Banning Laptops in the Classroom: Is it Worth the Hassles?

Law school laptop wars have been going on for a couple of years now but when Chicago Law School Dean Saul Levmore decided to cut off wireless and wired access to the Internet in April [U of C press release], the issue made a big splash in the media, ranging from the Above the Law tabloid to the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin.

Ah, a tad draconian, don't you think? A bit extreme to be making access to the Internet in the classroom impossible.

As for laptop use, shouldn't this be a matter decided by law profs and their students on a class by class basis, even perhaps on a day by day basis? If so, law profs might want to read Kevin Yamamoto's (South Texas College of Law) article, Banning Laptops in the Classroom: Is it Worth the Hassles? [SSRN]. Yamamoto argues that laptops should be banned unless their use aids the learning process. Here's the abstract:

Over the last several years law school classrooms have seen an explosion of student laptop use. Law professors have allowed this by default, generally under the pretense that laptops make note-taking easier. However, many professors complain that students use their laptops to play games, watch movies, or if they have an Internet connection, to do web surfing and e-mailing during class. This paper presents my experience in banning laptops from my classroom in the Fall of 2006, the first time it was done at my institution. The article covers the reasons for and against allowing laptops in the classroom, my reasoning and procedure for banning them, perceived differences in the classroom experience and relevant student comments from my course evaluations, which were overwhelmingly positive to the laptop ban. Also covered are the cognitive psychological reasons in support of banning laptops. Studies show that lower grades were correlated with increased student web browsing during class (Grace-Martin & Gay, 2001; Hembrooke & Gay, 2003), and the amount of time which students used their laptops for tasks other than taking lecture notes (Fried, 2007). MRI studies of the brain indicate that the brain stores information differently when distracted, which occurs when students attempt to multi-task in class (Foerde, Knowlton, & Poldrack, 2006). The science of note-taking is also covered, which indicates verbatim typing may interfere with learning (e.g., Kiewra, 1991). The paper concludes by urging law school professors to review why laptops are allowed in their classrooms and, unless they feel that laptops increase student learning, to ban or heavily restrict their classroom use.

My Opinion. Allow laptop use in the classroom except for special occasions! Students come to law school prepared to use their laptops to take notes, integrate digital text provided by course ePackets into their outline programs, etc. Last time I looked, this was the 21st century. I'm not sure the digital natives know how to use pen and paper technology.

If law profs can't keep their students' attention during lectures, maybe they need to kick it up a notch. Maybe the students are bored because they actually prepared for class and are not hearing anything not already covered in their reading assignments. OK, that preparation thing might be a stretch.

If students are driven to distraction because fellow students are surfing the web, emailing, playing poker online, etc., move to a different seat! Students need to learn how to concentrate because those classroom distractions are nothing compared to what they will experience once they leave law school.  That's no stretch. [JH]