Laptops Banned From Classroom

USA Today has an article today about one law professor’s decree upsetting some students:

On March 6, Professor June Entman warned her first-year law students by e-mail to bring pens and paper to take notes in class.

“My main concern was they were focusing on trying to transcribe every word that was I saying, rather than thinking and analyzing,” Entman said Monday. “The computers interfere with making eye contact. You’ve got this picket fence between you and the students.”[...]

“If we continue without laptops, I’m out of here. I’m gone; I won’t be able to keep up,” said student Cory Winsett, who said his hand-written notes are incomplete and less organized.

I can see both sides of that debate, although I do feel a need to point out that students have for many decades successfully survived their classes relying on pen-and-paper for notetaking.

There is, however, a best-of-both-worlds solution to the problem: Dudes, you should have gotten Tablet PC’s!

Even though I may complain about the bad luck with my Acer tablet, and I do miss some of the higher-powered features I could have had if I had opted for a new laptop or desktop…. well, you’ll have to pry my tablet out of my cold, dead, stylus-calloused hands.