Administrative Assistant's Update

FEBRUARY 2018 2 Do laptops sabotage meeting decorum? How do you feel about meetings in which your colleagues use laptops or tablets to take notes on the proceed- ings? There's clearly a divergence of opinion, particularly on whether de- vice-users are actually tuned in on the meeting or connecting with anything but. If they are tuned in, is an elec- tronic device superior to handwritten notes in providing an accurate record of the meeting? Plus, people in meet- ings often find the jumble of screen images and the users' manipulations distracting. In the New York Times's Business Day section recently, a university professor wrote about her ban on electronics in her classes and research seminars. Although Susan Dynarski, a professor of education, public policy and economics at the University of Michigan, admits that in some ways – looking up unfamiliar concepts or downloading course readings – stu - dents may absorb more through their laptops than through paper and pen, she maintains that they "learn less when they use computers or tablets during lectures." Dynarski cites controlled electron- ic-device vs. pen-and-paper note-tak- ing experiments at Princeton Univer- sity and UCLA in which students who had used laptops "had substantially worse understanding of the lecture, as measured by a standardized test, than those who did not." But why not let students suffer the natural consequences of their choices? Because, says Dynarski, their choices are affecting the performance of oth- ers around them, a spillover known as "negative externality." She cites lab experiments at York University and McMaster University in which a lecture was presented to a mixed group of device-users and pen- and-paper users. Some of the device- users had been told "to perform small tasks on their laptops unrelated to the lecture, like looking up movie times." The learning of the pen-and-paper users was negatively affected by the activities of the device-users, a kind of "visual pollution," according to Dynarski. An exception to Dynarski's ban on electronic devices in her lectures, it should be noted, is that students with learning disabilities may use electronics "in order to participate in class." Reader responses to Dynarski's ar - ticle agree and disagree with her point of view and are well worth a look. In all 470 letter writers commented on Dynarski's article, many of them quite thoughtful and articulate. If you're interested in having a look, search for Laptops Are Great. But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting. It ap- peared in the Nov. 22, 2017, edition of the New York Times. E D I TO R ' S N OT E George Pearson Administrative Assistant's Update is published once a month by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. Director, Media Solutions, Canada: Karen Lorimer Publisher: Todd Humber Editor: George Pearson george@adminupdate.ca Associate Editor: Jennifer Lewington jennifer@adminupdate.ca EDITORIAL OFFICE (519) 271-6000 Administrative Assistant's Update Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. 1 Corporate Plaza, 2075 Kennedy Road Toronto, ON M1T 3V4 CUSTOMER SERVICE (416) 609-3800 (800) 387-5164 FAX (416) 298-5082 (877) 750-9041 customersupport.legaltaxcanada @tr.com Contents copyright. All rights reserved. © 2018 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. Contents may not be reproduced without written permission. Brief extracts may be made with due acknowledgement. Annual subscription: $195. Publications Mail Registration No. 40065782 GST# 897176350 UPDATE Administrative Assistant's Get ahead of change Change happens – whether or not you or your organization is ready for it. So what can you do to prepare yourself and your colleagues to antici- pate change and successfully engineer it? You can work to achieve consensus within your group or organization, says Maureen MacDonald, Dean of the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Toronto, and she suggest eight strategies to achieve it, including your definition of success. Interested? Search on "Building Support for Change: Eight Strate - gies to Achieve Consensus," for her article, which appeared in https:// evollution.com Nov. 29, 2017.

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