Profs Kibosh Students’ Laptops

The National Pulse

More law schools are banning them as a distraction—or worse

November 2007 Issue
By Jill Schachner Chanen

When first-year students show up for Suffolk University Law School professor Kate Nace Day’s constitutional law class this winter, they may be in for a surprise. Day has decided to ban what has become a staple of modern-day pedagogy and student life: laptops.

On sabbatical last year, Day had a chance to think about the problems laptops pose in the classroom, particularly for women, so she decided to take a stand. Day says students complained they were distracted and in some cases upset when other students viewed obscene videos or sent harassing text messages.

The tiered seating arrangement of most law school lecture rooms allows students to easily see what others are doing. “Laptops are pedagogical nuisances,” she says.

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS

Day is stepping into the debate over the promise of technology as a pedagogical tool—a promise that many say is unfulfilled. As a result, law schools are re-evaluating their decisions to force technology on students through laptop requirements and wireless networks.

Only 15 years ago, law schools began experimenting with computers in the classroom. For many, including Chicago-Kent College of Law’s Ronald Staudt, computers held great potential that education could be enhanced by pulling up cases in class or learning through online sources.

“The idea in my mind was to engage students in using these learning tools in an active learning process in the classroom,” says Staudt, associate vice president for law, business and technology.

Instead, many law school professors say that laptops have turned students into mere stenographers, in addition to allowing them to watch porn or gamble online.

For Chicago-Kent, which was the leader in computer-assisted learning in the early 1990s, “it would just be a very awkward thing for this institution to say we are rejecting students’ rights to use tools that we pioneered.”

The number of faculty members banning laptops at Duke University School of Law prompted a reversal of its laptop requirement, according to Richard A. Danner, senior associate dean for information services.

Duke allows faculty to control the use of laptops in class, Danner says. But so many profs had some ban on laptops that students began to question why the machines were required. “That affected our discussion,” he says, and it was one of the reasons the school dropped the requirement.

“It is so hard to control,” Danner says. “And that then leads to faculty saying, since we can’t control that and since we can’t control [the students] to behave, you can’t use your computer at all.”

Students see their own upsides and downsides. Christopher Sprowls, a student at Stetson University College of Law, says his property professor banned laptops because students spent too much time scrolling through their notes when asked to respond to questions or present cases.

Without laptops, students were more engaged, says Sprowls. But because they are so used to working on laptops, the ban created more work—such as retyping notes into their computers and running to the library to print out the notes to prepare for class.

Ohio State University law professor Douglas A. Berman isn’t bothered by what his students do in class. If students want to play poker or watch porn during class, so be it, he says, though he knows his opinion is out of the mainstream.

“I have students who don’t come to class. I have students who are paying attention and say dumb things. But so be it,” Berman says.

Berman’s only concern is when one student’s behavior distracts another’s learning experience. It is a lesson he learned all too well when sitting in on a colleague’s evidence lecture during the March NCAA basketball tournament.

“I noticed a student’s laptop with the basketball scores on the screen,” he says. “I got distracted looking at the scores.”

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Posted by Matt - Nov 9, 2007 08:36 am CDT

So, uh, the IT department couldn’t just restrict web-access or wifi to non-classroom areas?
Posted by Sarah - Nov 9, 2007 09:15 am CDT

Try having a compelling lecture for the students and perhaps so many of them wouldn’t be online doing other things. What are they going to ban next, sudoku and crossword puzzles?
Posted by skg - Nov 9, 2007 09:19 am CDT

Response to #1: the airwaves are not easily controlled. It would be like trying to broadcast radio or TV to only odd-nembered houses.

As an ‘06 grad who preferred to sit towards the back, I had the opportunity to watch many of my classmates laptop computer activities. I never saw any porn (darn it!). But lots of solitaire, instant messaging, score checking, and general web browsing.

