Our grandparents had little to none knowledge of what a computer was. Our parents would give the university a look of confusion and curiosity if they had been required to own a laptop. It was uncommon for a college student to own and bring a laptop to college only fifteen years ago. Now, in 2015, most, if not all college students own or have access to a laptop. This has resulted in a dramatic shift in how students learn, while also resulting in a shift in how teachers teach. Teachers can now have what they are writing and doing projected onto a screen large enough for anyone to see in a large lecture hall. Most assignments in college are submitted online while also checked for plagiarism. Students can now access visual and audial lectures to better understand or to review the material. With all of the great things that have come from the relative instant implementation of the laptop in the classroom, it begs the question of why so many professors are against students using a laptop in class. The answer is simple, distractions.
A consequence of a interconnected world is that there are an infinite number of things to distract people while online. Advertisements can be found on almost every website, games can be played with the click of a button, and social media sites are often used as the default startup page. Teachers are outlawing laptops in their classroom because students will ultimately get bored at some point during class and will then get distracted by social media, games, or email. It can also be easy for the students sitting behind the student who is distracted to get distracted by what that student is doing too. This is understandable and I believe that laptops should only be used for taking notes or working on classwork during class.
Laptops will never be completely outlawed in the classroom due to the simple fact that many professors assign work to be done in class that requires a laptop to complete. Many writing classes have students bring their laptops to class with them to write papers. Computer science classes would just be science classes without computers in the classroom. The same can be said for programming classes. There are too many classes that require a laptop to do in class work for the laptop to be banned university wide.
Personally, I bring my laptop with me to all five of my classes, but I only use it frequently in three of the five. I own a 2-in-1 touchscreen laptop that also functions as a tablet. I can rotate the screen all the way back so that the keyboard cannot be seen. I also own a stylus that I use to take notes with. I have found it easier and a paper saver to use an app I downloaded called "Drawboard PDF". This app allows me to upload PDF files and write on them on my screen. I can also choose to write on a blank screen. This prevents me from having to print out numerous sheets of paper for class each day. I can also save and print out what I have written if need be. This method is much different than typing notes on a computer. This way does not give the student the tactile learning that is needed for many students to learn. Taking notes on a computer works very well for me.
Ultimately, if a student isn't serious about using a laptop for notes and doesn't have a good system to take notes with, I would say to leave the laptop in the backpack during class. The negatives far outweigh the potential positives that can come from using a laptop during class. Besides, the old fashioned way of paper and pencil has worked ever since the cavemen began making drawings of how to build a fire.
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