Professors Say No to Laptops in Classroom

March 10th, 2010

If you were thinking of treating yourself to some souped-up laptop that you could use to take lightning-fast notes in the lecture hall next year, you might want to reconsider: some colleges and universities are looking to ban laptops in classrooms.

It’s always been good manners to turn off your cell phone and iPod in a classroom, but laptops have usually been welcomed—provided that students were actually using them to work, and not surf the web, check email, or update their Facebook statuses. Here’s a shocker—most students have been using their laptops to do anything BUT take notes, and so professors are putting their collective foot down.

The Washington Post is reporting that professors at George Washington University, American University,  College of William and Mary, and University of Virginia have banned laptops in the classroom. It’s a great way to limit classroom distractions, but it’s a hard pill to swallow for some students, particularly since schools often require students to purchase laptops to take full advantage of the campus technology, including wireless Internet access.

Do you need a laptop in the classroom? Of course not. Handwriting notes in a regular notebook is a tried-and-true method that won’t be going anywhere anytime soon, despite any number of new gizmos that Apple introduces. However, laptops are an awesome gadget to have in the dorm room, the library, and wherever else on campus you might decide to write a term paper—or shop online.

So go ahead and buy that cool, sleek new laptop, but plan on leaving it at home or in the dorm if you go to one of the schools mentioned above. At other schools that have not fully embraced the ban, you might get a few dirty looks from the professor or worse—check out this video documenting a professor’s wrath over a laptop in the classroom. (Yes, it was staged).

–Barbara Bellesi

Entry Filed under: News,School Tools