USATODAY.com - Law professor bans laptops in class, over student protest: back story: I started using a laptop computer in class when I was 16. This was about 1995. I used that thing to cheat, as a way to stay awake, and as a way to do homework for other classes in another class. I even had a printer to use (in the journalism room). When I got Ricochet Wireless in college (1998), all paying attention in class fell (and so did my grades).
When I taught at UCSB, I made it a point that laptops/sidekicks/ipods were put away before class started. Now, I used a laptop while teaching (substantially), but I don’t think that students need them while someone is teaching. Maybe in a class of 300 people, where there is no interaction with the professor, it could work. But when you put 300 college students in a room, with laptops, and provide free Wi-Fi, you might as well just not teach and be done with it.
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As a law student myself, I completely agree with the students at the Univeristy of Memphis. Law school is entirely different than undergraduate studies. Entirely. In undergrad, you will cover a few different topics or sections in an hour as the professor presents it. I took notes in a notebook (like 98% of my colleagues) and did just fine.
In law school, you are responsible for pages and pages of minutia derived from complex and often overly-verbose court opinions, and will often be “cold-called” on in class to present such facts from the cases. Not being able to quickly scroll through your course notes, add a new thought, or rephrase something in your notes is a tremendous disadvantage. Additionally, on tens and tens of occasions I have been completely confused while in class and covered myself by copying down a good deal of what the professor says, only to revisit the material later and figure it out at that time. There is no time to sit and mull over an idea, as the professor is already three thoughts down the road, and you’ve missed it all because you were still wondering what a “fee simple absolute” is. The speed of professors, when coupled with the tremendous amount of material and information presented/discussed in a course meeting necessitates the use of computers. I have no idea how I’d survive without mine.
Posted 22 Mar 2006 at 8:17 pm ¶Law school may indeed be different, but even as a Comp Sci undergrad major, I rarely saw a need for a laptop in class. Those who had them were generally checking their email or making stock trades.
Posted 23 Mar 2006 at 7:59 am ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 1
[...] Saw this article Law professor bans laptops in class, over student protest the other day, and wanted to blog about it, but forgot. The link remerged on Blackrimglasses blog today. His stance was that it took away from the learning experience, as well as he cheated, and worked on other homework. [...]
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