Taking Strategies That Deepen Student Thinking. I love, in particular, the idea of multimodal notes (DOODLES FOR THE WIN – wait, that’s not what they meant). But we need to remember that it is a rare student who has effectively figured out how to take notes, and that we have to help them learn how to learn more effectively.

How do you help your students learn to take notes and learn?

[Photo is my desk. All the pictures of laptops on desks on Unsplash were too clean and neat and tidy.]