Wireless Web treads fine line on campuses
By: BY NOAH BIERMAN Knight Ridder Newspapers
Issue date: 3/31/05 Section: News
- < prev Page 2 of 2
Wireless offers advantages in and out of the classroom. Students can access their course materials or research a classroom discussion topic.
Law school has become the hub of instant messaging and other non-academic uses of the wireless connection, according to students.
"It's absolutely awful," said Risa Berrin, a second-year law student. "Professors would be appalled" if they walked away from the lectern and saw the laptops in action.
Ramsey said e-mailing and instant messaging in class is minimal, but he nonetheless created a computer program that allows professors to turn off or limit access. When professors point and click, the computer tells data switches to stop Web traffic. The switches automatically turn back on at the end of the day. Ramsay knows they've been used, but not how often.
Human Multitasking
Shana Stein, 25, a third-year UM law student from Dallas, sat outside in a common area of the law campus known as "The Bricks" last week. She had three instant message programs open on her computer and was in the middle of running an auction on eBay.
You want to know if students goof off in class? she asks.
"Totally... Instant messaging, Web surfing, Internet gaming... You don't have to say that I do it. You can say that rumor has it that some people are instant messaging," Stein explains.
She's spotted some watching movies and friends have seen more graphic content.
`I've had friends tell me `so and so was watching a porno during class,'" she said. She declined to name names.
Stein said she has alternated between bringing her laptop to class and leaving it at home. She takes more notes when she has it, but says the quality may be better when she hand-writes the notes.
Law students, who pay $14,508 per semester in tuition at UM, say they lose track of lectures at their own peril. Gabriel, the one who bought the beer equipment during class, said he knows the difference between getting completely lost in the Internet and keeping a low background hum.
"That stuff is really self-correcting. If they want to dig themselves a hole and jump into it ... our students are adults," said Michael Froomkin, who teaches an Internet law class at UM. "They can make their choices and live with the consequences."
Froomkin said he has heard a lot of talk about Web surfing in class, but believes the problem is exaggerated. He is far more annoyed when cell phones ring and disturb the entire class.
Law school has become the hub of instant messaging and other non-academic uses of the wireless connection, according to students.
"It's absolutely awful," said Risa Berrin, a second-year law student. "Professors would be appalled" if they walked away from the lectern and saw the laptops in action.
Ramsey said e-mailing and instant messaging in class is minimal, but he nonetheless created a computer program that allows professors to turn off or limit access. When professors point and click, the computer tells data switches to stop Web traffic. The switches automatically turn back on at the end of the day. Ramsay knows they've been used, but not how often.
Human Multitasking
Shana Stein, 25, a third-year UM law student from Dallas, sat outside in a common area of the law campus known as "The Bricks" last week. She had three instant message programs open on her computer and was in the middle of running an auction on eBay.
You want to know if students goof off in class? she asks.
"Totally... Instant messaging, Web surfing, Internet gaming... You don't have to say that I do it. You can say that rumor has it that some people are instant messaging," Stein explains.
She's spotted some watching movies and friends have seen more graphic content.
`I've had friends tell me `so and so was watching a porno during class,'" she said. She declined to name names.
Stein said she has alternated between bringing her laptop to class and leaving it at home. She takes more notes when she has it, but says the quality may be better when she hand-writes the notes.
Law students, who pay $14,508 per semester in tuition at UM, say they lose track of lectures at their own peril. Gabriel, the one who bought the beer equipment during class, said he knows the difference between getting completely lost in the Internet and keeping a low background hum.
"That stuff is really self-correcting. If they want to dig themselves a hole and jump into it ... our students are adults," said Michael Froomkin, who teaches an Internet law class at UM. "They can make their choices and live with the consequences."
Froomkin said he has heard a lot of talk about Web surfing in class, but believes the problem is exaggerated. He is far more annoyed when cell phones ring and disturb the entire class.
