Laptops banned at some colleges

PROVO, Utah -- A student's notebook used to be spiral-bound. Now, it's titanium encased. Laptops are quickly becoming a campus fixture and are changing the traditional college experience. With those changes come concerns and questions about appropriate laptop use. \nAs reported in an Associated Press article, "More professors ban laptops in class," professors from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Memphis Law School have banned laptops from their classrooms because of dwindling class interaction and students surfing the Web during lecture. \nGerald Williams, a Brigham Young University professor of law, said he understands such concerns, but does not believe the problems are significant. \n"I don't doubt that when we're doing the lecture part there will be two or three students doing solitaire or instant messaging or something," he said. "But it's not a major factor. The benefits [of a laptop] far outweigh the demerits." \nEverything in a law student's typical course work is either oral or written, Williams said. So, even if a laptop is nothing more than a "glorified word processor," it is justified. \n"To say laptops are essential, would really be to understate it," Williams said.\nLaptops are, in fact, a requirement for BYU law students. However, it is left up to the individual professor to decide on classroom laptop-use protocol. The Marriott School of Management also encourages its students to have their own computers, though not necessarily laptops, said Lynn McKell, a BYU professor of information systems management. \nKirk Ouimet, a sophomore from Orem, Utah, majoring in information systems management, says he needs his laptop for note taking, downloading class syllabi and homework assignments. \nSome students find other uses for their laptops. \n"I've seen guys playing flash Internet games in class," he said. \nBut if a professor were to ban them from a business class, it would be more than a nuisance, Ouimet said. \n"It would irk me pretty bad," he said. "The point of the class is to learn to use a computer in business." \nMcKell includes heavy computer work in his courses. \nBecause of the course, students in McKell's class work in a lab on a computer during class. More than once, the number of students has exceeded the number of computers in the lab. In those situations, laptops come in handy, he said.