<p>"Professors have banned laptops from their classrooms at George Washington University, American University, the College of William and Mary and the University of Virginia, among many others. ...</p>
<p>Diane E. Sieber, an associate professor of humanities at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has debated her students on the collegiate conceit of multitasking, the notion that today's youths can fully attend to a lecture while intermittently toggling over to e-mail, ESPN and Facebook.</p>
<p>"It's really serialized interruption," Sieber said. "You start something, you stop it, you do something else, you stop it, which is something you're doing if you're switching back and forth between World of Warcraft and my class."</p>
<p>One recent semester, Siebert tracked the grades of 17 student laptop addicts. At the end of the term, their average grade was 71 percent, "almost the same as the average for the students who didn't come at all."</p>
<p>I have professors that ban laptops at my school. I get to use it anyway due to disability, I can’t write by hand. My averages run from 85-100% depending on the subject. Whatever.</p>
<p>As someone with my conditions and learning style, I do much better if not forced to focus on one thing for two hours anyway. My grades were 60-70% before, and given how rarely I use notes to study anyway I doubt that’s all in the notes.</p>
<p>^You can likely get documentation from a doctor for the schools disabilities office and they should grant you permission to use the computer, in light of a medical issue most professors will yield. I have a nerve issue myself.</p>
<p>Banning laptops doesn’t force people to pay attention. They can text, doodle, nap, or just not bother showing up now that they’re not interested. The only thing laptops do is make it more obvious when people aren’t listening.</p>
<p>And help people write better notes. It also helps me given that I have crap vision and can’t get to class early enough to get a seat in the front, I can pull up the lecture right in front of me. Particularly given that I do try to sit in the very back to avoid distracting anyone, because apparently people complain to the professor that it is distracting, and then I’ve sacrificed my ability to see.</p>
<p>They are distracting. I wouldn’t give a **** if it only distracted the user, but I can find myself distracted by someone else’s laptop. Not very often though.</p>
<p>I think in the end it’s ok for students to have them… it’s their grade, not mine.</p>
<p>I wasn’t aware this was a new practice. I’ve had professors do it, and I’m glad they did, especially for the classes around 60 kids where slides with exactly what the professor said were provided. </p>
<p>I think it’s a bad idea to do for all classes, but for some it makes sense. Not only that, but to hear the quick clicking of keys from people who are just farting around on the internet and chatting with friends is annoying. I wish these people wouldn’t even come to class; it’s not like attendance was taken anyway, and all they do is take good seats and are distracting. Yes, they are distracting to people around them.</p>
<p>And then there’s the girls who sit in a row of four, and all the do is talk and facebook on their laptops. So loud, I can hear and understand them 7 rows up. But that’s a different topic. </p>
<p>As an addon, I understand their point is to get students to pay attention (and hopefully be less distracting to students around them), but with the increase of cellular phones and mobile web, most kids can do the same things that they do on their laptops on their cell phones, just a little more discretely. </p>
<p>Really, really makes me wonder why kids who are doing nothing, not remotely paying attention, even bothered paying their tuition bill.</p>
<p>I had a class last semester that banned laptops. My grades in all my classes were- 4.0, 4.0, 4.0, 4.0, 3.0. An internet cookie to the first one who figures out which one the laptops were banned in! </p>
<p>Anyway, I use my laptop all the time. I am a humanities student and most of our readings are put online. I’m not printing out 100 pages for one class. I’ll read it off my laptop if I need it in class. Plus, I simply can’t concentrate without playing with something. If I don’t have something to toggle back and forth with, I day dream. I am always paying attention and usually take loads of notes. </p>
<p>The problem is that professors were not raised in our generation. We have literally been raised with computers as a part of our life. Laptops are ingrained into our lives and it’s not the teacher’s role to take them away from us. It is their job to teach, not their job to make sure the students are doing what they’re supposed to be doing (unless of course it is distracting to other students).</p>
<p>How about simple courtesy? Someone is taking the trouble to share their life’s work with you (for which you are paying gobs of money BTW). It’s very discouraging to anyone, not just a professor, when the people you’re talking to don’t even try to pretend they’re paying attention. It’s disrespectful.</p>
<p>That happens here at UT also. Not many professors ban them, but every semester I have one that does. You can’t force people to pay attention anymore than you can force someone to learn. </p>
<p>What about if the internet connection was cut off in the classrooms? People could use their laptops for notes but not have a way to play on FB or whatever else.</p>
<p>Then you’d have people playing Megaman 2 all class because they suck so bad OH MY GOD HOW COULD YOU MISS THE JUMP FOR THE HUNDREDTH TIME AIR MAN’S STAGE IS NOT THAT DIFFICULT.</p>
<p>Basicly in my experience it’s the professors that think what they are teaching is going to save lives. I had a pysch professor that was like “yea if miss just one class of mine you will fail” and all this other stuff. Most of the people in my class was like *** is with this guy and I’m thinking come on bro I’m taking this just for gen ed credit no need to be a douchbag.</p>
<p>For some classes, I find it very difficult to hand write notes and get all the information I need. In my sociology class last semester, my professor talked extremely fast, and sometimes would jump around, so I brought my laptop so that I would be able to get everything down. My average at the end of the semester was an 88% which is pretty good considering I never read or studied.</p>
<p>This semester, I use my laptop in my history class. Granted, half the time I’m “farting around online” because the class is extremely boring…but whenever my professor is actually saying something useful, I pay attention and type my notes out. I love my prof, but seriously, I don’t care that he beat Lance Armstrong in time trials and rode his bike 20-30 miles a day when he was an undergrad (both true by the way).</p>
<p>Just because you’re typing doesn’t mean that you’re being loud. I hate the sound of loud typing, so I try to be as quiet as possible. And if other people are distracted by your screen, that’s their problem.</p>
<p>I agree that it isn’t the professors’ job to say whether laptops are allowed or not, unless it’s a discussion or workshop based class where lectures and notes will be minimal. Students can do what they want. If they choose not to pay attention, that’s their decision to make.</p>