Managing laptop environment ....First year college students..

I agree that laptops in classrooms have many advantages...they contribute to the overall improvement of the learning process of the students. Bringing learning to life, In-class group projects, increased collaboration, improved teaching style, Improve technology competency are just some the of the benefits of laptops in classroom ..... But what I would like to stress in this blog are some of the challenges teachers face with at the college and how our college addressing and dealing with those challenges.

The Challenges are:

1.Students Surfing the web in class poses the biggest challenge to using laptops in classrooms claims teachers.

2. Teachers are frustrated by technical difficulties in laptop classrooms during and after the class.

3. As teachers start to use the laptop in class, fighting for students’ attention becomes a big issue.

4. The suitability of curriculum is another challenge that teachers face in a laptop environment.

5. When technology is involved, anything can go wrong. When laptops are in the hand of students, many technical problems can be encountered. ...

Proposed solution

A proper Support System is the key to address the majority of those challenges and issues that teachers face in a laptop environment. The main components of the support system are:

4.1. Training is the key to success

a. Technical skills for teachers

Technical training for staff must take place well in advance of the implementation stage of the laptop environment. Encountering technical problems with laptops is a daily concerns for teachers. Therefore, teachers must be able to address those technical issues either by solving them or by referring them to the technical support team. Teachers’ anecdotes indicate that this issue is a major problem for them at our college.

b. Blending the Laptop into the Lecture

Getting a laptop to function as a good teaching assistant requires a teacher to be curriculum integration expert. For teachers to change their learning styles and incorporate technology into their lecture notes, they must have time, confidence, motivation, proper training well in advance and the incentive to do it. Teachers must make sure that their lecture notes are available online so that students can have access to them at anytime from anywhere.

4.2. Class Management

Surfing the web in class is the biggest challenge to using laptops in our college. Institutions use different approaches to overcome this problem. We found that software like “Net Op School”, “Net Support School” and “SynchronEyes” allow teachers to effectively control what students are doing with their laptops.

4.3 IT Technical Support

The difficulty with laptops is that they are not as solid and dependable as desktop PC. Staff and students at our college are getting frustrated by “glitches” such as frozen screens, broken latches, and damaged screens. Some students are missing many days of participation in class while their laptops are being repaired.

A solid IT support system must be in place to repair those laptops immediately. A proper infrastructure support must also be available all the time. Therefore dependability on having the network available 24/7 is vital to the success of the laptop initiative. However as mentioned above; software controlling students access would make classroom management more effective than unregulated access.