The return of pens, chalk and blackboards: these UvA lecturers keep their lectures analogue
The Interdisciplinary social science (ISS) programme has decided to no longer allow laptops and smartphones during lectures. ISS is not the only programme to be reverting to analogue methods to enhance the quality of teaching.
The sound of a pen scratching on paper rather than the clatter of a keyboard, and no PowerPoint presentations – just a blackboard? More and more UvA students are attending lectures without digital devices. This week, it became clear that the Interdisciplinary social Science (ISS) programme is taking a hard line on screen use, banning laptops and phones from all lectures. The measure is intended to help students pay closer attention, as the programme believes digital devices are too distracting: according to Associate Professor Cyrilein Evertsen, 60 to 80 per cent of students are not paying proper attention. Her students are therefore back to relying on pen and paper.
Not always effective
ISW is not the only programme to have taken such steps. Bram Mellink, a lecturer in Dutch history, asks his students to bring printed copies of assigned texts to lectures and to take notes on paper. He says that this decision has nothing to do with resistance to technology. ‘As far as I’m concerned, it’s not about the contrast between modern and traditional methods. I’ve been a computer nerd myself since I was young and am also very interested in AI, but I don’t think the use of laptops and smartphones is always effective. Seminars are about texts, and that requires concentration: being able to discuss them properly with one another without too many distractions.’
Positive results
To encourage this concentration, Mellink and his colleagues decided last year to ban laptops and smartphones during the lectures for a first-year module. To his surprise, the students’ reactions were overwhelmingly positive. ‘In the evaluations, this policy stood out as one of the aspects that many students particularly appreciated about the course. Afterwards, they said: “Yes, I found it annoying at first, but I can see that it leads to different kinds of discussions. So please carry on with it”.’ Mellink adds that ‘of course there were also people who found it annoying’, but that, on balance, the reactions were more often enthusiastic than negative.
Encouraged by this success, Mellink and his colleagues decided to introduce the measure to the MA in General History programme as well. There is not yet a consensus on banning digital aids from the history programme as a whole, as is the case with the Interdisciplinary Social Sciences programme: ‘But I have a feeling that a consensus is emerging on this.’
Timeless charm
In the classroom too, some lecturers stick to traditional teaching methods. Jan Brandts, a mathematics lecturer, is, for example, a great supporter of the chalkboard. This is partly out of respect for tradition. He learnt mathematics using it himself and now uses the boards to teach a new generation the ins and outs of the subject.
Moreover, he believes the blackboard is essential for sound maths teaching: ‘Maths is truly a creative process. If you want to demonstrate technically how something works, you have to show it. Carrying out all the steps one by one. Just as you would demonstrate how to play a piece on a piano, for example, you demonstrate how to construct a proof, step by step on a blackboard! What’s more, an illustrative diagram can be quickly drawn and coloured in, and
is just as easy to amend or delete’.
Smelly whiteboards
According to Brandts, that charm also lies in the material itself. ‘He doesn’t care for whiteboards, even though a proof can just as easily be explained step by step on them. ‘I find writing on a whiteboard less enjoyable. The feel of a piece of chalk against the board is nicer than that of a marker that’s half empty. And I think they stink. You get these erasers, covered in all that black gunk.’
Brandts explains that he is not alone in his love for the blackboard. ‘I think there are very few colleagues in the maths department – perhaps the younger ones whom I don’t know quite so well – who rely purely on digital tools and who don’t appreciate the charm of the blackboard.’
Distraction and interest
Unlike in Mellink’s lectures, mobile phones and laptops are still allowed in Brandts’ classes. He claims that, thanks to the students’ intrinsic interest in maths, students are less inclined to reach for their phones. ‘You don’t study maths because you want to get rich from it later on. You study maths because you used to have a few of those mathematical “aha” moments. Our students come here because they want to learn that maths, not because it serves some other goal, as might be the case with other degree programmes.’
Is history one of those degree programmes? Mellink doesn’t think so. In his view, distractions can actually stem from interest, as became apparent when an acquaintance attended a few of his lectures. ‘I asked him: “Would you mind taking a look at what the students are actually doing on their laptops?” His observation was that, whilst some were indeed busy with other things like Facebook and WhatsApp, many were also looking up information related to what I was talking about. So they were actually engaging quite deeply with the subject matter, just not in the way I think is most useful at that moment.’
