Legal Commentary

Jonathan Adler has a post on laptop policies, pegged to a Washington Post story on the subject.  Jonathan's post moves me to disclose my own laptop policy, which I introduced this semester.

My problem with laptops was threefold.  First, of course, there was the effect on class discussion.  Second, there was the disconcerting fact of trying to teach to a roomful of people who were only visible from the nose up, like a crew of bank robbers wearing bandannas over their mouths.  Third, I felt that too many students were doing something close to transcribing, rather than listening and taking selective notes.  Some students object to laptop bans on the grounds that no professor should think his words deserve such rapt attention; I think that's true, but that this means students should focus on the important things rather than taking down every word.  When I finished a thought and paused, the sound of tapping of fingers on keyboards trying to capture everything I'd said made it sound as if it was raining indoors.  

So, this semester, I instituted a substantial but not complete laptop ban.  Up to three students can sign up to take notes by laptop on any day of class, provided that they distribute their notes to the class by the following day.  Students can of course take notes by hand, and can tape the class if they want to transcribe at home.  I figured triple redundancy would allow students not only their own handwritten notes but also three sets of typewritten notes to compare and absorb into their outlines as they see fit.  

My view is that class discussion has indeed improved.  Of course students can still find other uses for their time; I read the occasional magazine in class, and so do they.  I don't object to surreptitious inattention, and my own objection to laptops was never primarily Internet-based, although I do think the use of laptops for that purpose distracts others.  The field of vision for the students and for me is better; we are a group of physically embodied beings in a class talking to one another, not just a collection of hardware with eyes.  Even those students who don't participate regularly (my fault -- I should do more random calling) seem to be following the discussion better.

The policy seems to have worked very well in my first-year class, and to have occasioned more resistance in my upper-year class.  I have received the standard anti-paternalism and pro-consumer arguments, which I acknowledge while still insisting that my greater experience actually counts for something and that it is my place to frame the rules for our learning environment.  What is interesting to me is that the real objection seems to be to sharing notes.  Even those students who have expressed a strong preference for note-taking on the ground that it helps them learn better have refused to take notes, because they believe it gives others a competitive advantage.  I question this argument: if you believe you learn better by taking your own notes, and (as some have argued) you believe that learning from others' notes is not as useful, then surely you will enjoy a competitive advantage from taking your own notes even if you must share them at the end of the day.  What is interesting to me is that a number of students in this class have expressed a strong intensity of preference for taking their own notes, but even so it can be difficult to get three people a day to sign up to take notes in that class.  Apparently their intensity of preference for note-taking is outweighed by their intensity of preference against sharing notes.  

I don't think mine is a perfect policy, although I do think it's a fair one, one that tries to balance my interest in providing what I think is a sound classroom environment against some students' own strong preference for note-taking.  I am considering upping the number of permitted note-takers.  But I am also convinced that the change has been beneficial on the whole.  And while I respect mild versions of the anti-paternalism argument, I am not sufficiently persuaded by them to abandon the policy altogether (particularly when, as on the comments to Jonathan's posts, commenters argue that if others are distracted by what they do on the Internet during class time, it's not their problem), although I am open to suggestions about how to modify it.  Comments and shared experiences are welcome.