Professors banning in-class laptop use
By Evan Blass 
posted May 3rd 2006 10:14AM
posted May 3rd 2006 10:14AM
In yet another sign
that Luddism is alive and well in academia (remember Lakehead University's silly WiFi ban?), the
Associated Press has picked up on a disturbing "trend" of professors banning laptops in their classrooms.
Unlike the WiFi brouhaha, which revolved around fears that the wireless signals might be dangerous, keeping laptops out
of the lecture hall is seen as a way of forcing students to pay attention. The AP article cites several law school
professors who have enacted the ban, including one whose inspiration came while serving as an expert witness in a
trial, when he realized the court stenographer wasn't absorbing any of the content that he/she was transcribing. If you
ask us, not only does this policy fail to address the root of a problem -- hey Prof, try making your classes more
interesting if you want people to pay attention -- but considering what students are paying for a higher education
these days, they should be allowed to lug a mainframe and three monitors to class if that's how they like to get their
learnin' done.
danielle wrote: "too bad colleges have certain classes that they require you to take, regardless of your major."
It's called standards. If your r?m?ays, "BA in X from College Y", that's not just saying you know X; that's saying you meet the standards of College Y. If I interview you based on that r?m?and I know that College Y's core curriculum includes, say, economics, then I should be able to count on you understanding supply and demand.
I must go to a different college than everyone else, because I keep hearing that you've never seen anyone use a laptop for taking notes. If anyone wants to see someone genuinely using a laptop for note-taking, and to great benefit to himself, they are free to come to Computer E 210, section 8 at Iowa State university next semester. I'll be there. My HP ZV6000 will be there. I'll be taking notes on it.
The fact is that I can take much faster and much more readable notes on a computer than by hand. Heck, half the time I have my screen partway folded down so I can see what's going on at the front of the class and still type. If I want to write by hand, I have to look at my paper. If I want to write on my computer, I can keep looking at the prof. For programming classes, the computer becomes that much more useful - every day in my computer science classes I've got Eclipse open and am running the code being written on the whiteboard. It helps to see what's going on, and it's easy to go back to if I want to study it or use it.
DG, I don't think anyone's saying you should be able to pay for school, goof off for 4 years, and get a degree. But if you choose to do other things during a lecture - like surf the web while in lecture or simply not attend lecture at all - you should be allowed. If not paying attention or attending lecture results in you failing your exams, then you screwed up and I have no sympathy.
I'm in a law school class right now, browsing the internet, and not paying attention. Probably it would be good to ban this laptop. I paid much better attention in class when I was in college, when I only brought a notebook to class.
I have to say that I am on the fence with this one. I have horrible hand writing and I am slow at writing physical notes, I find that I am often about two sentences behind the professor when I am hand writing notes. When I use my laptop I can keep right up with the professor and I actually pay more attention to what he is saying because I am not concentrating on what he said 40 seconds ago.
However, when it comes to classes like physics and calculus you are writing down equations and forumlas and very little text, unless you have a tablet PC then I dont see how a laptop can help you.
Banning laptops in all classes is stupid, but I think it should be up to the professor not a campus wide ban.
It should be up to the discretion of the professor, however I must admit that I would be very frustrated if a professor did not allow laptops. Personally I use a laptop in almost everyclass. I too had ADD, however I don't make a big deal of it. I personally find that having a laptop helps me tremendously for several reasons: My hand writing is terrible and I write slowly (This is not a by-product of using a computer, it has always been this way).
Taking notes with a laptop means that I can read my notes later, and the way in which I take notes helps me with ADD-- during class I am practically transcribing what the professor is saying, even typing what is being shown on a powerpoint presentation. By constantly typing I do not get distracted or allow my mind to wander and stay focused.
Secondly, using a laptop in class makes it very easy for me to if another student has missed some material or was unable to attend class, provide them with notes.
Also, using a laptop saves my back. I have a tiny laptop which I adore, weighing roughly 3lbs and it is so much better than lugging around 5 notebooks. I can reference notes from past semesters past easily if I should need to jog my memory.
I have never had a professor complain about my laptop usage, in fact I have had professors inquire about my laptop and admit that they think it would be beneficial for more students to take notes with a laptop.
Lastly, in some of my classes professors will mention web sources as supplementary to the material or as a part of their lecture. If I feel so inclined, and there is wi-fi near, I can quickly find that material and have access to it during the lecture to give me a more breadth to my study.
I always sit in the front rows and I have never had any complaints. I honestly believe that my grades would suffer if it weren't for my laptop. I will agree many students using laptops are checking e-mail, playing solitaire etc... but how is that any more distracting than someone doodling obscene cartoons in their notebook?
Have you ever sat next to someone clacking away on a keyboard when you're trying to listen to a professor? I've been in enough classrooms to know that people don't take notes on computers, they distract themselves. If you can't sit still and listen to a professor for an hour without looking at a screen, maybe you should save yourself the tuition and consider a career in something that doesn't require a degree. If you need to take notes, write them down or get a tape recorder, but it's disrespectful to the professor and the other students to be hammering away on a keyboard while other people are trying to hold a class.
I agree with the article. I write very slowly and having a laptop means the difference between having complete notes and only writing down about 30% of what I need to. If the professor is worried about me getting distracted then the prof needs to spice up the class a bit, because I get more distracted without the laptop. I get so far behind without it I give up on notes and stop paying attention, because at that point I'm not getting effective notes down anyway.
So it's the prof's choice. Either I have my laptop and take good notes, or I'm bugging him to repeat everything in every single one of his office hours.
The only internet useage I do in class is stuff pertaining to the topic. I'll look up something if the prof has a question that stumps the class or if a student has a question that stumps the prof.
After nearly 20 years of corporate life, I went though college as an adult (mid 30's) and finished last year and used a notebook to take 100% of all my notes. It came natural to me, having used them in nearly every meeting I'd attended. I ended up with a 3.78 GPA and some of my professors asked for my notes because theirs weren't as complete as mine!
I admit to making sure I typed so quietly that even I couldn't hear my fingers or keys (helps to have a quiet keyboard) and I never surfed the 'net in class: I was too busy trying to get an A in every class.
There were many around me with notebooks that were browsing the web or even listening to music with attached headphones! But, these people didn't make it through to the end of the class and almost always dropped, but as a person who used notebooks to succeed in college, this is sad news for me. I would drop any class a professor enacted such mind-numbingly senseless rule: it would hamper my learning.
At my medical school, the majority of us had laptops and used them to take notes. The school actually encourages it. Attendence isn't required, so if you wanted to play games or surf, then you'd just stay home. I appreciate everyone who wants to punish those who use technology to help them learn in order to punish those who are goofing off. Really f-ing brilliant.
Unfortunately, I've been diagnosed with A.D.D. and I'm unable to hold my attention in one place for very long without a great deal of struggling. The process of struggling is, in itself, distracting, however.
For whatever reason, when I'm partially 'distracted' by something (other than struggling with my short attention span), I'm able to focus better. To this day I don't understand why I work that way, but when I dedicate a portion of my mind to two, sometimes more, tasks, I'm able to focus on all of them much better.
It's difficult to explain, but if I try to concentrate on a single task, I lose interest very quickly. Fortunately, I've had professors that have been resonably understanding thus far, so I've been able to excel in my particular major.
If I weren't able to idly throw together PHP applications, design MySQL databases, or play with PhotoShop or Flash 8, I would having quite a bit of difficulty. My laptop is a lifesaver.
-nb109
For the most part there shouldn't be laptops in class unless the course requires it. Laptops should be banned in university classroom, I'm a university student and I hate when there is 4 laptops the row in front of you, each playing a different episode of Family Guy, don't get me wrong I love Family Guy, that exactly the reason why it makes it soooooo distracting.
Perhaps people need to understand that we don't all learn the same way. Just because something works that stands true for everyone else.
I've got a learning disability and my laptop is an extreme help to me.
If you missed my other post, it explains why.
-nb109
I feel that the rule is insane. Allow the student to learn the way they want to. College is not high school- you are responsible for your own learning. I personally suffered from not being able to read my notes (terrible handwriting despite much practice) until I got a laptop. Does the laptop distract me sometimes? Sure, like right now. but I am pretty happy with my 3.85 GPA and that is with a laptop. Am I saying that students are responsible for their own study habits- some study for hours and do poorly, some study for 5 minutes before the test and do well should the professor ban that too? Cell phones on the other hand I wish would fall off the face of the planet while class is going on because they are just plain rude. I will leave this rant with a story- I had a class with a professor once in which I was taking notes on what he said. He walked over midlecture and closed my laptop. I told him that I would appriciate his not touching my stuff without permission and if he wanted my to close my laptop he could ask me and I would but then I would have no way to take notes. He blew up and began screaming at me about how I could not be taking notes using a laptop and cursed at me. I showed him my that the only window that was open was my notes and he said he did not care. I believe that this was the only time that I was even mildly rude to a professor and had he not reacted the way he I would have felt very badly. I feel that like I said before every person works differently, some learn in class, some learn from the book, others learn from their notes why should this be a problem.