Without laptops, there will not be much more rapt attention to the prof than with them. Students will simply find some other distraction to while away the time while the prof grills the student on the spot about the case of the moment.
Posted by William - Nov 9, 2007 10:01 am CDT

Don’t they want law students and future lawyers to be mature and independent and able to figure out how and when to make use of time and technolology? Sometimes, it seems that law school has less respect for students’ autonomy than undergraduate schools. Law school has so many more rules and so much less freedom. It’s fairly counter-intuitive.
Posted by Adam - Nov 9, 2007 10:19 am CDT

One more example of how law students are treated at the same level of high school students. Rather than constantly changing their mind about allowable mediums to study with, they should just discipline those who ruin others’ abilities to pay attention, just like they do in HS when someone is caught passing a note.
Posted by anonymous - Nov 9, 2007 10:23 am CDT

Distractions abound. As a practicing lawyer, I have to stay focused on my argument in front of the judge while other attorneys in the gallery try to hammer out an agreement, while jury members are making weird faces, while my client is trying to protest the latest statement from the opposing party . . . Just because they can see the other students’ laptops does not mean that they should look or allow themselves to be distracted. It is part of maturing to figure out when and when not to indulge. Professors banning laptops because someone might be distracted or offended by what they see says more about the Professor’s weakness than about the students’ use of technology.

Also to the 3rd poster, the internet is not coming directly across the airwaves. In order for the school to have wi-fi, it must have an internet access server somewhere on campus with routers allowing access. It is reasonably easy technology to block certain things at that server - unlike attempting to block radio signals or cell phone signals.
Posted by Law Student - Nov 9, 2007 10:25 am CDT

A ban on laptops would ignore the fundamental reason that all students now have them - they provide a more efficient way of taking notes and keeping them centralized. We all type faster than we write, and it eliminates the need to carry 5 or 6 notebooks full of notes around. Being able to look up definitions and cases in class is also a huge plus. If some students want to waste their time gambling or watching pornography, it’s their loss. They’re paying for the education anyway. Why punish the students who are using their laptops to maximize efficiency and stay organized?
Posted by Suzanne - Nov 9, 2007 10:29 am CDT

Had any of my professors banned laptops, I could easily have flunked out. I have a mildly annoying nerve-degeneration condition that would have progressed rapidly in my right hand had I been forced to hand-write all my notes for three years (Exams caused extended numbness for days). As far as a distraction, I was too busy typing my notes to look at other student’s laptop screens in front of me. If students are smart enough to recall the lecture without notetaking, then I suppose the guy or gal drawing nudie pictures on paper in the row ahead would be just as distracting and offensive as the person viewing porn on a screen. Laptops don’t distract people, people distract people.
Posted by skg - Nov 9, 2007 10:42 am CDT

Reply to #6: I doubt that you can program a server to distinguish between the laptop that is in the lecture hall and one that is in a study room next door unless there is a separate router (or whatever the proper name is for the component) in each room telling the server that one has more restricted access than the other. But maybe the technology is more sophisticated than I think.
Posted by John G - Nov 9, 2007 10:43 am CDT

I am persuaded by those who appeal to personal responsiblity (and risk), and to the need to develop discipline in the face of distractions (of one’s own, and from others). But I have some sympathy for the profs facing rows of black or silver plastic rather than attentive faces.

I also find that when I take notes by hand, I summarize and synthesize, but when I type, I tend to transcribe rather than think about what I’m hearing. So I am less likely to participate in a discussion if I’m typing. OTOH I can read my notes afterwards much more easily - and faster - afterwards. So maybe typing is time-shifting my thinking to post-class review…
Posted by David C. - Nov 9, 2007 11:05 am CDT

Ahhh...one more example of egocentric “attorneys” working to make sure that everyone appreciates the sound of their own voice as much as they do. I’m sorry...who is paying the professor’s salary? And who is now repaying the student loans for the professor’s salary? I think law professors need to get over themselves, grow a bit of a thicker skin and do their job; that job being to condense their expertise into a 50 minute class...yes...to be the oracle of foreign concepts to a group of grown-ups. If I decide to waste my time during class and do poorly on the exam why should that be anyone’s concern other than my own? Oh...wait...I get it...If I do poorly that may directly reflect on the professor’s teaching ability or even worse maybe my poor grade will cause the school’s US News rating to drop which will discourage future anti-computer, non-porn viewing, subservient, kowtowing, scholarship deserving students from applying to the school. After all, it is about the school and professor’s image and not about providing a learning environment for independent thinkers to learn one of the three noble professions.
Posted by Mark M - Nov 9, 2007 11:18 am CDT

