Teknoids

Elmer, we're only a couple of years into our laptop requirement and
there have been no rumblings about stopping it, but it does create some
issues. Faculty concern seems to be generated by the distractability
factor and the amount of time students spend surfing the Net in class
rather than paying attention to the subject matter.

I have seen this operating in my own classroom; it is totally obvious
when a student is Web-surfing rather than engaging in the class. And
(I'm sure there will arise some sort of Einsteinian formula for
determining this) the content of a given student's surfing has the
propensity to act as a vortex on the other students in that person's
immediate vicinity, thus outing the entire group as not paying
attention. The blatantness of the perpetrators is astounding, but the
behavior in general isn't any more unique than passing notes in class or
reading recreational materials hidden inside one's textbook used to be
in my day.

Some of our professors state at the outset of a course that laptop use
in class will not be allowed, and some folks will tolerate it as long as
it does not become disruptive. I prefer the latter option, as so much
of what I'm demonstrating in the research class sinks in better if
people can have hands-on practice.

By all means keep rolling out the cool classroom technology! The
sectors that will benefit from it are those truly interested in teaching
and learning, and those are the same sectors that will say, "Wow, that
Elmer is awesome!"

best,
Rebekah

Rebekah Maxwell
Associate Director for Library Operations
Coleman Karesh Law Library
University of South Carolina
School of Law
701 Main Street
Columbia, SC 29208
803/777-1725
>>> elmer@teknoids.net 11/10/07 8:10 AM >>>
Seems the ABA Journal has seen fit to publish a rather inflammatory
piece on the growing bans on laptops in the classroom. The gory details
are here:
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/profs_kibosh_students_laptops/

According to the article, Chicago-Kent is questioning the utility of
laptops in the classroom and Duke dropped its laptop requirement because

of increasing faculty pressure to ban laptops in the classroom. Is this

true? Anyone from Kent or Duke care to comment?

Being the curious guy that I am, I'm wondering what is going on here.
Are faculty really revolting against the use of laptops in the
classroom? Is this just tabloid journalism? Is faculty pressure on the

use of laptops in the classroom really affecting law school computer
requirement policies? Is there a fire behind all this smoke?

As a guy about to roll out a mess of cool web tools that would be neat
to use in the classroom, I sure like to know if I'll be feeling the love

or the wrath of the faculty at AALS in January:)

Finally, let's do a poll: http://www.teknoids.net/poll/laptops2007 Let
teknoids know if you're school requires laptops or not. The poll is
open for the next 2 weeks.

Thanks,
Elmer.
Yes, this was written on a laptop, in my kitchen...