A student sits on the grass outside of Hamilton Library with a laptop perched on her lap, both hands busily typing. In the crook of her ear and shoulder, she balances a cell phone and chats away.
Students' increasing use of technology is visible everywhere on campus. School basics now include a cell phone, an iPod and a laptop. Though students lug all this equipment to school, these tools meant to help keep up with school and life outside of it might also be hindering them. Are these items necessary for class? Or are they only a hindrance to learning?
Laptops
Laptops are more present in the classrooms and even required for some courses. For sophomore microbiology major Tyra DeLa Cruz, the laptop has become a replacement for textbooks. DeLa Cruz downloaded an online version of her textbook onto her laptop which was available via the publisher's site. She uses that text to follow along during lectures when she cannot view the board.
Students in Leslie Lopez's Institute for Teacher Education classes at the College of Education (COE) use laptops to look at information, such as education Web sites, to discuss. Lopez encourages browsing.
"There are certain students who are adept at surfing quickly," Lopez said. "They are able to filter lots of information ... They'll come up with something and pull something that they found directly related to what we're talking about."
Wireless Internet availability enables students to browse the Internet almost anywhere on campus. Because its sources of entertainment are endless, it makes getting distracted easy.
Junior Matthew Gonzalez brings his laptop to campus daily to keep busy in between note-taking with Instant Messenger and the Internet.
"I take down whatever notes and what they say, and in between when it is boring, I compute," Gonzalez said. "I'm way too lazy to write things down and I'm not going to sit through an hour-long class without something else to do."
Senior economics major Adrian Martin stopped bringing his laptop after a semester. He would e-mail his papers to himself to print on campus. He said the only advantage he sees to laptop-lugging is typing faster than he can write.
"It was useful for me to look up stuff on the Internet not related to class," Martin said. "It's dangerous because there's a huge temptation to be distracted."
Chemistry instructor Ralf Kaiser sees no benefit to bringing a laptop for class.
"I think actually for the students to use laptops in the class is completely useless," Kaiser said.
Kaiser posts his PowerPoint presentations on the Web before class so that students may print them out to follow lectures. He believes it is better for students to do this instead and write out additional notes.
"I think they cannot type and listen at the same time," he said. "It's complicated."
Rebecca Meeder is a graduate assistant who aids in classes at the COE and demonstrates how to use programs like WebCT. During workshops, she observed students on MySpace, Instant Messenger and e-mail.
"I do tend to notice more of those students having those applications up on their screen," Meeder said. "A lot of them (the students) would raise their hands after checking MySpace, saying 'Okay, how do you do this?'"
She said that while the Internet is beneficial within the classrooms, it can also be a detriment to actual instruction.
Senior English major Aaron Yamada thinks laptops are unnecessary.
"If you think about it, a lot of people that do come online aren't working, and I think if there wasn't a wireless signal, most people wouldn't really bring their laptop," he said.
Yamada is a lab assistant who sets up laptops and helps students with theirs. He does not think having a laptop increases one's ability to do better in class. "People have been getting As before laptops," he said.
iPods
The iPods that were once just MP3 players can be used to store photos, to record or to watch movies. Meeder has an iPod that she uses for pictures and audio recording for her classes.
"An iPod can store hundreds of pictures," Meeder said. "Instead of developing all these pictures, you can put it all on your iPod."
However, some students have begun using them during lectures, literally tuning out their instructors.
Cell phones and Bluetooth wireless
The latest cell phone models have more functions and are beginning to resemble mini-computers. Some are equipped with a QWERTY keypad, internet and mp3 storage. Cameraphones can be used to take notes. Botany professor Alan Teramura noticed students using them to take pictures during lectures, such as of the questions he displays at the end of each lecture.
"This is probably not as good for them as actually writing the questions down themselves due to the reinforcement they receive when they read, then write out each question," Teramura said.
Because of the small size of cell phones, texting during class is more inconspicuous to instructors. DeLa Cruz said she notices her classmates texting all the time in class.
One of newest technologies another student has seen is Bluetooth wireless, which enables a variety of devices to connect and to communicate with each other from a range of a meter to 300 ft. She said she has used it during class to send messages via laptop, PDA and cell phones. But DeLa Cruz also said that it's used to beam projects to one another.
Teacher policies
Syllabi may specify how a student can use equipment, but there is no sure way for instructors to make certain their students are following. Several instructors say they do not watch over students' equipment use.
"I realize that they are students as well. And it's their choice whether they want to pay attention," Meeder said.
Anthropology instructor Jaida Samudra has no policies regarding laptop use, saying she would rather trust in her students. To discourage cheating, she talks to them about it.
The only rules most instructors have is they prohibit usage of equipment, excluding translators, during exams.
About students getting distracted, Lopez said, "It's a matter of redirecting where we're at or where the class is at."
She and several colleagues have noticed increasingly shortened attention spans among students. Samudra has observed students in the back of her class playing handheld games. However, with classes so big, she cannot always observe what occurs.
Communications assistant Colin MacDonald, who has a lab class, has seen students using computers for things not related to class. While he also has no policy for use during class, he hopes students would pay attention because their primary purpose for being in class is to learn. Students caught doing things other than class work are penalized through class participation grades.