Craig
i'm typing this from class right now....boring class today.
I went to law school in the mid-90's when laptops were just becoming mainstream, and they were louder then. I wanted to go on a killing spree listening to those jerks clack away, and I begged the dean to do something to at least segregate them. "The right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins."
I understand learning works differently for everyone, but to the people who think that note taking requires writing down every single word the professor says seems quite backwards. The way my peers and I took notes in college was to copy down the important things the prof was saying, filter out the crap, and be left with a great working document to study. If you can only write 20 words per minute, thats all you should need unless your copying down quotes. My perspective might be skewed considering I went to school for mechanical engineering, and most of my notes were drawings, figures and formulas. If the professor was moving too quickly we would ask him/her to slow down or start the next problem on another board, while one of us copied the first down for the group. This might not work the same in a law lecture, but it worked fine for us. A lot of people forget that interaction between the professor and student is good for learning, and provokes more thought than sitting there copying down every single word.
For reference in 4 years of college (Temple U, 2000-2004) I never saw someone in an engineering class with a laptop. I have a very difficult time paying attention and I know if I had a computer with web access I'd be distracted and not participating in class.
This is entirely up to the student.. if they want to waste 10s of thousands and play games in class, thats fine.. they can draw on their papers and zone out just as easily... I use my laptop to take notes in my note-heavy lectures and its amazingly easier to record more of what the teacher is saying and pay attention since you aren't looking down all the time. If its distracting to other students, then target that distracting student... there are those who use laptops for legit purposes, blanket banning everyone won't help..
Completely unreasonable. The students are the customers, the professors are just there to regurgitate information and pretend they know what they're doing. The customer is always right, folks.
That said, I've had plenty of classes that were interesting enough that I didn't want to use a laptop because it was distracting, and I wanted to listen to what the prof was saying. Maybe if most classes weren't mind numbingly boring people wouldn't be trying to distract themselves.
And #50: It's a high school teacher's job to make sure you get the info whether you want it or not, a college professor's job is just to present the information. By that point you should be either motivated enough to make use of the material, or lazy enough to ignore it, it's your choice.
it is the MOST annoying and distracting thing when a person sits in front of you with a laptop and all they do is play snood or type on instant messenger. it's cool if you do it on your own time. it's not cool when there's 300 people in a lecture and NO seats open because my business prof takes attendance AND you're sitting in front of me.
Add me to the people who totally agree with this article. I do better in class when I'm not completely paying attention-- before I got my laptop, I sketched in class. And I had a tendency to sit right in front (or next to the teacher in smaller lecture classes), so it's not like the professor didn't KNOW. Now I play on a graphics program, but the effect is the same. I have something to occupy my hands, while I listen to what the teacher's saying.
If a student is going to zone, they're going to zone regardless of whether or not laptops are allowed.
In the case of the court stenographer who isn't absorbing any of the information-- students don't always absorb everything the first go-round. That's what notes are FOR. So students who are typing the notes, may not absorb much (if anything), but-- hey! They can go reread.
At U of M Law, students must log in with their student IDs to use the internet. This is cross-referenced with their class schedules so that only the intranet is accessable during class time. Of course, password sharing with a friend who has a different schedule is an easy workaround, but its better than nothing.
the way i see it
if people want to use laptops in class
then go for it
as long as its not distracting to others
hey if people pay tons of money to get in to college and just play games then fail the course.....
its their money not mine
I'm in class right now, so... draw your own conclusions about how much "work" I'm doing on my laptop.
I was so happy when I could finally take digital notes instead of physical notes (that I couldn't read half the time because I had to write so fast). The search function you gain from taking digital notes is time saver. Reviewing paper notes is annoying, and most of the time I would have to type them out later to get them in reviewable fashion anyway. The laptop saved me a step, and paper!
The "distracting" other students is also crap. When they get in the field or even in public, there will likely be plenty of distractions. They had better get used to it.
As far as slacking off with the laptop, I think it's fine with responsible restraint. It's not like every word that comes out of an instructor's mouth is a learning experience; especially in general classes that are essentially a repeat high school.
