Leave Your Laptops At The Door

   In the blog that I read, Mr. Rosenblum, students need listening and communicating to be professionally successful.  He also says that the technology kills human empathy.  While I was reading his comments on how the laptops prevent this, i thought to myself how even if we dont realize it it is happening to us as well.  We are getting caught up in what is going on in the outside world we fail to see what is in front of us.
    He banned the use of laptops in the classroom so that the students are engaged in the learning and are focused.  The effect of banning laptops caused the teacher to be able to see the students and know whether or not they are understanding what he is saying and are getting more out of the learning.  They also went deeper, further, and faster into the material.  I think this is more of an advantage to the teacher as they are able to teach better and not worry about the students not paying attention.
   Taking notes be hand, according to Rosenblum, increases test scores by 1.7% and it helps with remembering what you wrote down.  Personally i take all of my notes by hand and it just feels naturally to me because as I am writing down the notes that the teacher is giving us, I feel like i understand what the words say better and as i'm writing it i can think about it and summarize it myself in a way i can understand.
   Kelly McGonigal is a psychologist and lecturer at Stanford University.  She says that if a phone is present at a table, even when the person is not using it, it is distracting enough to reduce empathy between two people and reduce rapport.  I think this affects today's youth because we are not forced to have a conversation with someone while we are out eating somewhere with someone, and i think that affects us down in a personal way because when you get older and start getting serious with someone and you meet their parents out for dinner, you are unable to create a connection with them.
   When students object to his rule, he simply says to them that you can't always get what you want, but you get what you need.  I think that a lot of younger people in this generation are handed things that they ask for even when they didn't do anything to earn it themselves, and I think that takes out the motive to work hard out of many people.  Of course it cant be entirely blamed on the children as the parents do have a say in whether they get them these things or not.