When faculty members really are Luddites

Hating laptops in class reaches a height in this video.  It feels like a charming liquid nitrogen exercise, until the furious denunciation at the end (around 1:39).

Which reminds me, I need to write up my argument about how most academics criticizing technology aren't Luddites, but Amish.

(thanks to Peter Naegele!)

Comments

[Alison Furlong]

I have really mixed feelings about students using laptops in class. As a student I love it - all my notes are easily searchable, and my handwriting is hideous, which makes hand note-taking an iffy proposition.

On the other hand, on the whole I have found laptops to be the kiss of death for class discussion. And this is even aside from the whole issue of people doing non-class stuff on laptops during class, which I confess I have done, too.

[Ed Webb]

Definitely not Luddites. Luddites get a bad press, but were generally quite strategic and realistically class-conscious. They sabotaged machines that were genuinely a threat to their livelihoods and were the tools of oppression, not because they hated machines/technology/progress. So I'm looking forward to that argument.

I don't mind laptops in my classes. If they become a distraction, I have ways of getting your attention. It's part of what being a teacher is about.

[Ruben]

Bryan, your comment on the Luddite/Amish distinction reminded me of Pynchon's essay on C.P. Snow and the Luddites:
http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_luddite.html

Back to our laptop-smashing instructor, here is a news story that adds a bit more info:
http://www.oudaily.com/news/2010/feb/18/professor-shatters-distracting-laptop/

And, of course, here's Professor Mullen's explanation on his home page:
http://www.nhn.ou.edu/~kieran/
Somehow, I don't think Ned Lud or Jakob Ammann would be terribly impressed by the depth of his thinking on the subject...