This is another example of the Ludditism of people in law practice in general. I remember first year sitting in a classroom with all sorts of apparent AV technology installed in it. One day, the professor showed a video. He rolled in a 24” tv with a vcr attached to do it!
If students are bothered by obscene messaging or porn in the classroom, then they should talk to the students who are doing those things, not rely on the professor to ban laptops.
The confusion in these comments on how to police a network only fuels my argument. There methods for restricting website viewing are myriad. You could even have a comp sci student sit around and knock people off the network who are clearly abusing the resource: downloading movies, porn, music, etc. Big companies do this all the time ...
Posted by Dan - Nov 9, 2007 11:22 am CDT

Too bad law school professors can’t be engaging enough to overcome a screen with letters, numbers, and video on it. Distractions are a reality, perhaps this trend of increased computer use is a broader commentary on the decline of active learning in some professor’s classrooms.
Posted by Heather - Nov 9, 2007 11:34 am CDT

I was in law school back before wi-fi, but had a laptop. I didn’t take it to every class, but I found that I was more engaged and did better in classes without it. I was guilty of playing (non-internet) games when I had it. The only downside of not having my laptop in class was the fact that I had to later input my notes into my computer for outlining. Of course, I had fewer notes to synthesize…
Perhaps a (partial) solution for those who complain about having to re-type their notes is a tablet PC. I don’t know much about them or how well the handwriting recognition works, but it seems like something that could work well in the classroom setting.
Posted by Dave S. - Nov 9, 2007 11:43 am CDT

"Ohio State University law professor Douglas A. Berman isn’t bothered by what his students do in class. If students want to play poker or watch porn during class, so be it, he says, though he knows his opinion is out of the mainstream.”

Where does this accusation of students watching porn in class come from? It’s completely ridiculous to make such a blanket insinuation.
Posted by jrs - Nov 9, 2007 11:47 am CDT

Ya know...I think the problem professors have with laptops is that they are starting to realize that one can get the same (probably better and certainly cheaper) legal education with a laptop, an internet connection, and a couple of Emmanuel’s than they can/do with some boring, pretentious, self-righteous old hack that never had the courage to leave their ivory tower. If instead of grilling one or two students for an hour (thus boring the hell out of the rest of us), they would actually engage the class and even, god forbid, update their lectures every, oh, I don’t know, 5 or 6 years (being very generous there), then maybe students wouldn’t be numbed out playing solitaire in the classrooms. It’s not the student or the laptop that is the problem.....
Posted by Julia - Nov 9, 2007 11:49 am CDT

As a former teacher and a former law student, I have to admit that I would ban laptops, too, were I in front of a law school classroom. While students absolutely have the right to tune out during a class (and I did so many times), there’s a large difference between a student doodling in the corner of her notebook and a student watching a DVD with the closed captioning on.

When I taught, my personal philosophy was as long as the student wasn’t distracting others, I didn’t care whether she paid attention or not. I was paid to be a teacher, not a cop. The problem as I see it is that so many of the activities students engage in on laptops *are* distracting to others. Movies, IM, computer games, web surfing - all of that is hard to ignore if it’s flashing right in front of your eyes while you’re trying to look at the professor.

And as for the argument that law school professors should be able to “compete” with laptops and internet access, oh, please. You’d be hard pressed to find a professor that could entertain as well as last night’s episode of Heroes or pornography or sports scores. The faculty has to teach subjects that simply aren’t as fun (although they can be interesting) as a student’s hobbies and extracurricular interests. Obviously, professors should do what they can to keep students engaged and employ active learning techniques (and some of them could be a LOT better at it), but the idea that somehow tax law is going to be able to triumph over YouTube is ridiculous.
Posted by ARAttorney - Nov 9, 2007 11:49 am CDT

I am an ‘02 grad and during my first semester of law school I took hand-written notes. Not only could I not write (and still don’t) very quickly, but I found it hard to find other students who would share their notes with me so that I could fill in the blank. Needless to say, my grades were sub-par and I blame my low grades on my inability to keep up and have complete notes.

