For the majority of my university career, my professors have not made too much fuss surrounding the use of laptops in the classroom. They usually start off the semester with a warning about not being on social media and then leave it at that. However, I have had a couple of professors who take it to the extreme by bringing out statistics and going as far as completely banning technology in the classroom. While professors think they are enhancing our learning by restricting “distractions”, they are actually hurting students in many ways.
Everyone learns differently: After 17 years of school, I am very aware of what type of student I am and learning techniques that work for me. Professors like to remind students about a study that proves you are more likely to retain information by physically writing it out. If this works for you, then that’s awesome. However, this is not effective for everyone. For me, I can’t write fast enough to keep up with what a professor is saying. This leads to me missing half of the information discussed and when it comes to studying for exams my notes do not make sense. It also makes my anxiety extremely high because I know I am missing important information. Some students like to record lectures. This has been done for years in classrooms, but now that we have better technology, we are able to record straight from our laptops. By not allowing students to record, you are inhibiting their learning ability.
Not everyone has neat handwriting: Mine is awful, in fact my grade 3 teacher made my class re-learn printing because we all had such bad handwriting. This leaves my notes messy, and sometimes illegible even to me! It gets even worse when I am writing fast in order to keep up with the professor.. I am not going to waste my time rewriting my half collected notes when I get home when I could have typed them from the beginning and avoided the whole issue.
Classes are long: Some classes go up to 3 hours with professors who talk the entire time. Last year, I had a professor who started lecturing and barley took a breath until an hour and a half later. I spent the entire class typing vigorously, but I was able to catch everything he was saying because I used my laptop. When professors talk fast and for long periods of time taking notes by hand can be harmful on your tendons leading to tendonitis, or even arthritis. Shifting the load to both hands by typing students who already have issues have less pain and students who don’t, can avoid the pain a bit longer.
Google can be helpful: When taking notes, sometimes my professors use words I haven’t heard of or have learned in the past but don’t really remember. With my laptop, I’m able to Google the definition, understand what is being said, and even copy and paste that definition into my notes so when I am studying, I already have access to it. This stops me from having to interrupt the class and helps keep my anxiety low.
“Laptops are too distracting”: Yes, I’ll admit sometimes I find myself answering an important email or working on an assignment from another class. While this happens rarely, I am an adult. I don’t live at home, I pay bills, I own a car, I vote, but for some reason if I do something that interrupts my learning it is the professor’s responsibility and not mine? I know when my laptop is being distracting but it is my decision to use it. It doesn’t harm the professor; if anything, it harms my grades, and that should be something that only I am responsible for. There are students in my class where laptops aren’t allowed who spend the entire class on their phone. How does me typing my notes do more damage than them not looking up once? But because they don’t have a large device in front of them the professor says nothing.
By banning laptops in classrooms, professors are creating a space where some students can’t learn to their full ability. This can stop students from attending their classes completely. While writing notes works great for some people, it doesn’t work for everyone and having the ability to learn in the best way possible for me is what I expected when coming into university (and when paying thousands of dollars to be here).