Professors tighten up on laptop use in class
Several professors have banned students from taking notes on laptops.
Ashley Reich
Issue date: 4/8/08 Section: News
Laptops are beginning to be banned in business meetings and university classrooms across the country, as professionals and professors are becoming frustrated with students and co-workers making more eye contact with their computer screens than with each other.
This trend has begun to take hold at USC as well, with many professors, especially those in the USC Gould School of Law, banning their students from taking notes on their computers.
"It's a relatively new trend in law schools across the country," Scott Altman, vice dean of the Law School said. "The view of the administration is that as with almost any teaching technique, faculty should have the discretion to set the general rules in the classrooms, and so we support different faculty members who want to experiment with different teaching methods and styles, including banning laptop use."
While the Law School has no official school-wide policy against laptop use, students are discouraged from using the Internet in class because of the distractions it poses.
"There are many potential disadvantages regarding laptop use; some students are watching movies or playing games or are on the Internet and doing things that distract their classmates. They may be IMing each other so its like a more systematic way of passing notes and that can be very distracting," Altman said.
Professor Nomi Stolzenberg, who teaches first-year students in a class titled Law, Language and Ethics, recently implemented a no laptop policy in her class after years of wanting to do so.
"What encouraged me was hearing the experience of other faculty members who did it and they just felt that their sense of their students' reactions was overwhelmingly positive and that really heartened me and gave me the courage to follow my convictions," she said.
One of the reasons Stolzenberg said she banned laptop use in her classroom is because of the distractions the Internet introduces, which she said ultimately affects the entire classroom environment.
This trend has begun to take hold at USC as well, with many professors, especially those in the USC Gould School of Law, banning their students from taking notes on their computers.
"It's a relatively new trend in law schools across the country," Scott Altman, vice dean of the Law School said. "The view of the administration is that as with almost any teaching technique, faculty should have the discretion to set the general rules in the classrooms, and so we support different faculty members who want to experiment with different teaching methods and styles, including banning laptop use."
While the Law School has no official school-wide policy against laptop use, students are discouraged from using the Internet in class because of the distractions it poses.
"There are many potential disadvantages regarding laptop use; some students are watching movies or playing games or are on the Internet and doing things that distract their classmates. They may be IMing each other so its like a more systematic way of passing notes and that can be very distracting," Altman said.
Professor Nomi Stolzenberg, who teaches first-year students in a class titled Law, Language and Ethics, recently implemented a no laptop policy in her class after years of wanting to do so.
"What encouraged me was hearing the experience of other faculty members who did it and they just felt that their sense of their students' reactions was overwhelmingly positive and that really heartened me and gave me the courage to follow my convictions," she said.
One of the reasons Stolzenberg said she banned laptop use in her classroom is because of the distractions the Internet introduces, which she said ultimately affects the entire classroom environment.
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