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In-class laptop use sparks backlash, possibly lower grades

Even in cases where laptop use is integrated into lesson plans, the …

In recent years, there have been a number of high-profile programs that provided laptops for all students within an education system, some of which have equipped an entire state's student population with portable computers. With laptop prices plunging in recent years, college students have adopted the laptop as their platform of choice at the same time that many universities have been rolling out campus-wide wireless Internet access. Recent studies of the educational value of in-class computer use, however, are suggesting that it's difficult for these programs to improve classroom performance, and there are some signs that a backlash may be brewing.

Mixed results in primary education

The most obvious use of laptops in the classroom has been the adoption of state-wide programs that are intended to create a 1:1 ratio of laptops to students in the classroom. These programs are intended to do everything from improve technological literacy to raise standardized test scores, but a recent analysis of the published literature on the topic suggests that the results are mixed.

The 1:1 laptop programs do seem to help with the students' ability to use the technology they're exposed to, and a variety of studies show what might be an unexpected benefit: improved writing skills. Apparently, the ease of using a word processor, along with the ability to go back and modify things that would otherwise have been committed to paper, helps students learn how to write more coherent and persuasive text.

Outside of these areas, however, the benefits of 1:1 laptop availability are mixed. Different studies have found changes in math and science test performance that were inconsistent. In general, the authors argue, the benefits of laptops come in cases where the larger educational program has been redesigned to incorporate their unique capabilities, and the teachers have been trained in order to better integrate laptop use into the wider educational experience. Both of these processes are resource-intensive, and the degree of their success may vary from classroom to classroom even in a single school, which is likely to explain the wide variability in the results.

Distractions on campus

Similar things are likely to apply at the college level; unless the use of laptops is focused on providing a relevant portion of the lesson plan, they'll (obviously) wind up being irrelevant at best, and a distraction at worst. A description of the use of laptops at the US Military Academy at West Point bears that out. Even in an environment where the students might be expected to be disciplined, the authors describe how instructors learned to identify when students were distracted by surfing the web or engaging in online chat.

Of course, given their popularity with college students, laptops are showing up in classrooms where they have nothing to do with lesson plans at all. The primary justification is obvious: most computer users can type faster than they can write. As long as a class isn't too symbol- or diagram-heavy, a laptop is an efficient note-taking device. Since many campuses now sport ubiquitous wireless access, a laptop can be helpful for looking up relevant information, a process that has the potential to enhance the academic experience.

That's the theory. The reality is that everything from IM chats to online shopping excursions take place over the in-class ether, distracting everyone involved: the student, his or her neighbors, and potentially the professors, who may watch their grip on the classroom slowly slipping away. It's not much of a surprise, then, that a backlash appears to be brewing.

The report, in the Boulder Daily Camera (via the Chronicle of Higher Education), describes how even students are becoming irate about being distracted by their fellows, with one reporting that his classmates were watching movies that competed for his attention. Some professors have instituted total bans on the use of laptops in the classroom. Although these stories all come from one campus, the experience is clearly not unique; in one class I helped teach, a guest lecturer ended his talk with an extended complaint about the regular laptop-notetakers, who he assumed were working on something else.

What's to be done? Outright bans are unlikely to be a long-term solution as students' reliance on digital technology is only likely to increase. One alternative—wandering the classroom to monitor what students are doing (used both at the University of Colorado-Boulder and West Point)—isn't going to work in all contexts.

At CU, one professor is taking a fairly simple approach to dealing with the problem of in-class distraction. She simply registers who the heaviest laptop users in her classroom are, and then tracks their grades. If there are signs that it's a distraction that's reflected in their grades, she points that out to them, and suggests they consider changing their habits. Our own Jacqui Cheng suggests a variation on this: make all laptop users sit in the back, so that they only distract each other, and let them figure out whether their grades are suffering on their own.

In any case, whatever solutions are found now are likely to be a temporary fix, and the shrinking of laptops and rise of smartphones are going to provide the next generation of students with a wealth of new, and harder to manage, distractions.

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68 Reader Comments

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  1. A recent study showed that people who doodle on paper while you are talking to them actually absorb more information than those just sitting and listening. So people just do better when they are doing multiple things at once. Also, students are paying for the classes they are taking. If they want to skip class or do something else during class, that is their right as long as they are not disruptive.
    3531 posts | registered
  2. One other thought. In my university we have moved to a blended class room. Classes usually involve 50-70 minutes of lecture and then an hour or so of in-class exercises where students can ask questions about the material or homework or other assignments. Course this really only works in IT courses where there is a hands-on component.
    3531 posts | registered
  3. maybe the bigger solution is to limit the free internet offerings in these situations.

    in law school this week, there will be lots of streaming of NCAA games. (Assuming people actually go to classes).
    3646 posts | registered
  4. quote:
    Originally posted by wapacz:
    There were many a class I didn't have to pay attention in to get an A in.

