Friday, November 09, 2007

More on banning laptops in classrooms

Click on the title to this post to read a short article in the ABA Journal online about the banning of laptops in various classrooms. There is a nice quote from Dick Danner at Duke, noting that enough profs there have banned laptops that the school that they have dropped the laptop requirement. And, I am proud that my Suffolk colleague, Kate Nace Day, is featured discussing

...the problems laptops pose in the classroom, particularly for women, so she decided to take a stand. Day says students complained they were dis­tracted and in some cases upset when other stu­dents viewed obscene videos or sent harassing text messages.

The tiered seating arrangement of most law school lecture rooms allows students to easily see what others are doing. “Laptops are pedagogical nuisances,” she says.
It doesn't take long for some folks to turn a new technology into a new way to harrass others, I guess.

No comments: