Laptops in Class

Nice one!C1. Portable College EducationTopicality: If schools and colleges have an online academia, then its nonsense for these schools and colleges to reject students from connecting through laptops. This brings us to bsh1's permutation, but I will talk about that later.Effectiveness: Ok, so there's a 10% average difference in dropout rate from students, but the difference is, actually that many of the online courses are free. Schools like Harvard and Yale offer open courses for no credit.(2)(3) The passage that bsh1 quotes on UPenn is an example of students not completing open courses, but think about this: many of these cited students are paying nothing to the schools. They don't face the loss or consequences of failing. This also goes back to topicality. Online courses can only be accessed from online through a computer. The school should not have a say in what type of computer is used, least of all a laptop. I want to talk more about this. So some of bsh1's articles talk about how students fall behind because they aren't motivated, but what about the motivated students? What about the other 60.4% who actually pass or even the ones who do well? Personally I don't think a blanket laptop restriction because of a 10.2% higher rate of failing is fair to those not in this 10.2% minority.C2. Instant Data AccessInstant Data Access is good because its much more efficient. OK, so an article might distract a student, but I don't think that it's that big a deal. Is that potentiality worrisome enough to make make a blanket rejection of laptop usage? Plus the problem here would be internet access and not the laptops themselves. Lots of schools don't have public wifi. Instant data access can be limited to stuff stored locally on the student computer like textbooks and note files. Why bother going to a library when your research needs are on the computer? Saves a lot of time no?C3. Efficient Use of TimeLack of evidence: Although I don't have studies or quotes for these, I can still appeal to common sense. I don't need to cite a source to claim that a circle is round. It's just common sense. Common sense says that quicker access means less time wasted doing the perfunctory information retrieval like going to the library and flipping through books for only a couple pieces of information.Weight: bsh1 is saying that his studies have more weight. I'll talk about this later, but to use bad studies is to use half the evidence to prove a full case. Imagine a crime scene where a woman was robbed in her home, and the investigators found a hat that belonged to her neighbor right in her backyard. The investigators can't know just from that hat that the neighbor is guilty. That's silly! They'd have to look for more evidence like footprints and cross examine the neighbor with a trained detective-psychologist before they can determine if the neighbor was the robber. They might even have to do DNA checks on the hat. The lone hat doesn't mean anything by itself. The evidence is inconclusive without further investigations. Likewise, bsh1's studies aren't removetly conducive to his arguments.Severity: bsh1's impacts are quantified but lack real conclusive correlation. His sources point out only a 10.2% difference between laptop users and non-laptop users and ignores lots of factors. That 10.2% is a minority. The benefits reaped by academic laptop users are much greater.Permutation: The difference between a laptop and a desktop is that the laptop is portable but the desktop is not. That's a huge difference. Schools don't have to disallow desktops. Students just won't bother carrying them around. Portability means efficient access. Unless you want to be confined to one area to enjoy the virtual benefits of computer access, the laptops are a much better alternative as word-processing, information-gathering machines.C4. Efficient Use of SpaceCross-Applied Lack of Evidence: Common sense says that a laptop weighs less than 6 textbooks each with an average weight of 3.5 pounds. Common sense also says that laptops are smaller than 6 textbooks and take up much less space than textbooks, pens, papers, folders, binders, and notebooks combined. All I have in my little backpack when I go out is a laptop and a laptop charger. I see some guys carrying gigantic backpacks with heavy books and I feel sorry for them, but their macho ego is not my problem!C5. Saving Trees?Topicality: Schools should have the public interest at heart. The environment is a public interest. Schools should care about things that affect the environment, especially things they have an impact over. "[T]he US spends more than $7 billion annually on traditional textbooks”(3). Think about how many trees they're cutting down to make $7billion worth of textbooks every year? Etext and etext access through things like laptops is something schools should move toward having.Permutation: Common sense says that most desktops weigh about as much as 6 textbooks and actually take up more space. Desktops aren't as portable or they'd pretty much just be laptops.C7. To the FutureI think that lots of the problems with technology is more to do with habit than with the actual technology itself, and I think these problems can be mitigated over time as people become accustomed to integrating technology into their lives and so I think moving toward adapting it is where we should be heading toward. Especially in education since we have a growing online academia.C6. Distractions - Why Both Bsh1's C1 and C2 Don't Make Sense!! -I pointed out in my counter cases that Bsh1's studies aren't conducive to bsh1's case. All studies neglected important factors. Study 1 does not take into account studying or the problem of veratim note-taking, Study 2 were told "to take notes on a lecture, just like you would in class. Please take whatever kind of notes you’d take in a class where you expected to be tested on the material later—don’t change anything just because you’re in a lab.” which inconclusively covers verbatim note-taking. Study 3 ignores the control for verbatim note-taking and tries to account for studying, but only allows 10 minutes of studying. These 10 minutes are only a small fraction (10%) of the portion of studying suggested in order for students to do well. The study I cited in link (0) showed that even though laptop note-takers performed worse, every single student performed badly, These studies are really bad simulations of real educational environments. This goes back to the point on lack of evidence. Its true that bsh1 uses sources and studies for his claims, but the fact is, the sources and studies just aren't good. Bad studies are just as good as no study at all. They might even be worse because they cause people to draw false conclusions.Last Words:Laptops give greater efficiency in many areas. On balance, the many benefits of the personal laptop in schools outweigh its costs. The costs that bsh1 showed us are either minimally exclusive to a minority or based on really bad studies whereas the benefits of laptops are common sense realities. I would take all the efficiencies that a laptop provides for me as a dedicated student along with the danger of reading 10-minute articles in class any day.SOURCES0 is the broken link from last round. My apologies!0 - http://www.washingtonpost.com...;1 - http://www.nsf.gov...;2 - http://www.extension.harvard.edu...;3 - http://oyc.yale.edu...;4 - http://www.electronista.com... 5 - http://pss.sagepub.com...;