Silly Rabbit, Tricks are for Kids

You've probably discovered by now that the U. of Chicago classroom Internet shutdown story is legitimate. They actually shut down the Internet in the classrooms. So far, the administration seems satisfied with the trick they've played on the students (see report from the IT Director below).

Why do I call it a trick? Because it's an illuuuuuusion that the Internet can be turned off. I won't number here the many, many ways that students will come up with to get around the shutdown. But I will say this: U. of Chicago is fighting the wrong battle on the wrong front. This is going to turn into a tit-for-tat back-and-forth, and it's likely that neither administration, faculty, or students will be happy with the resolution.

What really stands out to me in the IT Director's informal report is this sentence: "The fact is that, while we're ready if and when it does happen, the faculty have not yet found a compelling pedagogical use of the internet in our classrooms, so there is really no need to have it present." Hello? The Internet has been around long enough and has been used effectively at all levels of education and in the practice of law that I don't know that, as a law professor, I'd be willing to throw in the towel so easily and admit that I just cannot, for the life of me, find "a compelling pedagogical use" for it.

What's more, if students have been using the Internet in your class in sufficient numbers that it warrants turning the network off, then you have a bigger problem than the Internet. It's time to face the difficult facts: you are either boring, ineffective at controlling a classroom, and/or unimaginative. Turning off the wireless network isn't going to remedy any of those problems. Banning laptops isn't going to remedy any of those problems. Nothing you do on the student side is going to remedy those problems.

Here's the report from the IT guy at Chicago:

Well, if many are so curious......

As those of you reading are probably aware, wireless and wired network access was turned off in the classroom wing (not elsewhere) just before the Spring quarter began here at the U of Chicago Law School in accordance with the Dean and faculty's wishes. This was done, with everyone knowing full well, that wireless broadband existed as well as wireless bleed-in from other areas in the Law School.

After several weeks here's how things have played out: Despite very vocal outbursts from a small number of people it has mostly been a non-event. Some of the students are quite unhappy about it and not shy about letting the administration (and the world) know, some are unhappy but silent, some just don't care, and quite a significant number seem to be pleased with the policy. The Dean hosted a town meeting largely addressing this issue last week and dealt with numerous comments from those wishing to vent about the policy. Most of the comments, while presented somewhat better and much more verbosely were basically, "I'm an adult and if I want to surf the web in class and ignore the lecture, I should be able to." Only one person made any attempt at an academic complaint and that was that sometimes people "zoned out" and needed to send emails to their peers for them to fill them in on what they had missed. I found it rather ironic that he failed to realize that his
emails were certainly a distraction away from the lecture for the recipient (perhaps they could email another friend, starting a chain reaction?). The fact is that, while we're ready if and when it does happen, the faculty have not yet found a compelling pedagogical use of the internet in our classrooms, so there is really no need to have it present. The wired connections in one room were left active for Lexis and Westlaw training and there is plentiful wired and wireless access in the rest of the Law School for the times when people are not in class.

Our central campus networking group is currently working on a system to allow the wired connections in each room to be turned on or off at the professor's preference. This system will likely also be applied to the wireless for the whole wing since isolating wireless to a single room is problematical.

When this was first proposed many people expressed opinions to me that the decision would be quickly overturned due to an overwhelming cacophony of complaints. That has not been the case at all. The Dean feels even more strongly now that it was the right thing to do and the cacophony never really materialized. While those reading the abovethelaw blog, and now Slashdot (we're famous!), might think otherwise from those sources, it has pretty much been business as usual, with a lot less email and web browsing in class. I've also had several queries from other Law Schools indicating that their Deans were watching this carefully because they were interested as well. Based upon things here so far, don't be too surprised if we're not the last Law School to do this.

Ted Ressell
Director of Information Technology
The University of Chicago Law School

Message to the Deans who are "watching this carefully because they were interested as well": Be better than this. Expect more from your faculty than this. Provide a more innovative education than this.