Banning Laptops in Law School
(on the other hand, laptopping beats sleeping)
See the WSJ Law Blog's post No Laptops for You concerning a Georgetown Law Prof who has banned laptops from his classroom.
I'm teaching a class at Pepperdine Law School this semester and must admit that the temptation to ban laptops is great, particularly when you've worked hard to prepare an engaging lecture and are attempting to solicit lively participation from your students. It's sometimes dispiriting to face a sea of black and silver laptop covers instead of interested faces poised to join a class discussion.
It may seem like a small problem, unworthy of a post. But it concerns the way we treat one another and the way we wish to be treated. If we were chatting at a party and I pulled out my Blackberry to "multi-task," I'd be considered boorish and not a little dim-witted. How different is that from the conversation that takes place in the classroom?
With these thoughts in mind, I provide an excerpt below and link above:
[Georgetown Law School Professor] David Cole has banned laptops from his classroom, and he wrote an essay about it in Saturday’s WaPo. He cites two reasons for the ban:
“Note-taking on a laptop encourages verbatim transcription. The note-taker tends to go into stenographic mode and no longer processes information in a way that is conducive to the give and take of classroom discussion. Because taking notes the old-fashioned way, by hand, is so much slower, one actually has to listen, think and prioritize the most important themes.”
“Laptops create temptation to surf the Web, check e-mail, shop for shoes or instant-message friends. That’s not only distracting to the student who is checking Red Sox statistics [or the WSJ Law Blog!] but for all those who see him . . . doing something besides being involved in class. Together, the stenographic mode and Web surfing make for a much less engaged classroom, and that affects all students . . . .”
