I hate "no laptop in training classes"

I was tied up all day today in a mandatory training class and it was one of those that allow no laptops to be used during the class.  This particular trainer was the first I've seen that extended that to Tablet PCs so I was not allowed to take notes in ink on my Tablet.  I understand why they don't want folks to have the distraction of using a laptop during the class but I showed him how I take notes and explained that I do it this way so I can search those notes in the future to get my hands on important information gleaned from the class.  I got a firm "no" so the Tablet stayed nestled in my closed gear bag.  The only result was I took no notes as I don't like paper for that.  Sheesh.  Maybe he's heard of stealth blogging.  :)

Comments

[Leonard Low]

Sheesh, that's unbelievable! Mobile devices are terrific for enabling learning, and a blanket ban on any kind of mobile device in an education setting is conceptually neanderthal. After all, it isn't the DEVICE that can be a problem; it's HOW the device is used. If the device is being used for learning, surely that's not a problem; it's only a problem if the device is a distraction to the learning, which wasn't the case in your situation.

Keep up the great work,
L.

[Dave Zatz]

Wow, it's been a long time since I've encountered anything like that in a professional environment. Did you tell him where he could stick his abacus? ;)

[jhall]

You could have taken paper notes then scanned them so they would be searchable. Also, you could have recorded the lecture and inserted that into onenote aswell.

[Jon Dee]

It's a long time since this has happened to me - that guy is very out of touch.

In future just tell him you refuse to write on dead trees for ethical or religious reasons...

I like your point about being able to search your notes...

[SAM]

What is he, an x-high school teacher?

Was this a meeting required by/paid by your
company?

As an instructor, if your presenation is so boring that your students surf the web out of boredom...well

[Robin Capper]

Did you ask why he didn't also ban paper?

I wonder if my "mindmap style" [hand drawn] notes would be banned for resembling a Doodle?

[Gilo]

you shouldnt be taking notes James, you need to be paying attention when he's teaching you how to flip burgers.

what happens when you are on your own & wind up starting a grease fire?

[Art Kavanagh]

@jhall: "You could have taken paper notes then scanned them so they would be searchable."

I know you can do this with Evernote (i.e. search for text in handwriting within images). Does OneNote do it too, or are there other programs that do? I think this is a very promising possibility. I like using a keyboard but if I have to write by hand I'd rather do it on paper than on a screen. And a paper pad has various other advantages, such as portability and unobtrusiveness. Not much use for stealth blogging, of course (but that could also be seen as an advantage).

[tnkgrl]

Did you really have to take "no" for an answer?

I generally don't react very well to people saying "no" to me without a good justification :)

[James Kendrick]

I must admit that I understand where the instructor was coming from. His purpose was to eliminate distractions from the classroom, he even prohibited anyone from even looking at their phones. I verified after the class that he had never in years of instructing had anyone else ask to use a Tablet PC for notetaking, a sad state of Tablet affairs.

Yes, you can scan in notes on paper directly into OneNote and have them searchable, but I hate taking notes on the little notepads provided. It would have been a pain.

[Kevin White]

Not trying to play devil's advocate, but I clearly remember laptops in my college classes, and I saw more IM windows (sometimes even to IM the person next to you) and web browsers than I saw dutiful note-taking.

We are talking 20-somethings, the vast majority of them male, which may be a different demographic than JK's training class at work.

(I actually used my laptop to take notes. If I didn't want to listen to what the instructor was saying and spend my time surfing the web, I would just skip class. No one stopped me, but again this was undergraduate public university. :) )

[Michael]

This definitely sounds petty. You're an adult. Since when do you need permission for such things? Was chewing gum allowed? I guess I'm just a trouble maker, but I would have taken notes however I see fit and told the instructor to just take points off of my final grade or go shove it! I myself am a professor at a university, and I have very few rules for my students. Adults can make most decisions for themselves. Don't want to pay attention? Ok. And forcing someone to stare at you doesn't at all force them to learn and retain anything. You can force a body, but you cannot force a mind. I think this is a power trip from some technophobe who is just sure his way is the best way. If everyone could just be like him...

