by Christopher Dean, Will Hochman, Carra Hood, and Robert McEachern

Why Wireless Laptops? Node II
By Will Hochman

In addition to analyzing the teaching effectiveness of our methods and resources, we have begun to critically consider the drawbacks and liberating effects of using wireless laptops in writing classes. Despite the uneven training among techers using the lab, students, as you will read below, seemed to generally view the experience of learning in a laptop classroom positively. Here are the results from our first student survey of laptop classroom users--excluding written comments, which were too few to be statisically significant.

Southnern Connecticut State University, English Department

Wireless Laptop Lab (En A 109) Student Survey (03) Results

The following survey was distributed on April 28 and collected by May 8, 2003. 16 of 16 sections (231 students) responded in the following ways:

For questions 1-6, circle the statement (Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, or Strongly Disagree) that most accurately reflects your experience.

1. I used the laptops in at least 50% of my class meetings.¹

2. I thought that using laptops in this course was helpful.

3. I rarely had problems using the laptops in this class.

4. I received adequate instruction to use the laptops effectively in this class

5. I rarely experienced difficulty handing out and retrieving laptops.

6. I would consider taking other classes in a wireless laptop lab.

¹One section of 16 students only used En A 109 for the last 2 weeks of the term. We believe that this could have led a larger than typical number of "Disagree" and "Strongly Disagree" responses to question 1--since they would not have been able to use computers 50% of the time over the course of their semester-long class.

That students agree that not only was working with laptops helpful to them as learners (as per question 2), they rarely had problems working with the laptops--either in terms of technical problems or simply logistical ones (as per questions 3 and 5).
That students felt they were adequately prepared to use laptops by their teachers (as per question 4).
That the departement received empirical, statistical evidence that students actually enjoyed working with computers. This sort of information might allow us at SCSU to combat some of the entrenched attitudes towards computers as "dehumanizing" machines that might make us forget everything from how we teach to our students' names. (See Bob and Carra's pieces for more involved discussions of these two important points.)
Finally, that 92% of the students surveyed would, "consider taking other classes in a wireless laptop lab," is very significant for our long-term project of convincing our faculty at SCSU to use the lab. It shows that an overwhelming majority of students like working in an English classroom with laptops, which might challenge some of our more reluctant/techno-phobic colleagues to use the lab.

Node Three of "Why Wireless Laptops"