I'm glad I've finished; it sounds like it will only get more annoying.
If the professors are that up tight about it why don't they look into buying or even producing their own WiFi jammer... I'm sure there are ways of making these... hmm maybe I'll make one and start marketing them to university professors.
Overall however I think banning laptops is a bit extreme ... when I was in class I ALWAYS had my laptop, no ifs, ands, or buts! True there were the kids spent all class playing games.. but to the people actually using them ... we passed, not to mention the ability to leave a class with ideas fresh in your head, or even stay in the empty class room and start working on your next assignment is a huge relief. Nothing like wrapping up a class and spending an extra hour with the ideas still fresh in your head and completing your project 3 days early.
Overall this ban is a bit of a blanket fix and some simple WiFi blockers scramblers, and or a proper firewall or proxy could solve these issues in a much more affective manner.
the end :)
Wow. College acceptance standards have apparently dropped A LOT. Grading scales too, for that matter.
I hate it when some other student gleefully plays and/or shows everyone that he or she is playing Warcraft or the like during lecture.
But I do respect those that are legitimately taking notes on their laptops, noise or no noise. I would probably have fricken exploded at that prof mentioned by #110. How DARE he?????
So I don't think it's an issue of allowing laptops in class or not. I think it's an issue of allowing students into college or not - accept only the ones that actually want to learn something. Pass only those who have shown that they have.
For the record, I'm a pen and notebook type.
edit: I meant #111, not #110.
This is bull.
Students are paying huge loads of money to be there. You can take much faster (and better) notes on a laptop than on paper. If a student chooses to slack off and play games, who cares? It's his/her money being wasted, not yours. Please don't give me the "it distracts others" bullshit. The students obviously play without sound, so tell me, why should a Night Elf from World of Warcraft be more distracting than Microsoft Word? If it's distracting, don't look at it. It's your choice.
I will be going to University next fall (finishing grade 12 right now), going into Computing Sciences. I will be relying *HEAVILY* on my laptop to take notes and do assignments. I sure hope my professors don't start some bullshit like banning laptops. If they do, I'll be forced to pull out an Axim x51v and a ThinkOutside bluetooth keyboard.
I suppose it COULD be more difficult for students to pay attention in class if they are using a laptop, but for me it is quite the opposite. I bring my laptop because it HELPS me pay attention. I am able to quickly jot down notes in Word and then absorb what the professor says rather than worrying about making sure I've written what I'd like to. Writing things by hand is a pain for me because it takes so much longer and I usually don't get as much out of the lecture that way. So, unless a particular student has a noisy computer or has the volume on, there should be no problem (even if they are browsing the web--which would just be stupid, but still..)
That said, it is the teacher's right to set up there own rules so....
I'll admit, first semester, I did use my laptop for taking notes, but I did start surfing the internet/checking email/etc in one class. I still got the best grade in the class, so that didn't seem to matter. This past semester, I used my laptop exclusively for notes. And checking websites related to what the professor was talking about. I don't have a tablet, but I still type stuff into One Note. It helps me keep my notes much more neat and organized than they would be on paper.
I would be ok with banning laptops if taking notes weren't neccessary, as some other commenters have mentioned. Perhaps premake the notes and distribute them. That would be nice. This professor complains that students are mindlessly taking things down, with laptops. Doesn't banning them just lead to students mindlessly taking things down, on paper? And he complains of lack of eye contact. I can type faster than I can write, so I'd give more eye contact and have more time to pay attention to the discussion if I had a laptop.
Heh, it's kind of funny that Matt should bring up eye contact as being an issue. When I take notes on my laptop, I don't even look at the screen most of the time (yet another reason why having one is a GOOD idea).