Cheating
As technology has become more pervasive, the ways that students use it has become more suave, especially with regards to cheating. Students used to hide notes under their sleeves. Now, notes can be hidden within various implements used in class.
At Pepperdine University, a student tried to listen during an exam to notes he dictated onto his iPod.
At the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, students took pictures of exam questions with cell phones and sent them to students outside of class, who, in turn, text-messaged the answers.
Cheating with technology has been increasing nationally. But at the University of Hawai'i, Assistant Dean of Students Lori Ideta, said she doesn't see a rise here. There has been only one case reported so far on campus from fall 2005, according to Ideta, which involved a cell phone.
However low the number of cases reported to the dean does not necessarily mean that cheating happens infrequently. Cheating can go undetected and not all cases are reported by instructors, Ideta said. Instructors can decide themselves how to handle such occurrences.
Cheating in any form is a serious offense, and students have been suspended or dismissed from the University because of it, according to Ideta.
Theft
Stolen and lost items have been reported from all over campus, according to Chief of Security Neal Sakamoto. About 30 electronic devices were lost or stolen from January to November. In one incident, a bag containing an iPod, camera and cell phone was taken.
Sophomore English major Scott Dahlem said he quit his meal plan because the cafeteria did not allow him to keep his backpack with him as he ate, and he did not want to risk having his laptop stolen.
No evidence of success
As tools meant to increase productivity merge with forms of entertainment, negative effects could ensue when students use them for anything but class purposes. Cell phones are not just for making calls, nor are laptops used just to type homework. In the past, students read a paper or slept when they were bored in class. Now they have turned to laptops and iPods to pass time.
Historian Diane Ravitch wrote in "The Great Technology Mania" for Forbes magazine that education specialists assert that there is no evidence to support computer use or the Internet increases a student's potential for success. While such equipment can make completing an assignment much easier, the students using the equipment will not necessarily get a higher grade than someone who doesn't.
The dependency students have for tech devices is sometimes a drawback. What happens when one's iPod with 5,000 songs is stolen? Or if the wireless connection does not work?
"Say you have to give a presentation, and you don't have Internet access. You can't give the presentation because a lot of times it's an online software you have to teach them how to use," Meeder said.
One's laptop could also be a bother to another student. Just like placing phones on silent before entering class, courtesy should be exhibited when using equipment.
Tauvaga Gago, a graduate student at the COE, is required to have a laptop for some classes. However, she uses it more outside of class because it is distracting to her when used during class.
"It's easier for me to write notes and listen," she said.
She cites that the clicking noises of keys being tapped and the moving of the mouse make it hard to concentrate.
In one class, Gago sits next to a student who uses her laptop for other class work and play.
"Other students will tell her to stop," Gago said. It is especially distracting when she is the only one using a laptop in their table groups, she said.
Students sometimes cannot help looking at what others are doing. Gago said she sometimes misses what the instructor is discussing because of her classmate. "She [her classmate] would pinch me to look and then I try to ask other students, 'What did she just say?'"
Digital classroom
For classes that emphasize technology, such equipment is necessary.
"Particularly in the COE, I think it's very crucial because that's the way our education system in general is going," Meeder said.
Of the developed countries within the world, the United States is lagging behind in laptop use, she said. Countries, including Australia, Europe and England, have already implemented laptops into their educational system, according to Meeder.
She suggests students and instructors are better off when instructors create their own acceptable use policy, individualized for each classroom. She adds it is necessary to be familiarized with the new strategies and tools students are using.
"I think what is important is to teach instructors on how to use classroom management strategies, particularly in the digital age, to help enforce the proper, correct usage of laptops, but a lot of instructors are very unfamiliar with such classroom management polices because the use of laptops in the classroom is actually a very new thing, especially in the United States," she said.
More students are using technology in classrooms. However, when they misuse their equipment, they often miss out on learning, making things harder for themselves and sometimes for others.
Computer distraction
"I can't imagine not having my laptop now," said UH senior Chana Hamer.
For most classes, Hamer, who studies history, uses a microphone attached to her laptop to record lectures, then transcribes the recordings using the programs Express Dictate and Express Scribe.
Originally, Hamer began typing notes on her laptop, but began using a recorder to get more out of the professor's lectures.
"I've been getting into problems because I would be writing out one sentence, but my professors, who talk really fast, would be three sentences beyond," she said.
However, there is a drawback to not having to take notes manually: laziness.
"Unfortunately, I've gotten lazy ever since I've started doing this," Hamer said. "I know that I'm recording the class and I can always go back and listen to it later."
Hamer said she tries not to get too distracted, but finds herself doing things such as checking downloads, looking at WebCT or playing games.
"I have a program that is taking notes for me, and so I find that I have a harder time staying focused," Hamer said.
Transcribing is another problem she has come across.
"I have a couple weeks' worth of classes that I haven't done anything on and so I'm losing that information. Sometimes, it's like, 'Why do I even bother going to class if I'm not paying attention?'" For Hamer, transcribing her class' lecture notes can take two to three times of the duration of the lecture. "That adds to my stress level," she said.
"It's a double-edged sword," Hamer said of having a laptop. "If I was using it properly, I think it would help. But because I am easily distracted and like everything else, I set things up to be comfortable and fun. So to that degree, it does have the definite potential of being a detriment, but at the same time, it does have a lot of benefits."
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