From The Times

November 25, 2009

Gadgets can drive students to distraction

Laptops (ordinateurs portables) and mobile phones in the classroom do present some danger to learning

Tired (fatigué) of the incessant mobile phone interruptions in daily life? Then spare a thought (pensez) for the business school professors trying to teach at the same time as their students answer cellphones (téléphones mobiles), surf (surfer, on dit aussi : to browse) the net, reply to e-mails and tweet on (poster une actualité sur twitter) Twitter. Technology in the learning environment is not necessarily a bad thing, business schools say, as long as there are some ground rules (règles de base).

With many schools still coming to terms (assumer) with the proliferation of modern communications technology, there are differing approaches (change l'approche) to the classroom use of laptops, BlackBerrys, mobile phones and the like (et les autres du même type).

Some schools have the issue (problème) covered (précisé) in policy guidelines (directives/réglement intérieur)) At IESE Business School, at the University of Navarra in Spain, for example, the rules say: “Mobile phones must be turned off (éteints) during classroom sessions. Laptop computers may be taken into the classroom but their use during a session must be specifically allowed (permis) by the professor. The use of computers in class for non-course related work (travail n'ayant aucun rapport avec le cours) is not allowed.”

In practice, and sometimes despite (en dépit de) stated (instaurée) policy, usage often seems to be a matter for individual teachers. Students would do well to check (vérifier), though.

Where professors embrace (comprendre) the presence of laptops in class, they often integrate it into the interactive teaching experience. Arnold Longboy, director of executive education and student recruitment at the London campus of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, also took an executive MBA at the school, and has a perspective from both sides of the classroom divide (division).

“What was interesting about laptops is that sometimes, when a question was raised (posée) that no one had the answer to, a student with a laptop would Google it (utiliser Google) and immediately share the answer with the class — much to everyone’s appreciation, including the professor,” he says.

Personnellement je n'aime pas les ordinateurs ou portables dans mes cours mais vous avez du vous en apercevoir.

allergiquement votre,

sylvie