[Dave P]

I completely understand where the instructor is coming from but, like many people and organizations, he seems to be taking the easy, generic way out. If what he really wanted was to ban the distraction of typing, he should have said that and allowed your tablet PC. As you point out, the "sad state of tablet PC affairs" means that too many people don't understand them.

I wonder if I could have convinced him my OQO was really a big PDA and therefore didn't fall into his ban?

[gork]

I trie dwith my current work laptop and when it's up for replacement, I am going to try to get a tablet again. Right now I keep my notes in a Moleskine and I actually hate it as I can't search them. Being able to search your notes is key even if you have great organization skills. Odds are if your looking something from 2 years ago, it would be difficult to find no matter what organization system you use. Computers are there to make our lives easier. With a computer, you can FINALLY kick all that damn paper.

[John McDonald]

I concur with the majority of the comments expressed here. If you or your company is paying for the training, the instructor works for you, not the other way around. I occasionally deliver training for customers, and my approach is 'you're all adults, just don't do anything that will distract the other attendees'. If someone is typing and has key-clicks turned on, I ask them to disable them. If they don't want to learn what I'm teaching, that's their decision. If I'm being asked to 'grade' the students, I won't hesitate to include a comment about them not paying attention if they don't (which I make very clear up front).

I've encountered this once in a training class, and I basically told the instructor 'no - I need to take notes, and my TabletPC is how I do that'. The instructor asked me to leave, and I said I would if he would ensure that my full fee was refunded, plus travel and my time lost. There was nothing in the contract about not using computers during training, so he was adding conditions that weren't previously agreed upon, which is essentially a violation of the contract. A call to his manager basically ended with him being told 'shut up and teach the class'.

John

[bill]

I'm fine with the no laptop or tablet rule. The vast majority of folks I see using pc's of any kind in a meeting are catching up on emails and instant messaging. On top of that you have the "blackberry prayer" going on with the majority looking down at their phones endlessly texting. The minority get hit for the idiots who come to meetings to play on thier toys.

[Roy Blumenthal]

Yeow, dude!

My own personal rule about arbitrary rules is this:

'Don't ask permission for things where "no" is likely to be the answer.'

What's the worst that could happen? He could throw you out? Of your MANDATORY training???

Mandatory??????? Do you work for an organisation that believes you're ignorant and untrainable under your own steam?

Yikes.

In your shoes, I'd be looking for an employer with a better attitude, and trainers who HAVE a clue.

I mean heck...

Do they KNOW who you ARE?

Just one of the most authoritative voices on the planet when it comes to tablet pcs.

Sheesh.

All the best for your next training session.

Blue skies
love
Roy

[Roy Blumenthal]

By the way... the comment system you're using doesn't work with Opera Mini 4.1 on a Nokia N91 phone.

When you click 'Post', it greys out the button, and doesn't go to the text-enter anti-bot page.

Might wanna look into that.

Blue skies
love
Roy

http://twitter.com/royblumenthal

[zorg]

I'm disappointed by the attitude here that the student is a consumer and knowledge is like a burger.

I would hate to be the mechanic working on your cars and have you tell me as the consumer you have the right to dictate which wrench I should be using.

When I'm in a class, whether as instructor or student, I'm not the only one there, so I try to meet the others halfway and make the experience work.

Most of you sound so arrogant that you probably don't need training of any kind, though. Hopefully.

[James Kendrick]

All good points but experience has taught me that you pick your battles that really matter and this one didn't so I let it go. It would have been political suicide to make a big issue over this for a number of reasons I won't go into.

[JOE Houde]

I am a corporate education consultant and a tablet PC user/fan. Outlawing a technology in the classroom is a sign of poor education - a training is either engaging enough to keep people attentive or is it is poorly designed. The design flaw could be in who is there, when the class is, relevance of the infomration, or the presentation.
The no-computer rule is often a relic of teacher ego and the inappropriate belief that they are the center of education.
Your story upsets me greatly.