Allie Norman Source 4

Allie Norman Source 4

Citation: Annan-Coultas, Dustin1. "Laptops As Instructional Tools: Student Perceptions." Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice To Improve Learning 56.5 (2012): 34-41. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 12 Oct. 2016.

Question: What role does student usage of technology, such as laptops in the classroom, play in shaping the academic experiences and success of college students?

Initial thoughts: Most universities require students to own laptops, and while I agree, I have noticed that there can be both good sides and bad sides to laptop implementation. I want to know how laptops can be useful in multiple fields of subjects, how they can be distracting, what causes them to be distracting, and how teachers implement laptops into the teaching environment? Are the teachers engaging their students? What are the drawbacks of laptops? What ways are there to improve in implementing laptops? What effect do laptops have on student learning? This article was not what I was looking for for source four, but the title caught my attention when it asked to view laptops as instructional tools and student perceptions of those tools. I felt right then, that this article could possibly answer whether or not teachers implement technology successfully or not. After reading the abstract I have also seen that this article aims to answer exactly what I’m questioning.

Step 2

Paragraph 1; Summarize:

This article discusses the importance of understanding how laptops can be used as instructional tools, researchers collected data through three different methods: focus groups, surveys, and classroom observation. The researchers involved in this study observed not only students, but professors too. Students had reported that they use laptops for communicating, note-taking, concepts, and off-task activities. Students commented that they use google multiple times throughout class to look up clarifications on concepts they might not understand. Detriments at the time included, non-innovated and major technical issues. Students, when distracted became reluctant to ask questions and they often became reliant on their laptops (too attached). This article also talks about the improvements of laptops, but initially it all comes down to personal responsibility.

Paragraph 2; Think:

I think that this article makes some crucial points to my argument. Yes, students can get distracted, work on other homework, texting, emailing, all sorts of counterproductive activities, but initially, it all comes down to personal responsibility. Responsibility on the student’s part, for paying attention to what they’re doing, and how they choose to use their exceptional tool, and partly on the instructor’s part, for implementing technology successfully and whether or not they’re engaging their students. One problem/benefit of technology in the classrooms is that instructors are now posting their lectures prior to class, this can be abused if students don’t pay attention in class because they already have the lecture or it can be used effectively if the students use it when they’ve missed something instead of just not paying attention.

Paragraph 3; Synthesize:

Even though this article brought up some different and crucial points compared to sources one and two, I feel as though it was a shortened mirror of source three. It covers similar, if not the same, concepts. This article goes more into how to improve the use of laptops in the classroom whereas source three discusses how teachers are implementing technology and how they are successfully doing so. This article covers a bit of how teachers use technology, but it’s just the basics of what could be further refined and analyzed.

Paragraph 4; Question and plan:

From here I need to get back to digging a little bit deeper, this article helped to get a basic overview of what needs to be further analyzed. This article leads me back to my previous questions whether faculty is at fault for detriment for not properly implementing technology in the classroom, and whether students need to take responsibility for their own detriment or if it goes deeper than that. For my next article I want to find an article focused on the effectiveness in the ways that teachers implement technology, laptop usage, into the classroom setting.