Guys, I do not know where you people go or went to university but I will now tell you my experience. I just finished my first year at the University of Toronto doing mathematical and physical science. I have classes such as calculus, linear algebra, physics, astronomy, computer science etc. In all but math classes I see people using laptops myself included. I have never seen a person do anything other than copy down notes or record the prof. using the laptop's microphone while making summaries at the same time in word. I always look around to see what people are doing on their laptops and never see anything being done besides for academic purposes. What my theory is, is that the students that would much rather play games in class or chat or whatever are either sleeping in their dorms or at home watching tv or using their computer but most certainly not in class. In my school, for the most part, everyone is there to learn and do well and have no other intentions. We have WiFi everywhere on campus but I have never used my ibook in class for anything other than taking notes. If I want to relax or chat I wait until after class to go to the student center and have a coffee or tea and relax. I would feel guilty spending my parents' money playing games. If I want to do that I could just sit at home and I would also not be disturbing others that want to learn and make something of themselves. Our school is regarded as being among the best in Canada and is rated #1 in many categories. It is 2nd best overall according to McLean's Magazine (U of Waterloo being the first, damn those bastards :P) so the students here got here with very high marks and that worked very hard in high school. Anyways, I do agree with everyone here that for the most part banning laptops in class is a positive thing but this only depends on the school. Some people like myself type much faster than the write so forcing them to write and miss notes because they cannot keep up with the prof is a very juvenile thing to do and I think it is unfair to say the least!
I've noticed the same problem in business meetings. Yes dear students, once you graduate you have to actually pay back those loans. I purposefully do not bring any electronics to meetings because I'll start checking email, tweaking my schedule and generally drift off. When I look around the table 80% of the staff are pounding away at their keyboards and not paying attention. It's a good ban, you can take notes the old fashon way or better yet, pay attention and learn something.
I completely agree with the article. In this day and age, the professor has no right to ban laptops. First, for you luddites that disagree, re-read the article. These are professors for a law school. These aren't your run-of-the-mill slacker undergraduates. These people aren't the "mommy and daddy pay for my edumacation so I just roll into class in my pj's after the kegger" students. Most law schools that I know of are rather difficult to get into and matriculate.
As an undergrad from '95, there weren't any laptops in class. As a Master's student now, there are usually at least one or two others in class. Yes, I use a laptop. Yes, I take meticulous notes on it (32 type-written, single-spaced notes for one class alone this semester). Yes, I also surf the net during the class but mostly to find notes from similar classes so I do not have to purchase the useless textbooks that the professors wish us to buy for the class. Also, 75% the professors use one of two modes for their lectures: overhead slides (which were first used by the professor ten years ago) or powerpoint presentations that they just read right off the slide. One professor even posts the PPTs on his website, so it's as if he encourages us to not show up to class.
I will admit that in my field, every student should be required to have a laptop in class; I am a MCIS student. But, with several friends in law schools which require laptops (I have helped two of them purchase top of the line laptops for under $800 in the last year alone, there is no excuse for professors trying to ban graduate students from bringing laptops to class.
Banning laptops in classes is riduculous. I'm currently attending University of Phoenix, and use my laptop in every single class. Do I use it to check e-mail? Sometimes. Do I use it to search for more information related to what the instructor is talking about? Sometimes. But I also use it to take notes. Why? I can type much faster than I can write, and I'm actually able to read it a week later. Sure, some things are not possible to easily or quickly do on a laptop. That's why I also have a paper notebook open so I can draw diagrams or enter formulas etc.
If an instructor wants to ban me from taking notes on my laptop because they think it's distracting & if I"m typing I'm not paying attention, they also need to ban everyone from taking notes on paper - if you're writing you're not paying attention either.
I refuse to let an instructor ban me from using my laptop.
74. Why did you sign up for a class that you couldn't get to on time?
Let's think about the possible reasons for a moment: A) Could it be it was a required class? B) Perhaps I didn't know the locations of any of the classes until a few weeks before classes started? C) Or maybe, I didn't know the professor was such an asshole.
If you chose D) All of the above, you'd win the prize!
92. Spoonman -- you sound like a joy to be around.
I am! :)
92. Yes, college is so backwards in that you don't get to plunck down your tuition, do whatever you want for four years, and get a degree. I'm sorry that you can't simply wake up, play video games all day, and waltz through life making $100k/year. It's just so terrible that people have actual expectations of you. That professors expect a certain level of decorum in their (yes, THEIR) classrooms.
Hi, welcome to the 21st century! That doesn't sound much like what I did. What I did was extract a little common courtesy from a self-absorbed professor (sort of redundant, I know). I'm an adult, and sometimes circumstances beyond my control will force me to be late. I wasn't late out of rudeness or because I didn't care about the class. The prof does not have the right to "punish" me for that. Again, he works for me, that makes it MY classroom. I paid for my time there and to receive information, not childish punishments to make me run faster across the campus because the school couldn't be bothered to take his insanity into account when scheduling classrooms.
