There's this stereotype that journalism majors are not to be trusted with math. However, I ask you to give me a chance here with one very, very basic equation. I promise I will not disappoint.
Okay, so say we start our equation with a cell phone. Now, subtract the outer shell and the calling feature until we are left with the innards. Still with me? OK, now let's add those cell phone components - the microchip and the itty bitty operating system that let you go online and do other fun stuff before you smashed up your phone - to a tiny little laptop shell. How did we end up with a mini laptop shell? Well, let's pretend we got a shrink ray and shrunk a regular laptop by 50 to 70 percent.
So cell-phone interior plus laptop exterior equals what? Well, some may say our sum is a hideous technological concoction that's too chunky to be phone-like and too tiny to be fully computable. On the other hand, however, it could equal one of the most expensive in-class notebooks and cheapest notebook computers we will ever own: the magnificent net book. And, according to statistics, the net book will probably be the next computer you purchase, believe it or not.
Now, don't get me wrong: Net books have been on the market more than a year now and I'm not here to just tell you about what all that entails.
But, just in case: It's a computer. It's tiny. It's typically dirt-cheap. It's usually either Linux or Windows XP, though it may run phone-like operating systems such as Android soon. It's likely the wave of the future. Enough said?
Now, let's imagine that every student walking around campus suddenly threw away his or her paper notebooks in exchange for the net book (which, at as little as $300 a pop and dropping, isn't all that hard to imagine). What are we left with? Either the fastest note-takers Ohio University has ever seen, or some terrible students with two-pound laptops.
It's really hard to say from my end, as I am a laptop addict going through withdrawal this quarter and have been both of those students at some point.
Mostly, I have used my laptop because I have terrible handwriting. Partly, it's because I'm a typical tech junkie who likes having all possible tools at her disposal at all times. Either way, that's not an option this quarter and I'm learning to deal with that.
However, with the prevalence of e-text and Blackboard and constant university e-mails, it's becoming increasingly harder to jump between solid and digital media. In reality, typing up notes (even after the fact) still helps me study better (I can't go back and bold my more-important scribbles in real life) and definitely helps make it easier to share notes with peers or reorganize them later on.
So I'm not here to defend the laptoppers who draw your attention to their Facebook or video games during lectures. And I'm not here to defend note-takers who will faster conclude a chapter with the next Mona Lisa than a legible outline of concepts.
The truth is that people who don't want to be in class will always find ways to mentally escape. Some can just pull off the blank stare better than others.
On the other hand, people who do try to pay attention will manage on either type of notebook - or net book. The latter, however, will not only allow far more listening and less erasing time if an instructor realizes he or she got off topic by mistake, but also a lighter backpack/purse.
As for the chronic escapers
one of my laptop-banning instructors put it best: If you don't want to be here why are you here?
If net books offer willing students an inexpensive way to keep notes legible and log onto Blackboard during class to pull up unprinted documents, I don't see why they aren't allowed in all classes. Frankly, most net books can hardly run more programs than a cell phone can, and that soft clicking emitting from Donny B.'s Blackberry is not his passing the good word of the lecture to Suzie Q. across campus.
4
Opinion
Olga Kharitonova
