HELIOLITH

A professor of mine just forwarded around an op-ed written by Professor David Cole of Georgetown Law School from the Washington Post about laptops in the classroom: Laptops vs. Learning, and I couldn’t agree more. I just wrote the author back with my thoughts, which I thought I’d post here.

Dear Professor Cole,

I appreciated your op-ed–as you can see, so did my professor, who
forwarded it to our entire Civ Pro class. A different Brooklyn Law
professor is famous for having banned laptops in his classroom; I only
wish more profs would follow his example. As a first year law student who
leaves her laptop at home, I can tell you a few things.

First of all, there is nothing more obnoxious or disrespectful than the
surfer student. Between the “could you repeat the questions,” the cheating
via instant message or quick reference to a prepared outline from a 2L,
and the shoe shopping, students have lost any sense of respect for their
professors and the atmosphere of learning suffers from it. People who opt
out of paying attention somehow don’t feel shy about jumping into the
discussion, and whether they decide to speak or not, they don’t have many
valuable contributions, and still fewer that are their own.

Second, for those of us who prefer pen and paper, the sea of flashing
screens and youtube videos flickering like tvs from every angle inevitably
catch my eye and are incredibly distracting. I have actually had other
students send messages to the student in front of me in giant print to get
my attention. They may as well be flying a paper airplane for how puerile
and irritating such conduct is. If nothing else, professors should require
blackout screens so the rest of us don’t have to endure these students’
antics. How much are we paying per hour to sit around, play games, and
undermine the pedagogic process?

Finally, I will say one thing in favor of laptops–it reduces the
competition. If everyone were paying as close attention as me, I’d
certainly have a harder time performing well compared with the rest of the
students. The plus of the laptop laze for a gunner like me is that it
easily converts at least a third of the exam room into students who are at
a major disadvantage just from having mentally skipped class all semester.
That much I can appreciate.

I hope all my professors read your op-ed and take notes. Your students
would be better off if you ignored your colleagues’ warnings about
paternalism and just banned the things. They will eat their words when you
show them the difference in your students’ grades.