Whenever I was late to a class, I would slide in quietly, notebook open and pen in hand (this was before laptops were common enough for college students to afford), and slide into an open desk in the back of the room. You know, the kind of thing a considerate adult does when they're late to such an event. Perhaps the prof could have taken a few minutes to explain that was the polite way to come in late. But, then, it's really not about the time, is it? It's all about HIS ego, and HIS class. Well, he certainly learned HIS lesson.
I don't disagree that students shouldn't be using their laptops for non-classroom-related things. Video games, IM, etc have no place in the classroom. The proper course of action is to punish those who can't grasp that concept, as I said in my first post. Not to punish the students who are effectively using technology to further their education. Had I had access to them back then, I'dve been using a laptop, too and woe be unto any luddite prof who thought they could tell me otherwise (and yes, even if you use Powerpoint to give your presentations, you're still a luddite if you can't grasp what I'm saying about technology).
92. Again, if you don't like the current setup of college, you are free to sell cell phones, make burgers, or clean streets. I should warn you, however, you probably won't be able to use your laptop on those jobs either.
Yes, because if you don't have a college degree, those are the only kinds of jobs you can get. Wake up and smell the scam. Unless you're going in to scientific research or some such, a college degree isn't going to effectively prepare you for anything. What a waste of my time and money to have spent four years and $100,000 on an education when that education was made up of 32 classes, only 8 of which actually pertained to my major. And those classes were 5 years behind what was being done in the industry at the time. Useless. That's why I don't even put it on my resume.
As a college teacher, I'm less inclined to play babysitter than to leave it to the students to either do the work, or fail the course.
The surest cure for loafing is regular quizzes and exams based on both readings and lectures.
Wow! I can't believe the amount of people who have posted in support of banning laptops in the college classroom. Many of you have stated that instead of paying attention to the professor many students are playing games, on Myspace, etc... here are my initial thoughts on the subject:
1. Perhaps the professor needs to liven up the lecture.
2. Have you ever been in a meeting with professionals who have laptops? The same things happen there. Should they be banned in this venue too?
3. Aren't college students adults who have paid for the class? Shouldn't they be responsible for their own actions?
4. Many people (especially the younger generation) are pretty good at multi-tasking and thinking in a nonlinear way. Maybe they are "getting" the information even though it may not look like it.
5. Some people like to take notes on the laptop rather than on paper.
6. Many high schools are going one to one with laptops. If high school teachers can keep students focused and on track with laptops, shouldn't college professors be able to?
Well, looks like people are really split on this issue.
It doesn't have to be absolutely one or the other in this case, "no laptops at all" vs. "laptops for any class".
Obviously, there are going to be some classes in which computers are going to be necessary (I took a Microsoft Excel class this semester).
As someone who's used my laptop a few times in class to take notes, I've never played any games, not even Solitaire. Why? Well, even if I *was* interested in playing those games at that point, I wouldn't have gotten the chance, because I was too busy taking notes on my laptop.
I can understand how *some* students would goof around on their laptops instead of paying attention in class, but just because a few students here and there would do so, that doesn't mean that all of them would do so.
Besides, if it becomes a problem, the professor could just ban them from using laptops or something.
My solution would be to let the students use laptops if it doesn't become a problem. If it does become a problem and a student uses the laptop for something else, don't let that student use the laptop for a while.
Problem solved!
(Oh, and as for saving trees and paper... just that's why we conserve and recycle that kind of material. Another problem solved!)
Oh, I just also wanted to add...
Don't get me wrong, I agree that ultimately, it's the professor's decision to allow or not allow laptops.
Also, to back up my point... you shouldn't ban an entire class from using laptops just because a student has goofed around with a laptop in the past. Let me put it this way...
Millions of people drive cars, correct? There's an uncomfortably high number of car accidents (or at least here in the USA). Some people abuse their privilege to drive. Some people cause accidents and even kill other people. Does that mean that nobody should use cars at all, just because a few people can't handle to privilege of using them? No.
Besides, even if laptops weren't allowed in classes, the students who would goof around on laptops would probably just find other ways to goof off. Students have probably been messing around in classes ever since there classes to begin with. Passing notes, doodling in notebooks, paper airplanes... I'm sure there's a whole list of these things somewhere.
The problem may ultimately be not the laptop itself, but the person using it. (You know, the human element.
Umm......ADA compliance:
Some folks need the laptops to be able to take notes. I know this will sounds stupid to all of you perfectly able folk out there, but this is a big deal.