    Clearly, grammar wasn't one of them Smile

    If you don't need to pay attention in class to get an A, don't go to class. Go do something else, more productive, with your time. That's what I did, even for classes where attendance was "mandatory" (read: fuck your mandatory attendance; I'm paying you, bitch). Don't half-ass class. No-ass it.
    1099 posts | registered
  5. quote:
    It always was weird to me when profs would religiously take attendance in their classes.

    If i were an lecturer in the US and had heard horror stories about bullying pushy parents, litigous students, spurious complaints of bias, and so on, I might regard taking attendance as an excellent tool to provide me with ammunition when a shitfight erupts around giving someone a C or (heaven forbid!) failing them instead of giving them the A they think they're divienly entitled to.

    The room could be completely/perfectly free of distractions and you will still have a number of students do poorly and pay no attention.

    That's true, but student A shouldn't be distractings students B, C, and D.

    The failure here is that of an educational establishment that is stuck in the 19th century.

    The 19th century that produce Darwin, Fermi, Tesla, Kelvin, and Farady? Marie and Pierre Curie? Mill? Bertrand Russell? Oh, right, what a bunch of no-hopers.

    The whole "let them fail if they want to goof off" mentality is probably the correct choice for higher ed.

    I don't know about - historically universities have often accepted quite a duty of, for want of a better term, pastoral care for students; that's not so much the case in most modern univerities, but the collegial system of Oxford and Cambridge (for example) was and is intended to help students make the transition from a highly-regulated school environment to the more open environment of tertiary education and responsibility for oneself, a bit like apprenticeships work for trades.
    1492 posts | registered
  6. Our high-school mandates the use of laptops, and we even get really good deals with Apple to buy MacBooks (which break's Microsoft's heart). It's USELESS. I'll be the first to admit I don't get any work done, and my productivity level has dropped to 0.25%... maybe. I don't like this idea. I guess the school assumes that if you can afford this private school, you can afford a laptop with an Apple logo on it. I just play UT2004 in the back of class anyway.
    14 posts | registered
  7. Were I to teach, I'd have a very simple rule-- No laptops, no note taking. I want students engaged in the process, asking questions, etc. I'd have nicely prepared professional notes available to all students for review later. In class, I want attention focussed on the subject of the day. Laptops don't help that, nor (IMO) does taking notes. Transcribing is a different skill than learning.
    16414 posts | registered
  8. [Edit] One other thing... When I instituted the above rules when tutoring a small group (between 5-10 at any given time) of students, the results were overwhelmingly positive.
    16414 posts | registered
  9. I sometimes used my laptop to take very good notes in Google Docs for class. I'd use it only for notes and it was useful. But, most times it was a distraction--even in lecture classes.

    Some of my students use laptops during our discussion class (no tests on content, so no notes needed). I know they aren't paying attention so I tell them they can use it but it just means they aren't participating which is the majority of their grade. In all honesty I don't mind it because it gets them to stop talking to each other sometimes and makes my job easier. I think the key is to just tell your students your opinion on it so they know what to expect from you about laptops.
    45 posts | registered
  10. Laptops are a waste. You can't sit in a math class and take notes on a laptop. Even if it is a lecture with just words, there are lots of little things you have to do on paper like symbols, and logical arrangements that you just can't do with a laptop. If you are in ANY course that requires computer use, you will be in a lab, laptops are almost never a requirement [1].

    In college, all the douche bags sat in back and screwed off on their laptops. If it was an IT class, it was a matter of who had the biggest e-penis by bringing a laptop. What a joke, laptops are pretty much worthless while in class.

    [1] The only places I have seen that they were required was the school of journalism and dentistry.
    4961 posts | registered
  11. Part of the problem is that there are other students in the room. I sit as close to the front as possible because that minimizes the number of laptop screens I will be able to see. I have trouble paying attention, and being able to see 4 or 5 other people surfing the web or watching videos is a major distraction.

    I'm not a fan of the argument that it is the student's choice whether to screw around on the web in class. The student is creating a distraction for other students, and that's really not appropriate in a classroom.
    5510 posts | registered
  12. As an Economics M.A. student in the process of ultimately getting a Ph.D., I find the "laptop in class" argument somewhat weird. Nothing really against them, but, seeing as how most upper-level Econ courses are basically glorified math classes, your productivity would probably suffer if you were to try to take notes on a laptop. If you thought you could do it, though, more power to you.

