Despite my own use of technology in and out of the classroom, I have a strong restriction against students using laptops or tablets* or phones in class. At the beginning of the semester, I want to explain my reasoning behind this policy.

I believe that it is incredibly hard not to multi-task when you are sitting in front of a screen, be it a TV or computer screen. And, although multi-tasking might feel good to some people at some moments, every piece of evidence I have ever read or experienced convinces me of the opposite. Multi-tasking hinders listening, thinking, engagement, and learning, all of which we are trying to maximize in the classroom.

More and more research makes clear that laptops do not help us think or learn in a classroom. Laptops, tablets, and phones are extremely distracting, both to the person using the person using them and, perhaps more importantly, the people around and behind the user.

Therefore, in my courses, I prohibit the use of laptops, tablets*, and cell phones for all students except those with demonstrable medical needs to use them. If you fall into this latter category, please email me within the first week of class.

To be clear, I think technology can be a wonderful thing and I have no problem with video games or blogs or cat videos, but only in the right context. I do not believe that having access to the internet’s firehose of information is good while you’re in a (brief) class session trying to think, listen, and share your ideas.

* I will permit students to buy and read e-versions of course books on a tablet, but if you bring that tablet to class you must only use it for looking up the reading.

Research that supports this policy:
Laptops Are Great. But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting.

From Facebook to Folsom Prison Blues: How Banning Laptops in the Classroom Made Me a Better Law School Teacher.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?