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Professors Consider Classroom Ban?

Posted by Matthew Brodsky

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Back in theold days, the worst thing we could during class at the universitywas snore. The trick, you see, was to be a silent sleeper, andsit way back in last row of the lecture hall. As for smalldiscussion groups, though, there was no where to hide, right?

Back in theold days, the worst thing we could during class at the universitywas snore. The trick, you see, was to be a silent sleeper, andsit way back in last row of the lecture hall. As for smalldiscussion groups, though, there was no where to hide, right?Wrong. Sit right next to the professor-the last place you'd (orthe professor would) ever expect, and you can sleep as much asyou'd like. The professor never looks at the person sitting rightnext to them.

Nowadays, however, sleep is not the main enemy of collegeclassrooms. Notebook use hasbecome such a distraction in lectures in the United States thatmajor institutions like Harvard Law School (pronounced"Haaaah-vard" with your nose upturned) even may be considering alaptop ban in all classrooms.

That's the rumor in Cambridge, Mass. But it seems to be only arumor. Officials have come out publicly to say that the schoolwill not be collecting laptops at the doors of every classroom.Instead, the plan is to allow professors to make their own ban policy on a course-by-course basis. Some professors at theHarvard Business School already block wireless in theirclassrooms.

Professors, from the Ivy Leagues to the Big 12 to the WAC 10,seem to be in favor of limiting laptops and other technology intheir classrooms.

Are professors merely behind the times? After all, many studentstype their course notes these days directly into their laptops. With wirelesscapabilities, they can mine the Web during class for informationto give them more informed, pointed things to share during classdiscussions. Right?

Not so, say professors. These are kids, after all. They're morelikely to be IMing with friends about where to meet that night tobooze it up. Or they're downloading illegal MP3s, a practice thatcolleges are trying to stop on and off campus. Worse yet, duringexams they may use the laptops and Internet to-gasp!-cheat.

Whatever kids are doing with their notebooks in class, professorssay, chances are it has nothing to do with the class they aresitting in.

As for the students, of course they feel differently. In asurvey at the Harvard Law School, 64.6 percent of studentsopposed a ban in the classroom.

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