Laptops in Class

Profuse thanks again to Alyssa! At this time, I will--as per the structure laid out in the OP--rebut Pro's opening arguments.C1. Portable College EducationI have two arguments against this contention:(1) Topicality. The topic of this debate is about the use of laptops in schools or colleges, it is not about the use of laptops as schools or colleges. Now, while on the face of it, this may seem like quibbling, there is a significant difference in using a laptop as a classroom or study aid and in using the laptop as the classroom itself. I am therefore concerned about the topicality of this whole argument, or, at least, of parts of this argument.(2) Effectiveness. Online courses are, not surprisingly, not nearly as effective as real-life classes. This mirrors the arguments I have been making regarding how note-taking on laptops isn't as effective as longhand note-taking and so on. Several sources and arguments corroborate the claim that online courses just aren't doing students as much good.(2a) Student success and matriculation rates in online courses are less than in real-life courses"[I]n 2012, 60.4 percent of students enrolled in online courses completed them with a passing grade--10 percentage points lower than the success rate of 70.6 percent in traditional courses." [1]"Preliminary data on UT-Austin’s two other fall semester MOOCs [(massive open online courses)] show completion rates ranging from about 1 percent to 3 percent. These rates aren't unusual...[T]he University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education presented a study on 16 MOOCs offered by the University of Pennsylvania through a company called Coursera. They found that completion rates averaged at around 4 percent." [2]"The research has shown over and over again that community college students who enroll in online courses are significantly more likely to fail or withdraw than those in traditional classes, which means that they spend hard-earned tuition dollars and get nothing in return. Worse still, low-performing students who may be just barely hanging on in traditional classes tend to fall even further behind in online courses." [3] "A five-year study, issued in 2011, tracked 51,000 students enrolled in Washington State community and technical colleges. It found that those who took higher proportions of online courses were less likely to earn degrees or transfer to four-year colleges." [3](2b) For many students, online courses are less effective teaching methods"First, student attrition rates--around 90 percent for some huge online courses--appear to be a problem even in small-scale online courses when compared with traditional face-to-face classes. Second, courses delivered solely online may be fine for highly skilled, highly motivated people, but they are inappropriate for struggling students who make up a significant portion of college enrollment and who need close contact with instructors to succeed...Lacking confidence as well as competence, these students need engagement with their teachers to feel comfortable and to succeed. What they often get online is estrangement from the instructor who rarely can get to know them directly. " [3](2c) Online courses enlarge racial disparities in education"Researchers also found that achievement gaps are exacerbated in the online world. For example, the gap between white and African American students in traditional classes was 12.9 percentage points; that widens to 17.5 points in online courses." [1]C2: Instant Data AccessImagine you're sitting in class, and your teacher mentions topic X. You look it up. You start reading the online article, and five or ten minutes later you realize you got so absorbed in the article that you missed a portion of the lecture. Instant data access may sound like a boon, but in fact it is merely one more potential distractor in the classroom. Why not wait to look up a topic later in the library? Why does data access need to be "instant," when the very fact that it is instantaneous is problematic?C3: Efficient Use of TimeAgain, I have three quick points to raise by way of objection:(1) Lack of Evidence. My opponent makes the assertion that laptops can be a great way of maximizing efficient use of time. Perhaps that's true when they are used wisely, but Pro offers us no evidence that this is how they're used. For instance, instead of looking at school material on my laptop, I might just spend that time perusing through facebook, twitter, instagram, etc. Without any empirical data, Pro cannot make the claim that laptops actually, and on balance, maximize students productive use of time. Certainly, the evidence I've presented about distractability speaks to the contrary.(2) Weight. Even if you buy Pro's claims that laptops help students use time efficiently, there are several reasons why you should weigh my evidence on distraction and information retention/comprehension more heavily:(2a) "Measurability." My arguments are quantified; by this I mean I am citing measurable, statistical impacts to my claims. We should always prefer claims that are clear and measurable to claims whose overall impacts are indeterminate and vague. After all, we know what harms will transpire if we affirm, but we can only speculate at the benefits.(2b) Severity. My impacts are more severe that Pro's impacts. Efficient use of time may reap some benefits, but if those benefits aren't paying off on tests (as shown by my arguments) then those benefits clear aren't outweighing the harms.(3) Permutation. We can use desktops or library computers to help us organize and store our files and so forth. Surely, even if we have to walk back to our dorms or to the library to use these machines, they still save time on average by automating, organizing, and storing things, etc., just like laptops do. So, while these might not save as much time as laptops, they would still save some time. Therefore, why bother having laptops when they have clear harms (e.g. they increase distraction rates in the classroom), and when a large chunk of their benefits could be reaped without them?C4: Efficient use of SpaceCross-apply all of the attacks I made against Pro's C3 here, as they all fit.C5: Saving TreesI have two issues with this contention:(1) Topicality. Recall, the resolution asks whether laptop use is "beneficial for the student." This contention doesn't elucidate any benefit for the student, but rather talks about a benefit to the environment; thus, it's not topical.(2) Permutation. Desktops can also minimize the harms to the environment while not incurring the same harms as laptops.C6: DistractionUnfortunately, I cannot access the source for this study (404 error). I would ask Pro to please provide it in the comments, and I promise to rebut it next round. I would prefer to discuss distraction next round anyway, as that is where the bulk of those arguments are concentrated.But, from what I can ascertain just from what was posted, the study only surveyed/pertained to one class. Moreover, it confirmed that there was a distraction factor when students "multitasked." To quote Pro directly: "you're taking a class on something you don't know about and you multitask, you're going to score about 10% less on an end of lecture test." So, really, this only it reinforces my argument.C7: To the FutureUltimately, we might save money switching to online classes, but, as evidence by my earlier studies/sources, online classrooms are less effective than traditional classrooms. It is not, it seems to me, beneficial to the student to exchange quality for cost savings, esp. when we can find other ways to cut costs besides going digital.SOURCES1 - http://www.utsandiego.com...2 - https://www.texastribune.org...3 - http://www.nytimes.com...