1. DANISH DEFENCE LANGUAGE INSTITUTE
LAPTOPS IN SOCIAL SCIENCE LECTURES - PEDAGOGICAL CHALLENGES AND BENEFITS
LECTURER RIKKE HAUGEGAARD
DANISH DEFENCE LANGUAGE INSTITUTE
ISMS ANNUAL CONFERENCE, VIENNA 2014, WG 9 MILITARY EDUCATION

2. About danish defence language institute
Education and training of military linguists in Arabic, Persian and Russian
32 students in a 2 year programme, starting with 4 months training in sergeant school
Research and education in ’Culture as operational enabler’
3-year research project on OPERATIONAL CULTURE
Master in Military Studies:
’CULTURE AS OPERATIONAL ENABLER’ (Flex module, 1 semester)
Course training PEOPLE SKILLS (2 hours to 3 days)

3. EDUCATION of danish military
linguists in CULTURE ANALYSIS
CHALLENGES:
The students’ use of laptops in the classroom:
Support tool for learning – but also a source of distraction
Asymmetrical warfare in ’technoscape’ – our access to technology vs. local actors’ use of technology in mission areas

4. My research questions:
‘In which way does the use of laptops in the classroom challenge the teacher’s role as a facilitator of learning processes?’ and
‘what type of reactions from the students will we observe in the classroom, when the teacher to a wider extent will plan and control the use of laptops?’
In this presentation, I will focus on the second question.

5. The use of laptops in the classroom
Opposition to the teacher’s control of the use of laptops – how can it be explained?
Danish researcher Knud Illeris – ’daily routine schemes’
Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of ’habitus’:
’a feel for the game’ – pragmatic, action-oriented perception schemes

6. The pilot test – planned sequences with and without pc
TYPE OF LEARNING SEQUENCE USE OF PC DURATION
PRESENTATION BY TEACHER/STUDENT YES MINUTES
PLENARY DISCUSSION NO MINUTES
GROUP WORK NO MINUTES
RESEARCH ON THE INTERNET YES MINUTES
WATCHING FILM CLIPS NO VARYING
EXERCISES AND FIELD WORK SOMETIMES VARYING

7. TEST RESULTS: EVALUATION OF THE TEACHER’S CONTROL WITH THE USE OF LAPTOPS
CRITICAL VOICES:
’it has become a longer process – writing notes twice – first by hand, then on the PC’
POSITIVE REACTIONS AND PERCEPTIONS OF CHANGE:
’It is good for our class, we are more focused and concentrated’
’we are listening to each other’s points of view’
’I have become better at taking notes’
’I am not hiding behind my PC anymore’
’I can remember more of our class discussions’
’the lectures have become more varied and exciting’

8. CONCLUSION AND PERSPECTIVES
Selective use of PCs in the classroom facilitates a better learning environment with a perceived higher level of concentration and increase in students’ participation
Future research areas:
The link between handwriting and memory?
Student ownership of planned sequences
without PC?