All electronics banned?

[betakurt]

I was curious if any other programs have a "no electronic devices allowed" rule for lectures or clinicals. No computers, netbooks, voice recorders, or pdas/cell-phones with apps.

I'm very disappointed in that policy, since I take usually take notes on my Macbook twice as fast as I can write. I feel like they are fighting technology instead of embracing it.

thanks,

Kurt

[whichone'spink, BSN, RN]

I've typed notes in other classes, but for some reason, I have never hauled my laptop into any of my nursing classes. Part of it may be because the lecture slides are posted on Blackboard and I take notes on those. And part of it may be because the instructors pull questions mostly from the book anyway.

[AOx1]

I am a nursing instructor. Our students are required to have a laptop. They will need to be proficient in the use of technology as a nurse. I don't care if some choose to play on the Internet/with phones. It is not my problem. They are not my children, they are adults. Adults make their own choices. Sometimes we make poor choices that have unpleasant consequences such as failing an exam due to not paying attention in class. Before laptops and cell phones there was note passing and daydreaming. You can't control everything. My job is to create a learning environment, to be enthusiastic and to clarify material. It is NOT to try to make a grown adult pay attention if they don't want to do so. I won't punish my students who do work hard for the mistakes of the few unmotivated students.

[Music in My Heart]

Regarding the "intellectual property" of a lecture... well given that most nursing instructors are public employees then I see no reason that they should be asserting control over that which has been already purchased by the public through the instructor's wages and benefits.

Additionally, just as "Fair Use" permits instructors to copy pages out of text books, I contend that "Fair Use" should permit students to capture the lecture in whatever form that they're able... they're simply prohibited from publishing it as their own or otherwise disseminating it.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

I love facebook, I keep in touch with all my friends and family all over the country easily. I can update all them at the same time with pics and life and stuff and keep in touch with all of them in one convenient place. It has it's good points. Than again, I embrace change and new things and technology.

No one in my class uses computers to note take. We are allowed. I am glad they don't, I would go nuts at all the keyboard tapping.

Cell phones can be a wonderful thing as well, it's not the phones that are the problem. It's the people that are rude with them. You don't have to turn your cell off. You can put it on silent. I put mine on silent, it doesn't ring or vibrate.

I would hate if they banned electronics in class though. I tape record my lectures.

People use to live without cars, but that is a "technology" we embraced, I don't see everyone up in arms protesting to going back to riding horses everywhere. :|

[JUPITER19]

Also, some people are bothered by the constant clicking of a keyboard, if you are in a small classroom there isn't a way to get away from it.

LOL, I am always stuck in a small classroom where someone clicks his pen non stop thru lecture or taps it against the desk. The clicking noise is twice as loud as the sound my keyboard makes. No one ever comments on his clicking, but it drives me up the wall. Same with the little rollerballs for scrolling on cell phones, and the side talking. My laptop is the quietest of the noise distractions in the classroom (approx 30 people fits in these rooms) :)

Me

[Music in My Heart]

To all of the students who are so distractable as to be bothered by a keyboard typing or even a pen clicking... you may as well get used to learning to focus in noise... I've never had a work environment that's so noise-cluttered as the nurse's station is.

[Future O.R. Nurse]

We have to keep in mind that our professors and most of the preceptors we will be assigned to grew up and worked without all this technology. It is going to take a while before we start to see them retire and the new professors and preceptors embrace technology as the younger students do. I am a middle aged nursing student and am ok with or without the technology. If it is policy then I follow it for the sake of the new career I am studying for.

Consider this, my grandmother would never use a microwave when they came out. She never used the remote control that came with her new television. She never used a cordless phone. She lived twenty years after this new technology became available for household use. It would have made her life much easier, however, she didn't feel the need for it.

[Future O.R. Nurse]

I also have to ad that using computers and pda's to do all the work for you, instead of using ur brain to remember things is a disadvantage. I totally agree that using a pda to look up drug interactions, or signs and symptoms a patient may be having would be extrememly useful as a nursing student. However, actually knowing this stuff is more helpful than leaving it up to the computer. Total dependence on technology is not going to be helpful if the system crashes. Think back to 9/11, the whole system crashed, no cell phones, no 2-way radio communication. You had to KNOW your stuff if your were going to survive or help anyone. (I know this for fact, I was there)

[JUPITER19]

To all of the students who are so distractable as to be bothered by a keyboard typing or even a pen clicking... you may as well get used to learning to focus in noise... I've never had a work environment that's so noise-cluttered as the nurse's station is.

Sitting in thru a class lecture (where at least for me you except some degree of quiet) is much different than being in the work place. Just because I prefer a quieter learning environment doesn't mean I am not capable of focusing in noise. In my job you have to be able to do 100 things at once, and it there is more noise and distractions than in hospital/nurse station's that I've seen. Even to be taught by another RN in the workplace I would not expect all distractions to disappear for me to learn and I can focus just as well with them. I can focus just as well in either environment, I just prefer the classroom to be quieter.

Me

[9livesRN, BSN, RN]

I gues it is a preference thing. As long as I can hear the voice of the instructor I am fine, the side noises are tunned down by my focusing on note taking, highliting and hearing the instructor.

Now if i can't hear the instructor, I can get mouthy LOL.

But thank God I went to school with adults, and my class was awesome! we all payed attention, and loved lecture all along! I cant complain at all, my classmates ALL of them were awesome I miss them so much!!!

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

To all of the students who are so distractable as to be bothered by a keyboard typing or even a pen clicking... you may as well get used to learning to focus in noise... I've never had a work environment that's so noise-cluttered as the nurse's station is.

I have dealt with it for as long as I can remember, obviously I wouldn't still be in school if I couldn't handle it. It still drives me up the wall though. A pen clicking is more so annoying. It's just a little consideration one might have when people are trying to listen to lecture, but none the less, we obviously still manage to get by or we wouldn't come out of the house. It's not all noises that bother me. It's certain annoying sounds :)

FYI, I am not usually an easily distracted person. It's only certain things.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

Sitting in thru a class lecture (where at least for me you except some degree of quiet) is much different than being in the work place. Just because I prefer a quieter learning environment doesn't mean I am not capable of focusing in noise. In my job you have to be able to do 100 things at once, and it there is more noise and distractions than in hospital/nurse station's that I've seen. Even to be taught by another RN in the workplace I would not expect all distractions to disappear for me to learn and I can focus just as well with them. I can focus just as well in either environment, I just prefer the classroom to be quieter.

Me

Yeah, funny they don't allow noise during tests, why is that? Oh yeah, because people should be able to focus on their exam in a quiet environment. Just like when people are in a meeting, or lecture expected to absorb what is being said, it should be a quiet environment. Even if there is no rule saying "you may not constantly click you pen" It's the respectful and considerate thing for people to do. Than again, some people seem to lack any sort of consideration so it's something we have to live to learn with I suppose.