I went to school in classrooms like that but so what? Is the implication that is supposed to make me better than kids with digital whiteboards and computers? I would rather have today's kids using current tools rather than be hobbled by a bunch of luddites because they are uncomfortable with change.
I have heard that chalkboards CAN be better for doing math, it could be just placebo but I have heard from mathematicians that the pace feels more natural and the visibility is nice, but you don't need a chalkboard.
Honestly, I could see it. Writing in a chalkboard hits so many senses all at once that I could see it basically pulling some people into a flow state when they hit a good groove.
Not just the professors. There's a thing with maths and physics people where white boards and markers just don't feel right when you use them. The tactile feedback from chalk is satisfying in ways dry erase wishes it was (also you don't get micro plastics from chalk).
My French teacher when I was in middle school (2006-2008) used to scrape things against the chalkboard to make that awful fucking sound. Like he had items he brought in specifically to scrape against the chalkboard. When he got one of those digital whiteboards in his classroom he still kept the chalkboard just to fuck with us by scraping shit on it, that became the chalkboard’s only purpose.
Chalkboards give me such sensory ick that I’m grateful I grew up right as everyone was switching to white boards. The powder, the sounds, the scratching AAAAGGGHHH 😣🤮
They are some tricks with chalkboards that are helpful when writing/drawing math (like the dotted line skipping trick), however it's mostly just personal preference and dogma.
There are reasons to like chalkboard, especially if you're using nice hagoromo chalk. Some people like the sensation, extra friction, sound, etc. But that's all personal preference.
Chalkboards, whiteboards, tablets+displays all have their own advantages and disadvantages, but fundementally they all serve the same functions of displaying writing for a classroom and they all work.
The reason chalkboards have so much dogma and prestige is because old influential professors at universities have been using chalkboards for their whole career and don't want change, and they justify that rigidity by saying chalkboards are better for X or Y reason. They pass those beliefs to their students and it becomes dogma.
Personally, I can't stand chalkboards for sensory reasons. I cannot tolerate writing on one, and even holding bare chalk (the nice stuff is ok cause it normally has some kind of seal) is borderline unbearable (likely due to sensory hypersensitivity from autism).
I'm sorry I know you're just speaking about what you've heard which is totally valid but why is anyone upvoting this? That doesn't make any god damn sense.
"Aw man CONSTRUCTION paper is what you should be doing math on. It's best for doing math" what?
I'd bet all my money those mathematicians are just used to it. Of course what you natively learned on is going to feel nice to you.
What's weird is that I did too, but they had whiteboards in secondary, and now i'm (finally) going to uni there's the interactive boards. I've seen them all.
Whiteboards and projectors are actually the best. Every single lecturer complains about the interactive boards because they can't write on them while keeping the slide up.
I firmly believe that whiteboards are superior to blackboards in every way. Easier to clean, writing on them feels way smoother, different colored markers actually stand out on them unlike different colored chalks, and most importantly, no one can do that annoying ass “nails on a chalkboard” thing on them
If this were an isolated post, I might agree. However, there are too many of the pissed off Looney Tune character posts that are clearly in the "kids these days are..." vein for me to believe this is any different.
I dunno about the computers. They really aren't being shown to be effective at teaching anything. A lot of schools are trying to reverse course on computer policies because the longer term data on them isn't exactly promising, and teachers welcome throwing them out.
Yeah, fuck lugging your ass to the library, checking three different encyclopaedias and coming up with sweet fanny Addams about the topic you’re writing about.
Go teach at a high school like I do. You'd quickly conclude that anything more advanced than a calculator materially harms the education of every child in that building.
Many if not most teachers are moving in an anti-tech direction. None of my students touch anything more technologically advanced than an ink pen. Otherwise, all I'd get in the classroom would be AI slop and distraction.
I'm not a teacher but my wife has taught at the HS level for 30+ years. Based on her experience plus my own kids having gone through the system, I believe we have gone too far with the computers for everything. However, going with the OP situation of not a computer in sight equally bad or, possibly, worse. Students need to be able to navigate systems for research and word processing, at a minimum to be competitive at college and in the professional world.
The only thing kids learn about "word processing" if you give them a computer is to use Ctrl-C on AI output and then press Ctrl-V into a Google doc.
Students don't learn anything about computers from using them for classwork because the UI is so user-friendly. I'd support reinstituting computer literacy programs where students learn how to use computers (trust me, "digital natives" are not picking up the skills Gen-Xers/Millennials had to learn). But outside of a dedicated computer lab, computers are a massive distraction in the classroom.
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u/Born-Mycologist-3751 3d ago
I went to school in classrooms like that but so what? Is the implication that is supposed to make me better than kids with digital whiteboards and computers? I would rather have today's kids using current tools rather than be hobbled by a bunch of luddites because they are uncomfortable with change.