Professor Ofer Gal was speaking about learning relationships in history,from the Socratic method in Ancient Greece to that between a master and apprentice in Victorian England.
Professor Ofer Gal has banned the use of laptops and phones during his lectures,saying creating knowledge is a social thing.Edwina Pickles
“What do you not see in any of the images?” he asked the class before telling them the answer.
No laptops. No phones.
“This is,never has been. And until the next mutation in humans which will take many generations,delivering,creating knowledge is a social thing[...] There ain’t no other way,” he declared.
“This gets across a little better than it used to before COVID.”
Students prepare for lectures in different ways. According to Professor Ofer Gal,many continue to browse unrelated content.Edwina Pickles
Van Wyk,who is in her third year of a psychology degree,did not immediately get it.
“It was a bit weird at first because the entire university is based on this of accessing lecture slides and readings,” she said.
A few weeks into the course she was able to focus more in the lecture and could see the rationale for removing the distraction of laptops. Another student,Jayden Pandah,said he also didn’t see a problem with the strict rule.
“I don’t use my laptop in lectures anyway because I do see that it affects my attention to the lecture,” he said.
Not everyone agreed,with one student complaining anonymously on an internet forum last week about how the laptop ban was discriminatory to students with a learning disability.
“He rants about how bad technology is[in] virtually every lecture and it’s massively annoying me,” the student said in the post.
The student wrote that he had emailed the professor,asking him to stop,and explaining that students with special learning needs – such as those with dyspraxia – need laptops to take notes and that his policies are “discriminatory”.
A University of Sydney spokeswoman said professors had the power to restrict the use of laptops and digital devices – but any prohibition would not apply to students with a learning disability.
“There will be occasions where using a device is not appropriate because of health and safety or academic staff may also decide that there are teaching situations where it might be less distracting for devices to be off,” she said.
“[In] situations where a student has academic adjustments because of a disability or other need,suitable assistive technologies,which might include a laptop,will always be allowed.”
When theHeraldspoke with Professor Gal about the complaint,he said if a student had a disability he was receptive to his or her needs.
“Of course,if someone comes to me and says,the only way I can do it[is with technology],I am bound to help,” he said.
He introduced the ban after his daughter told him about a similar one in place at and noticing that students in Sydney were rarely taking notes on their laptops.
“There are usually three things open,none of them relate[to the lecture]. There is eBay and Facebook on the laptop,and on the phone,they’re constantly sending messages,” he said.
Gal cites two pieces of research as evidence for the ban – a which says students who transcribe verbatim what is said in class had a lower conceptual understanding of course content. A that laptop use is a significant distraction for both the user and the student,and was detrimental to students’ understanding of course material and overall course performance.
Before introducing the laptop ban,for a few years,Prof Gal also stopped recording lectures online because he felt students had stopped coming to class.
Lectures this year are recorded. He estimated of the 90 students enrolled in the class,only one-third of them turned up to class each week. A further 30 students dialled in remotely. Gal said of the students who attended in person,he wanted them engaged.
“I just can’t bear the glassy glazed eyes in front of me. This is an important moment for this class,” he said.
“It is an important thing,the meeting of young and old,of the senior and the junior,of the apprentice and the expert,it is extremely important to me.”
“I am really good at it,not because I am brilliant,but it is what I have been doing all my life.”
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