During the second semster and for the remainder of law school I used my computer for note-taking, test taking and I was actually allowed to use it for the essay portion of the bar exam. . .my grades soared and I passed the bar exam with a high score on the essay portion. I don’t think that I could have made it through law school with my laptop note taking there to compliment my time in the library.

For some, laptops can be a key to success. For those who choose to do other things with their computer in class . . .beware you might be missing something important.

I feel as though a ban would be a mistake. Different people learn in different ways. A law professor/educator should know better than to cut off an avenue which can stimulate better learning in an intense environment.

Get ready everyone. . .next there will be no laptops or ELMO’s in the Courtroom.
Posted by RecentGrad - Nov 9, 2007 11:53 am CDT

To skg - IT departments can, and do, limit access to wireless internet. I graduated from GW a couple years back and they restricted the wireless access to common areas like the first-floor lounges, and the library. Of course, it helped that in their buildings the classrooms were clustered together and the common areas were clustered together. It did mean that if I chose to use an empty classroom to study, that I could not access the internet. Not a big deal and it did keep students from being online during class pretty effectively.
Posted by Todd S. - Nov 9, 2007 11:55 am CDT

Several schools are able to shut off internet access at “nodes” in individual classrooms. They need to talk to their IT department if they want that done. It is available in at least one classroom at my law school. However, I don’t think this is a good solution.
If someone is watching obscene materials, address that issue with that student. There are IT use policies, sexual harassment policies, honor codes, etc. to deal with such issues. Taking away a valuable tool because one or a few abuse that tool is a typical but counterproductive knee-jerk overreaction that should be avoided.
If someone wants to pay lots of money to waste their time in class, let them. I for one am all in favor of it, let them push themselves down on the curve by all means.
Posted by stevie B - Nov 9, 2007 12:00 pm CDT

as a former processor architect and logic designer, and a ‘94 law grad, I found having a laptop in classroom essential. Software, though, was crude—Microbuggy Windoze 3.1 with 2 DOS windows running WordPerfect, to give me 4 text screens:
1 for notes from pre-class reading
1 for my developing outline
1 for in-class notes
1 for other
I never did play games in class.

Of course, there was no internet or WiFi back then—but there was while I was in Medical School. There the lecture hall was subjected to a wi-fi blockage during some, but not all, lectures.
Laptop was very valuable there as we could get a much better view of the slides on our small screens than on the projector screen up front.

I think tech very valuable in classroom, but the benefit depends on students using it appropriately.
Posted by Waiting for Bar Results - Nov 9, 2007 12:08 pm CDT

Don’t blame the laptops. They’re only a tool. Used properly, they can be beneficial; used improperly, they can be a distraction. Turn off the wi-fi antennae in the classrooms, if it’s becoming too much of a problem. And don’t say that isn’t possible: we had one classroom that had no wireless for most of the 3 years I was there; students got around that by bringing in a network cable to plug in.

I was paying an exhorbitant amount of tuition $$ for each minute I was in the classroom - I wasn’t going to waste any of that by shopping on eBay, or IM-ing, or playing games that I could be doing in the other 20-hours/day that I wasn’t in class.

Like some of the other commenters here, I CAN’T hold a pen for a 1.25 hour lecture due to carpal-tunnel and tendonitis issues. Without my laptop, I wouldn’t have been able to take notes at all. And most of my professors didn’t allow tape-recording. We had a few professors who banned laptops (usually judges or practitioners teaching the evening classes); if I had had one of those, I would have had to get a medical exemption to be allowed to use my laptop.
Posted by Waiting for Bar Results - Nov 9, 2007 12:13 pm CDT

One more comment - if someone in front of you is distracting you with what’s on their screen, sit in the front row.
Posted by skg - Nov 9, 2007 12:34 pm CDT

Thanks to #19 and #20 for clarifying my understanding of the technology. I didn’t realize that we were so close to room-by-room control.
Posted by Jimi - Nov 9, 2007 01:04 pm CDT

