By Ji Kim
Elm Staff Writer
Walking by a coffee shop, your eyes skim over the lounging people inside and you may spy a person typing on a laptop or reading off a slim e-reader. You don’t give it a second glance or thought.
And that is incredible.
It’s honestly staggering when we stop to think about how technology continues to progress at an exponential rate (the popular Kindle, for instance, came into market in 2007). Technology is unquestionably becoming more integrated into classroom learning and studying and it will only continue.
How many of you are jealous of the students in the cool iPad classes this semester? Washington College’s Office of Information Technologies had started the iPad Pilot Program last year; basically, chosen classrooms are loaned iPads to use and test for that semester.
This semester, Spanish Professor Elena Deanda is one such teacher who is using the iPad in one of her Hispanic Studies classes. She explains how she uses the iPad in order to “incorporate a visual component” into the class, such as bringing up images about a topic right on the spot. Professor Deanda also brings to light the environmentally friendly advantage to using the iPad in class; she asserts that “everything is online” be it Pdf handouts, assignments or grades. Consequently, she has hardly uses paper in the classroom.
Of course, in regards to the downside of technological troubles and woes, Professor Deanda gives a sly smile and readily responds that problems like internet failure have happened before in the classroom.
“It definitely isn’t perfect,” she confirms.
Junior student Gary Fenstamaker also shares his experiences with a less popular resource at WC—electronic textbooks. While some students opt to use e-textbooks as a supplement for their classes, Fenstamaker chose to fully use the e-textbook for his Object Oriented Programming class and hits all of the major advantages of e-textbooks right on the head. E-textbooks are greatly cheaper, portable in an e-reader and much more accessible.
Fenstamaker explains the latter in detail: “…it feels like I have it wherever I go. One feature of the Amazon Kindle books is that I can read it on my phone, my tablet, my Kindle or my computer. As long as I have access to the Internet, I have access to the book. This is great as I don’t have to remember to bring the book with me if I go the library and it prevents me from lugging a heavy textbook around.”
Granted, a blow dryer won’t save drenched wires and e-readers probably wouldn’t make it out of a tumble down a flight of stairs. Fenstamaker also expresses his irritation with e-textbook page “flipping” (exasperating loading time).
Samantha Gross, a sophomore, while enamored with her iPad as a student in Professor Deanda’s class, touches on how studying in college still revolves around the classic stack of textbooks on the dorm desk. She clarifies how highlighting and making notes in e-textbooks is simply “not the same” and that she does her best work using paper and pen. In discussing the internet factor, she agrees how an online textbook may be too distracting for those who fall victim to the lure of the internet and check Facebook instead of getting in more study time.
In truth, it seems that a critical point regarding online studying versus hitting the old books is about planning and discipline. Professor Deanda amicably hints at discipline when she advises students to “just give it [the old textbook] a chance”. The lack of planning refers to less-than prepared students and professors alike who seem at a loss when the computer speakers won’t work for their video presentation.
Naturally, books and pens are not going to become archaic tools of the past any time in this decade or the next. The promise of tools—not crutches, I hope—like the iPad and e-textbooks for future students simply keep shining brighter with a potential notable of paying attention to.