Summer 2004 -- Vol. 57, No. 3

Turn off your phones, and open your laptops. You’d think that technology in the classroom would make teaching easier and faster with less effort for preparation or evaluation. But for Clemson professors, the use of laptop computers in the classroom isn’t about convenience at all. It’s about effective teaching. And just as it always has — effective teaching takes time, preparation, ongoing curiosity and a genuine concern for students. More and more universities are mandating the use of laptops in the educational experience of their students. The premise is that students are already “digitally driven” and that having a laptop in the classroom opens electronic “pages” for exercises, research, virtual reality and much more.

Most universities like Clemson are looking for ways to give their graduates the edge in the job market. And many campuses are becoming more connected to take advantage of technology.

But few of Clemson’s peers are providing the “other critical link” to make laptops in the classroom a success — thoughtful and comprehensive training for faculty who want to use laptops to expand their teaching skills.

In 2002, Clemson’s Educational Technology Services (ETS) and Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation (OTEI) formed the ETS-OTEI Laptop Faculty Development Program. The past two years, funding from the provost provided laptops for selected faculty representing all five colleges. The program provides practical assistance to combine pedagogy and technology. Workshops promote collaboration and support faculty members at their individual level of expertise.

So far, 100 of Clemson’s more than 950 instructional faculty members have been awarded laptops and have completed at least 40 hours of training required by the program.

The workshops are small communities of four to six faculty members who explore laptop pedagogy and practicality together. Interdisciplinary groups of professors come together to learn what works and doesn’t work, what’s available and what needs to be, and most of all what will help their students gain knowledge.

After the initial training is complete, many of these communities continue to meet weekly because they find energy and creativity in the sharing of ideas. As Barbara Weaver, director of the program, says, “Faculty development is critical to the success of a laptop course. Clemson’s administrators understand that and continue to push the envelope in undergraduate education.”

Clemson faculty give back to the program. They become part of the research through assessment surveys. They lead workshops, give presentations, invite other faculty members to their laptop classes and collaborate with other disciplines.

Some are writing about their laptop teaching experience for Enhancing Learning Using Laptops in the Classroom, a book edited by Weaver and Linda Nilson, director of the Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation. The book will play a central role in Clemson’s upcoming laptop pedagogy conference, which will host Atlantic Coast Conference schools and some top-wired universities next spring.

Some Clemson faculty participants have completely shifted teaching styles from traditional lecture to a studio environment that leads to student-centered, active learning. Others are finding that service-learning and problem-based learning work especially well as laptop assignments.

Whatever role laptops play in the classroom, one fact remains — Clemson faculty continue to care about teaching the individual student. And if technology is the best way to do it, then let the learning begin for student and teacher.

Who needs laptops?

The short answer is “everybody.”

The phased-in laptop mandate for fall 2004 semester at Clemson includes:

• all freshmen
• sophomores in the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities and the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences
• juniors in the College of Business and Behavioral Science and all MBA students
• seniors in the College of Engineering and Science

The University recommends several laptop models. For more information, visit Clemson’s DCIT Support Center on the Web at laptop.clemson.edu or email laptop-l@clemson.edu.