As I read this article in my Federal Jurisdiction class, I hope that I am not disturbing my fellow classmates. Not to worry, the closest one to me is looking at hunting gear. Deer season is short time away. Our university has a ban on most of the nasty stuff and some of the good stuff that can be found on the internet. My first year, laptops were very distracting. But so were the students texting on their phones. I’ve been in court many times and have seen real attorneys do the same. We are responsible for our own fate and grades. In my criminal law class my first semester, we were not allowed to bring in our BOOKS. We were only allowed our own briefs of the cases assigned. I am a better student because of that. A good professor can make good lawyers with or without laptops.
Posted by Stef - Nov 9, 2007 01:24 pm CDT

Professors need to place mirrors on the back walls of their classrooms. Then they could see that most of the class is playing solitaire on their laptops.
Posted by JMA - Nov 9, 2007 01:31 pm CDT

I’m a 2d year law student. I see most students w/ laptops surfing the net, playing games, etc. I know I would do the same thing...thats why I leave my computer in my backpack during class.
One thing I have never seen, though, is porn in class...do people really do THAT?
Posted by David K. DeWolf - Nov 9, 2007 01:42 pm CDT

I’ve been teaching for more than 20 years. I drafted a policy that I have not adopted, but here’s what I would say:

The use of laptop computers in law school classrooms can be very helpful both to students and to the professor. However, there are several disadvantages to using laptops. One is that students may be tempted to become passive receptors of information, recording what is said (particularly by the professor) rather than participating fully in class discussion. Another disadvantage is that some students many be tempted to use the computer to conduct other activities, such as checking e mail or visiting non-classroom related web sites, or even playing solitaire. On the one hand, what students do in the classroom is their own responsibility, and it is not the job of the law school—particularly the classroom teacher—to ensure that students are staying on task. On the other hand, to the extent that the classroom environment is a preparation for the kind of professional activity that will be expected of a lawyer, it is a legitimate concern of students and the professor that an appropriate professional atmosphere is maintained. In the same way that a judge would rightly want control over his or her courtroom so that an appropriate degree of decorum was maintained, the instructor wants his or her law school classroom to be a place where professionalism is the standard. To say this does not exclude the possibility that, because of some urgent situation, such as a medical crisis in the student’s family, students will access email (or even put a cell phone on vibrate mode), but these would be rare circumstances that should be cleared with the instructor in advance. Under ordinary circumstances students are expected to be engaged in the classroom discussion whenever they attend class. Using a laptop computer for purposes of personal amusement is no different from opening up the newspaper and proceeding to read the sports section while the professor is lecturing. Using a laptop computer for non-classroom related tasks, while less visible to the instructor, is no less rude.
It is impractical and undesirable for the classroom instructor to monitor what students do when using a laptop computer. Instead, students should be expected to treat this obligation the way that they treat other professional obligations, and where a student regularly disregards this obligation it may result in the student being unable to comply with rules that have Honor Code implications. For example, students in most classes must certify that they have attended at least 80% of the scheduled classes. A student who is physically present but engaged in other activities is not really attending the class.
It is worth emphasizing that in describing this expectation the law school faculty is in no way seeking to displace the primary responsibility that students have for their own education. The primary mechanism for holding students accountable is the measure of how well they perform on graded assignments and examinations. The student must find that combination of study techniques that maximize the student’s ability to perform well. The classroom is not only a venue for practising the skills that will assist the student in performing well on the graded assignments and examinations, but it is also a place to practice those professional skills that the student will be called upon to observe in professional life after law school. The laptop computer may assist in achieving these goals, but it may also distract. Use good judgment and consideration of your classmates and the instructor when you power up.
Posted by Fletcher R. Catron - Nov 9, 2007 02:02 pm CDT

My daughter, a first year law student, has apparently begun sitting in the first row of her classroom to avoid having to see others watching unrelated and distracting matters on their laptops. It’s fine to say that law students should be more mature, that professors should be more interesting, that discipline should be stricter, or that students should rat on one another, but that’s not the real world.
Posted by Ron - Nov 9, 2007 02:05 pm CDT

I also had a Constitutional Law prof who threatened to confiscate laptops if she witnessed gaming and browsing. Aside from the dichotomy of a con law prof confiscating without due process and understanding what one prof termed as “facing laptop defilade,” I’ve always thought that, if a fellow student wants to pay exhorbitant tuition to not listen, that’s one less person I need to worry about in the fight for top of the class.
Posted by 2L - Nov 9, 2007 02:09 pm CDT