It's a dangerous thing to prevent the integration of notebooks into a classroom. There could very well be some sort of innovation based on a need from even a student not disabled.
At some point in the future, speech will be transcribed in realtime, possibly allowing enriched learning beyond what professors had thought was possible.
Who knows what else could happen, but if the door is shut, even the good multi-taskers will not have any possible eureka moment while sitting there.
I certainly hope none of my teachers tell me I can't use a laptop during a lecture. I'd probably flunk the class. I plan on purchacing a laptop before I take any classes containing regular lectures. I can't write fast enough. I often have to ask teachers to repeat themselves when taking hand written notes. Some say just to write down what's important. How is a student supposed to know what will be on a test when many teachers don't hand out study guides?
I, for one, have no problem with students using their laptops in class. I have a tablet PC, which I use to take notes in class--yeah, of course, there's the occasional IM conversation going on, but for the most part, I use it as a note taking device. Of course there are people who just fool around on their laptops, but hey--we pay 40k a year to sit through these lectures. So what if we want to not take notes by hand but instead write in our computers, where we'll never run out of paper, nor ink, and our papers won't get lost or torn, and can be easily found, as they're on our hard drives. Of course there are the people who will play pointless games and not pay attention to the professor, but they're paying practically in souls to be there--why shouldn't they be able to spend the time how they choose? If they really aren't absorbing any of the material, then they won't be passing classes. So it should be the individual's choice--spend 40k per year to play games, slave at a desk with pencil in hand, or take notes on one's computer. Whichever way you choose, you're still spending the money yourself, not being paid to attend. (And no, I don't attend a community college either.)
hey... thats not good for me.. here in our country the student use laptop but the profs not use it ( may be he hate computer) , btw not agree with that news in this posts.
As mentioned before, it's really simple...
Punish those who goof off. Is it really that freakin' hard?
Professors and others act like it's the biggest freakin' deal in the univsere. It's not hard to set up a firewall / wifi or cell phone blocker. It's also not hard to find out who's goofing off and punish them. That whole minimize-the-window-before-the-professor-comes thing can be easily prevented... Come on.
This is also can be shown by the student's performance in class. If they're failing or screwing up, take away their right to use a laptop for however long you choose!
Why the heck is this such a big deal?
I was really surprised at the number of people who disagreed with this article. I, on the other hand, agree entirely.
I'm entering my 3rd year in Media, Information and Tech so technology is part of what I do. Anyway, instead of spewing a lot of critism about technological determinism, which is sort of from where a lot of people are arguing, I'm going to simply say that laptops in the classroom, for me anyway, are much more convenient.
I can type much faster than I can write. Yes, there are some things you can do better/faster on paper, like a table, but when all a prof is doing is standing up there talking theory, typing is much, much easier. If I were to write at the same speed as I typed, it would be not so neat... readable, but not good enough to study from meaning I would ahve to re-write or type my notes which would take up more of the time I don't have. Also, if friends miss class, you can just email them your notes instead of them having to re-copy by hand(remember, even photocopiers cost something) them or worse, they misplace your notes. Or, god forbid, you need them at 2am because you lost yours and there's a test tomorrow... You tell me how your friend is going to get those scribbled out notes to you in time. Forget scanners because unless you set it at a high enough resolution (which at times makes it too big to send), it's not the clearest thing to read.
It's a given that people do come to class and play solitare, poker or... online sudoku?... but if it distracts people around them who are writing notes by hand, the prof should have a designated laptop area. It works. Then all the people gaming can distract each other... Kidding, but most times people with laptops will sit in the back and dim the screens (to save battery life) so it's not so bad at all.
Still, it really grinds my gears that profs feel like it's up to them to decide whether or not to have laptops in class. As pointed out in the article, we're all paying a LOT of money so we should be permitted to learn in whatever way that works best for us, granted that it's not inhibiting anyone else's learning. If people feel like they want to come to class and not pay attention, it's really their own problem that they have choosen to pay thousands of dollars a year to come to class and IM their friends about "The Hills" or "last night's big game".
My point is, laptops aren't for everyone but it shouldn't be up to a prof to decide that. I think profs are just on a power trip. Either that or they just need something to blame for the fact that they suck.
To adm -->"You pay to be told what to do in order to earn your degree"
I pay to learn. I pay a LOT to learn on MY TERMS. If I wanted to learn AND be told how to I would live in a communist state, which I am pleased to say, I do not.