Keeping abreast with the latest information has become an obsession easy to satisfy. A quick turn to the Internet and the urge is tamed. But sometimes that need comes at the most inappropriate of times—say, in an International Trade Law and Policy class.
UVA law school Professor Paul Stephan is one of the many professors who have begun banning laptops from their classrooms. Stephan says many of us have become Internet addicts, having trouble distancing ourselves from the flow of information even when we try to concentrate on a single task. “My ban is intended to help my students with this addiction,” he says by e-mail.
The University as a whole does not have a universal policy about laptops, and officials are not contemplating adding one. “It’s up to individual faculty to decide what’s appropriate for their class and how they want to use the technology, and we support their decision,” says Mike McPherson, associate vice president and deputy chief information officer.
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But over the summer, law school professors discussed whether to universally ban laptops from classrooms, but concluded that the decision be an individual one. “When students were choosing classes, they did not know which classes allowed laptops and which classes didn’t,” says Ryan Quillian, president of the Student Bar Association (SBA). After meeting with the administration, the SBA was able to include in each course description whether laptops are allowed or banned.
Many students feel that the idea that learning is better without laptops is paternalistic, says Quillian.
“The students’ concerns are primarily about having the most efficient and best learning tool available to them,” he says. In-state law school tuition for the 2008-2009 academic year is $36,800 and out-of-state is $41,800.
“The student who does not focus on class advertises that to other students, and creates an atmosphere of permission for others to do the same,” says Stephan. “I have observed this in classes where the teacher is highly regarded and effective, so it is not simply a problem of students seeking relief from boredom.”
Laptops are still allowed in most classes, according to a recent survey given by the SBA.
Third-year law student Kevin Ellis says he hasn’t had to abandon his laptop yet. Certain professors, says Ellis, encourage students to look up cases and laws that are easily searchable on the Internet. But he acknowledges that some of the concerns raised by faculty are legitimate.
“Students definitely abuse the access to the Internet, they use their e-mail and things like that,” he says. “From a professor’s perspective, it has to be very frustrating to look out over a classroom and see a lot of blank eyes and seeing that they are not paying attention.”
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