The Laptop Debate Continues

The debate over laptop usage in the classroom continues in No logoff in fight over laptops in class (June 30, 2006), by Eric Finkelstein, in the National Law Journal.

   

Professors are continuously plagued by students surfing the internet, playing games, shopping, and other non-class related activities during lectures.  Also, there are problems with students that second-year Brooklyn School of Law student Daniel Schudroff calls the "angry typist." Those are the students whose typing is both loud and fast, which is very distracting to professors and students alike.

   

Schools such as the University of Michigan Law School and the University of Virginia School of Law have used technology to prohibit internet usage when the student is in class.

   

Despite the controversy, including rumors at Harvard Law that faculty were voting this fall to ban laptops all together, some professors remain in favor of laptop usage in the classroom. See Paul Caron and Rafael Gely, Taking Back the Law School Classroom: Using Technology to Foster Active Student Learning, 54 J. Legal Educ. 311 (2004).
   

For more on this topic, see this post on Prof. Caron's blog.