The temptation of the laptop

Do you use a laptop in class or know people who do? Wait ... perhaps it's important to define "use."\nDo you use the laptop as an important, high-tech tool to facilitate the taking of notes, allowing you to capture more points from the lecture than you could possibly write? Or do you use your laptop to chat online, send e-mails and shop, leaving class with only a foggy impression of someone at the front of the room droning on about psychology?\nIf some professors have their way, you won't be able to use a laptop for anything while in class. On June 2, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that some professors are banning laptops from the classroom due to the temptation to employ them for everything except note-taking and academic purposes. Other professors require students using laptops to sit in the front row, so they can keep an eye on what the students are doing. Some schools have installed "Internet kill switches," which allow professors to block wireless network access, thereby ensuring that the Web doesn't lure students away. Of course, without the Internet, Solitaire and Minesweeper could still prove more enthralling than a lecture ...\nBut these regulatory measures go too far. Ban laptops, and students with no interest in class will still send text messages. Ban cell phones, and students will still play Sudoku or do crossword puzzles. Ban newspapers, and students will still fill a blank page with doodles and squiggles.\nRestricting laptop use because a few students haven't learned the finer points of personal responsibility puts an undue burden on those students who genuinely utilize the technology to support their education. At first glance, the "Internet kill switch" seems like a good compromise, but that alternative seems like a blatant violation of trust and nullifies the possibility for students to learn responsibility on their own.\nPart of the college experience is learning how to manage responsibility in ways that are not possible in the strict, discipline-heavy confines of high school. And what better way to do so than encountering the consequences of one's actions. So, let a few students fill lecture time updating Facebook profiles or playing Sudoku -- and then let them contemplate why that "D" or "F" appeared on their transcripts.\nCertainly if chatting, shopping or playing games becomes a distraction to other students in the classroom environment, an instructor should do something to curtail the behavior. But if someone decides that checking scores on ESPN.com is the most important way to spend time in class, and that behavior isn't affecting others, then no intervention is needed. Either a student will continue to skate through and refine bad habits that will come back to bite him or her later, or he or she will be forced to rethink the behavior. Either way, let the students have the option to learn rather than enforcing petty regulations that inhibit the possibility for maturation and development.