Thank you to all of the posts that refer to respecting students and our ability to be mature and responsible. Of course there are the few that wander off on the internet (honestly, I have been guilty of it), but if I happen to see someone around me surfing, I understand it is my fault if I allow myself to be distracted and, therefore, just don’t pay attention to it. It really is that simple. And my goodness - porn?! I would be shocked if that is as common as implied in the article. We are in law school...not high school. Please give us some credit.
Posted by Gary Avery - Nov 9, 2007 02:34 pm CDT

I taught law for four years long before there were computers. I never took attendance. My aim was to make the class so interesting that no one would want to miss the class or otherwise waste time during class.
Posted by Recent '07 grad - Nov 9, 2007 02:55 pm CDT

Sometimes it helped me to pay attention by playing solitaire or those types of games because it focused my mind. I don’t think it’s a horrible thing. Let people do what they want to do. If they’re not learning, it’ll reflect in their grade at the end of the semester. Everyone learns differently.
Posted by Sue - Nov 9, 2007 03:51 pm CDT

Instead of punishing everyone, just deal with the offenders. If caught doing something inappropriate, they should be told to leave the classroom, and given an absence for the day.
Posted by E.L. B.H. - Nov 9, 2007 04:29 pm CDT

I went to undergrad before computers only word processors. Now I’m an older law student and I can’t imagine going back to writing notes. Sure other students zone out, but that’s their problem, if the professor is good and engaging the entire class instead of talking so they can hear their own voice, then most of the class is paying attention. Like many other commentors, it’s not the laptop, its the student. We are paying for the eduation, if we want to squander our money so be it. If someone is distracting you, take it up with them, or make a complaint to the proper authority. If students get called in for viewing porn etc. they will think twice about doing it again in class. If someone was talking on a cell, snapping gum etc. they would be called on it imediately, so why not for this type of distraction?
Posted by Southern Law School Grad - Nov 9, 2007 05:24 pm CDT

Yes, people really watch porn in class. In the library too.
Posted by Matt Garber - Nov 9, 2007 05:29 pm CDT

An easy way for a professor to single out students who are using a laptop for some non-class related activity is to stop talking for a few seconds and look at who is still typing on their laptop or scrolling with their mouse.
Posted by Matt Garber - Nov 9, 2007 05:32 pm CDT

Southern law—I just graduated in May and never saw anyone looking at porn in three years of school. If I did, I’d report it because it’s inappropriate to subject others to that kind of material in class.
Posted by DB Guerin - Nov 9, 2007 05:33 pm CDT

This reminds me of kindergarten when the entire class couldn’t go to recess because one or two people kept talking when they weren’t suppose to.
Who cares what other students are doing on their laptops. I say this as a student. I pay a little over a hundred dollars a class per day to go to law school, and if some moron wants to gamble during class on his laptop, the rest of the class will benefit by remaining on the right side of the bell curve.
As far as being distracting, I’ve never encountered a situation in life where there weren’t distractions. It’s best to figure out now how to function in a world full of distractions. It only takes a small amount of disipline.
As far as porn goes, if a teacher is so inept that she can’t take care of a problem like that, quit teaching.
Posted by Law Prof - Nov 9, 2007 05:48 pm CDT

The reason students who are distracting others with laptop activity are not called on it immediately, as suggested by the poster in #35, is that the prof doesn’t necessarily know who is doing what. And it would be a waste of time and learning opportunities for the majority of good students for us to spend class time each day figuring out who is doing what. (and some are accusing us of treating students like children when we AREN’T making you hand over the note you passed, showing us what you’re doing on your computer, or something similar!). Remember that we’re in the front, looking at the backs of the laptop screens. Other students should try to police this issue to the extent it’s distracting—and if a student were to come to me with this problem, I’d certainly talk to the offending actor. (oh, and thanks to #39 for calling me inept because I can’t see through a laptop screen to figure out who is looking at porn!) To say that this only happens because I’m boring . . . that I should be more interesting, and if I’m not interesting to everyone all the time, that I am just getting what I deserve, is rather ridiculous. What I’m “getting” is the knowledge that other students are being distracted (and more so than in the days of crossword puzzles and the like). And the other students in the class certainly don’t deserve it. It seems from my class evaluations that more than half the class thinks I’m interesting, or the topic is, or both. The other half - who knows? - but I find it objectionable that the few who find me or the subject, or both, boring, should feel so self-righteous about being a distraction to other students. It is not true, despite what we might want to think, that people who don’t pay attention in class are always on the bottom of the curve. Some students are just smarter than others, or better at taking exams, or whatever, and will keep doing better than some hard-working students even if they goof off in class. And that’s okay, except when they interfere with the learning environment of those hard-working students. I allow laptops in my classes and have no plans to stop—studious people just have to deal with distractions as best they can—but it doesn’t make the behavior by the distractors appropriate for the law school environment. (and by the way, some people do actually look at porn, according to some of my students, although I have no reason to think it is nearly as common as the ESPN website, email, the Nordstrom shoe department online, or other similar activities)
Posted by DB Guerin - Nov 9, 2007 09:24 pm CDT

#40, I never said that you were inept because you couldn’t see through laptops. But, if a teacher knows about that students look at porn, as the teacher in the article did, then punishing an entire class and any future classes is absurd. Is it possible that you happen to take things too personally? Unless you were the teacher in the article, then none of that was directed to you.
Posted by har - Nov 9, 2007 11:37 pm CDT

these Professors tend to forget who is paying them without the paying customer/ client they would have no job or audience to pontificate to. laptop are mostly a distraction to self loathing Professors whose self importance seem to be very low.
the customer is always right unless they are wrong.
Posted by Nic B. - Nov 10, 2007 01:31 am CDT

When I have a professor who is coherent, on point, and covers relevant material I pay attention and take notes. I have had many professors who meet this standard.

When a professor is incoherent, rambles, repeats the same basic point 10 times, goes off on long tangents telling irrelevant stories, or gives totally non-responsive answers to questions I surf the internet. If they want to take away my laptop I want an airhorn to interrupt the prof every time they start wasting MY time.

I’m paying good money to be in law school, money that directly contributes to the professor’s salary. I’m sick of listening to professors whine about how laptops are a distraction when the fact is most of them are probably terrible lecturers who have wasted the time of generations of students.

Furthermore, if someone wants to spend all their time in class goofing off, then so be it, they’ll either fail out or pass, and it’s that student’s responsibility to do well, not the professors.
Posted by Samantha McDonald - Nov 10, 2007 07:53 am CDT

I’m a Suffolk Law 2L and my torts professor banned laptops last year. While it elicited much initial moaning, the vast majority of students eventually found it really beneficial. I found that I learn much better by physically writing out notes & studies have backed that connection up. Of course, transcribing my notes into my laptop offered a second review and opportunity to evaluate and integrate the information. Additionally, there was less of an air of general distraction in the classroom.

I’m confident that, had a student approached the professor with a genuine medical need to type, he would’ve allowed that. His point was not punitive; it was pedagogical. I don’t think it was a coincidence that this professor is the only one I know of among my 1L teachers that has his MA in Education. He knows how to teach, not merely expound upon the law. And he did teach: he was interesting, approachable, organized and a generally terrific teacher.

The previous commenters’ points about personal responsibility/learning to work with distractions/etc. have merit. However, I do think 1L is such an ...odd...experience that anything the school or prof can do to make one’s learning optimal is worthwhile. Time enough to learn to work with distraction when you’re not busy re-arranging all your brain cells AND your entire life as a first year.

Further, the hyper-entitled students’ comments above make me cranky. As a 40 year old with plenty of real-life work experience, let me assure you that—however fervently you may wish for an airhorn to shut up a pompous windbag—ain’t gonna happen in the real world and you better learn how to pay attention and give the windbag what he wants from you. What are you going to do with obnoxious clients? Or bosses? Yes, we’re paying good money. Yes, it’s irritating. As my mom used to say, “put on your big girl panties and deal.”
Posted by C Tracy - Nov 10, 2007 09:44 am CDT

Why not give students the screen protectors that restrict viewing to one direct angle? Then others would not be able to see any distracting pages. They are sold for a few bucks at electronics stores. This wouldn’t solve the naughty pages problem, but it would lower the distraction level. Extreme solutions such as banning laptops are not the type of thing that the legal community needs to portray to the public.
Posted by Sick of law school - Nov 10, 2007 01:10 pm CDT

