If Professors Stop Lecturing, Will Students Stop Checking Facebook?

infoneer-pulse:

You might think that students taking classes with some of the world’s most prestigious academics wouldn’t spend lecture time checking their Facebook profiles. But it turns out that Harvard students have a pretty tough time disconnecting from the web. Harvard Crimson staff writer Hemi H. Gandhi writes that Facebook use in Harvard classes “has become so ubiquitous that no one even questions it”—not even professors.

When Gandhi asked his fellow students why they use Facebook in class, they told him they turn to the site because “a professor starts regurgitating exactly what they’ve read in the textbook; paying attention won’t clarify confusion; a professor starts on a random tangent that is neither interesting nor relevant; [they] need a break to re-focus; [or they] feel pressed for time and decide to multitask.”

Because “Harvard students are generally pragmatic and hyper-concerned about maximizing their Return On Time Investment,” Gandhi writes, they log onto the site (which, of course, was founded at their university in 2003). Besides, he says, students no longer have to pay attention to the professor’s lecture to learn the subject matter because “much of knowledge has become commoditized on the web.” To solve the problem, Gandhi believes professors must “start thinking of themselves as service providers who must constantly innovate to serve students better.”

» via GOOD

A charge for innovation in the productive capacity of the college lecture hall.

J N O M I C S

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