Analysis Of In Defense Of Laptops In The Classroom By Rebecca Schuman

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In her article “In Defense of Laptops in the Classroom”, Rebecca Schuman, an education columnist for “Slate”, deals with the issue of having laptops in the classroom. Schuman believes that the rigid enforcement of the no-laptop rule infantilizes students and it is the students’ responsibility to be disciplined enough to not misuse the laptops in class, thus her views that laptops should be allowed in the classroom. Furthermore, they can be used to make learning more effective. While Schuman presents valid arguments for her stand, they are not persuasive for they lack concrete evidences and contain many assumptions. Schuman feels that the students themselves are responsible for their own discipline. Since the students are “old enough to vote and go to war”, they are therefore of the age to make their own decisions and “face the consequences”. While it is true that the root problem of laptop misuse stems from discipline, it is too sweeping to equate age with maturity and discipline. Discipline is, after all, developed and does not simply come with age. Since the main purpose of having laptops in the first place is to aid learning, should it then be more beneficial to inculcate self-discipline in the students than to leave them to their own devices? Moreover, by basing her argument on her assumption …show more content…

Although Schuman acknowledges that some spoon-feeding practices “improve” the learning outcomes, she feels that they also impede the independence of the students. She does so via the use of parenthesis to inject her personal take on the matter, such as “barf” and rhetorical sentences. While the use of parenthesis does enable her to deliver her point-of-view, her choice of words evokes a sense of condescension of the opposing views, creating a sarcastic tone. This effectively lowers the convincing factor of her arguments as it is too personal and is not supported by

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