Every law school administrator and faculty member should be required to read two books: (1) The World is Flat and (2) As the Future Catches You. Perhaps, these perspectives will release our industry from traditional bondages inhibiting our growth.
Posted by Kim - Nov 10, 2007 07:05 pm CDT

If a professor told me I couldn’t use my laptop in class, I would drop the class. I’ve had to hand write notes when I was having computer problems, and those notes were no where near as comprehensive as my typed notes. I’ve been in seminars in which laptops were unnecessary, and therefore, they were banned. I saw students passing notes and playing tic-tac-toe.

Yesterday, I attended a CLE. During the presentations, I saw lawyers my age & older (I’m 42) reading the newspaper (not online), checking email, and looking at vacation pictures. I was equally bored at times, but I have enough courtesy to make eye contact with the speaker and pretend I’m interested. (I do the same in class, too - normally.) Some day, one those horribly dull speakers may interview me for a job. I’d hate to remembered as the one reading the entertainment section of the newspaper.

I need every advantage I can get in this environment, so if my classmates/competitors wish to shop for shoes or check their fantasy football stats, so be it.
Posted by Jennifer - Nov 11, 2007 09:32 pm CDT

I can see such movements getting out of control.

Yes, there are students using internet access during lecture for purposes other than the lecture, but please, don’t restrict the students!

As a recent law grad I often used the internet to pull related cases discussed during class, “googled” words and topics I was unfamiliar with, and used Wikipedia to get broader depth to a topic. When a professor was late or running out of the room to get something else, I was able to take care of personal matters.

The “stenographer” phenomenon has permitted me to increase my type-rate ten-fold while using my laptop during the three years of law school.

As to other students displaying inappropriate materials, my school had policies regarding that sort of behavior, and just as if that individual were doing similar things without a computer, that student was held accountable for such behabior using a laptop. Professors need to set boundaries at the beginning of the year and enforce respect amongst the students if need be.

The benefits of laptops far outweigh the distractions.

As a side note, please tell the Supreme Court of Ohio, no one writes out essays longhand anymore.
Posted by teknoidz - Nov 13, 2007 08:23 pm CDT

The author of this article may want to do a better job of fact and quote checking. The article makes it seem that Duke dropped its laptop requirement due to a increasing bans by faculty of laptops in the classroom. After the article was referenced on the teknoids website, Dean Danner, here seen issuing the damning quote from Duke, refuted the claim, stating that “our requirement was actually removed because it was no longer necessary to facilitate students’ ability to obtain financial aid for laptop purchases” and “Classroom restrictions were not a significant factor in the decision to remove the ownership requirement, which was made upon the recommendation of a faculty/student committee.” (see http://www.teknoids.net/node/8620/16416#comment-16416) That certainly makes this article just seem wrong to me. I would expect more from the ABA Journal.
Posted by Meagan - Nov 13, 2007 08:40 pm CDT

Ditto what Jennifer said about the use of laptops to retrieve supplementary info during class. And I, too, suffer from carpal tunnel and cannot imagine what I would do without a laptop. That said, next semester one of my professors is well-known for being one of the only ones who bans laptops so we’ll see. My current plan is to type extensive notes ahead of time and print them double-spaced so I can take the few necessary handwritten notes. I’m hoping my classmates will help me fill in the gaps if my hands don’t let me get everything down.
Posted by Richard Mixter - Nov 15, 2007 12:10 pm CDT

A significant reason that students seem more involved with their computers in class than with the content of the class is revealed by the Stetson student who says in the article that “his property professor banned laptops because students spent too much time scrolling through their notes when asked to respond to questions or present cases.”

This is true for many students, who come to law schools with word processors and other software that does not serve the characteristic needs of a law student. In essence this need is to have instant access to any information in notes or briefs that relates to the legal concept being discussed.

There is new software, developed by a law student, which serves exactly this need. It is called AspenLaw Studydesk. 1Ls in many law schools have just started using it this semester. A free trial version is available at www.aspenlaw.com, as well as a flash demo that explains how it works.