Laptops in the classroom -- a reverse of direction

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Paul Levy" <plevy () citizen org>
Date: March 9, 2010 7:14:35 AM EST
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: Laptops in the classroom -- a reverse of direction

The Post carries a story this morning about the trend to ban laptops in the classroom.   Faculty who used to welcome 
laptops now banning them because multitasking students don't pay full attention to the discussion.   This is a 
possibility, I audited Julie Cohen's copyright law class at Georgetown back in 2006 and although some students seems to 
be taking noted intensively, I was struck by the number of students who were using their laptops for other tasks. One 
young man sitting in front of me spent my of the class writing for his election blog. 
 
On the other hand, I have seen laptops incorporated into the classroom discussion (when I guested at a Jonathan 
Zittrain class in 2002, for example, he used student questions from their laptops to feed questions to me).  I wonder 
whether there isn't some justice to the criticism that the faculty member's job is to make the classroom experience 
engaging enough to hold the students' full attention. For those students who ARE taking notes, doing it on the laptop  
is much more efficient than writing by hand and typing up later.
 
 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/08/AR2010030804915.html?hpid=topnews
 
 
 
Paul Alan Levy
Public Citizen Litigation Group
1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 588-1000
http://www.citizen.org/litigation




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