Professor Geek

I was interviewed today by a reporter from The Chronicle of Higher Education regarding the use of laptops in the classroom. The article the reporter is writing was in response to a University of Memphis law professor who banned the use of laptops in her classroom. While I can see her point, as they are often annoying and misused by students, I think that good classroom management can make them a useful tool for students.

Since, like all technologies, the laptop in the classroom can be both useful, and an enhancement to the student experience, as well as a major annoyance that is misused by the student, it would be advantageous to support the positive usage while minimizing most of the negatives. In general, here are some of the reasons why faculty don’t like laptops in the classroom:

1. The faculty perception is that they can be used for some sort of cheating
2. They are a distraction from the subject matter being discussed in class
3. They are used for entertainment and not legitimate educationa purposes
4. They allow students to form poor study habits, including the inability to take good notes
5. They can be noisy and disruptive to the class
6. Since not all students have laptops in class, it creates an information gap of sorts between the “haves” and the “have nots”

Obviously, not all of these objections have foundation in any given situation, but I have experienced most all of them at one time or another. There are things both students and teachers can do to make the experience of having a laptop in class good for all:

1. Students can use the laptop for the purposes of the class only and not for idle distraction
2. Faculty can take advantage of the laptops and have students find things and share them with the rest of the class
3. Students can make an extra effort not to be disruptive with loud typing or having other students look at their screen
4. Faculty can monitor laptop activity by roaming around the room and looking at screens
5. Faculty can engage students to the point where there is no need for students to seek entertainment from their laptops
6. Faculty can allow students to use laptops at appropriate times, and disallow their use at other times

The use of laptops in the classroom can be positive for all with the proper amount of cooperation and commitment.

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