Every BYU student has had the same feeling of irritation and frustration when they realize their lecture is located in a basement classroom, a black hole for technology. A basement classroom means a less interactive lecture and fewer resources to draw upon due to the weak Internet connection. To promote a higher quality classroom dynamic, better Wi-Fi should be provided in basement classrooms. Having access to such an integral resource as the Internet promotes classroom quality for both the professor and the student.
Access to wireless Internet improves every other classroom’s dynamic on campus, except for those located in the basement. This wealth of resources lie just one story above, unattainable and useless to the hundreds of students below. Many would argue that access to the Internet is a distraction; students would waste their time updating Facebook. While this is a possibility, students exercise their agency every day in every other classroom on campus.
If they had better access to Wi-Fi in basement classrooms, students would control their own productivity or suffer the consequences, just like in any other classroom. In large classes located in basement classrooms, time is wasted on questions that students could answer for themselves if they had access to Learning Suite or Canvas. What little time a professor has in a lecture can be more effectively put to use when students have access to all their resources. I advocate the implementation of wireless access for students all across BYU campus; that wealth of knowledge should be able to be accessed with the click of a button.
Ashlynn Adair
Morgan Hill, Calif.
