A University of Memphis law professor has banned laptop computers from her classroom and her students are passing a petition against it. Professor June Entman says her main concern is that students are so busy keyboarding they can’t think and analyze what she’s telling them.
Students have begun collecting signatures on petitions and tried unsuccessfully to file a complaint with the American Bar Association. Student Cory Winsett says if he must continue without his laptop, he’ll transfer to another school. Winsett says he won’t be able to keep up if he has to rely on hand-written notes, which he says are incomplete and less organized.
Although I agree with the professor that laptops can serve as a distraction, I also think that laptops can be very efficient and productive when used correctly. First of all typed-notes are obviously neater. They are also much more versatile – You can store them on disks/flash drives/etc, send them to colleagues, print-them out again if you lose them, and re-editing is much easier. It also seems to be rather unfair to students with dyslexia, or similar problems.
I think the lecturer has the right idea…when your dealing with a complex issue then even if you have made all notes you can when you read them back they are no good if you don't have a clue what was said at the time of note-taking. Banning the laptops altoghter is somewhat inflamitory, parhaps she should say 'students, i'd like you to stop taking notes and listen to this particular peice of information…' when she needs to deliver particular analysis.
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