    Ultimately, as some people earlier in the thread have suggested, people need to take responsibility for their own actions, even if the typical American university does a pretty successful job of insulating its mush-filled skulls from that cruel reality. Get distracted when using a laptop? Not our fault if you keep bringing it to class, zone out, and fail. Get distracted by others' laptops? Sit somewhere else; nobody's forcing you to be in any particular seat (or take the economists' alternative solution, find a Coase equilibrium - to wit, bribe your laptop-using colleague to do with pencil and paper. If the value to you of having a laptop-free immediate vicinity exceeds his or her value of having it open, you have a deal. Of course, you could just ask politely, but what's the fun in that?).

    If people want to sow the seeds of their own failure, that's on them.
    1022 posts | registered
  13. Its obvious. We simply need to apply normal American Ethics and Control to the situation.

    -Punish all technology users in class rooms. (We applied it with Calculators, PDAs and Cell phones, I see no difference).

    -Set up a system that will cause any benefit derived from technology not only inaccessible, but illegal. There needs to be harsh criminal penalties applied to non-compliance to set precidence and barriers.

    Despite the above being absolutely stupid and wrong, it WILL go that way because we elect technological idiots to positions of power.
    373 posts | registered
  14. madmikefisk:
    The university has an incentive to limit distractive students - if the "good students" are unable to obtain a quality education, they will go elsewhere and the reputation of the university will suffer, as will demand for its services. The costs to the university are greater than the costs to the "good students", therefore, they are the more likely party to limit the distractive students.
    5510 posts | registered
  15. wallinbl: The same effect could be accomplished through a more selective admissions system (or through greater development of an honors college, signalling to the prospective market a commitment to dedicated learning in either case). The "good students" are likely to self-select and self-segregate in an open market for education.

    I assume, however, that you consider the social costs to diligent students from those easily distracted in class to be significantly greater than I do, which is a fair assessment; it is entirely possible that my own opinion is colored more by my own personal experience in this case. Would definitely be something that would be interesting to look at in terms of examination through a cost/benefit analysis perspective, though.
    1022 posts | registered
  16. When I am paying to be in class, I want no distractions. If some fool is being a distraction I will tell her to STFU! Yes, I did do this. Didn't involve a laptop, just her big mouth. Smile
    If that didn't work, I would change seats. Let the idiot flunk, it's her money.
    694 posts | registered
  17. I went through the first 3 years of undergrad without a laptop and my senior year with it. The difference was remarkable, I took incredibly detailed notes on my laptop, virtually a running flow of the dialog in class as opposed to faint notes so heavily abbreviated I could barely understand it. With the laptop, I reread my notes at least once a week and could format them over and over as more information was available so that it still made sense. I hardly ever looked over my paper notes, basically relying on the process of writing it down to memorize it.

    In one class I found another student who also took fantastic digital notes and we could share and collaborate easily and efficiently over email. I was able to source information given by professors frequently, and far more importantly I was able to clarify high debated discussion items brought up in class (I was a sociology major, so frequently people were getting in huge tiffs about some article they had read somewhere).

    However, it was vital to only have one possible distracting factor open at most at any given time. In other words, I could have a browser open or a chat open and do occasional unrelated material during downtime or info I already knew, but if you had a few things open, you were basically signing out of class. On the other hand, it was college, so if it had hurt me (I don't think it did), it would have been my own fault and why should anyone but me care?
    46 posts | registered
  18. It's not a matter of technology. It seems to me it's a matter of competence. Schools that don't know how to teach elementary and secondary students using laptops aren't going to fix things by buying the kids laptops. But, if like in Maine they train the teachers and the teachers know how to create lessons that encourage the students to actually use the technology in creative ways, and not just word process and create simple PowerPoints, they can do well.

    It's a matter of commitment to making it work, and not just shirking jobs they had to do pre-technology.

    As for students going shopping, in class, or roaming WOW, turn the WIFI connection off, or have a good strong Proxy Server. Have hotspots around campus where students can connect with home or dorm room.

    As for taking notes with lots of diagrams, well there's a case for the hoped-for Apple notepad. If they do it right, you can use a pen to draw with, and you can type notes as well, or maybe Newton-like handwriting recognition - only better we can hope - would be a better tool for classrooms than laptops? A Kindle done right would possibly be a better learning tool. No Solitaire, no COD4, no music store to download songs, or P2P to pirate the latest movies, either because the software isn't there or there's no freely open WIFI connection in the classroom to abuse.

    There are all sorts of approaches that simply require some competence, thought and willingness to do it right. It's not only students who are slackers.
    3901 posts | registered
  19. Laptops in an engineering curriculum would be utterly useless for day-to-day classes (they could be useful in labs, etc.). Taking notes that include integrals, derivatives, and plenty of other Greek symbols would take significantly longer on a computer than if done by hand. However, I could see their use for notetaking in your typical liberal arts classes. I can type significantly faster than I can write (and I can actually read it afterwords as well).

    It's interesting to see the argument over this. I got good grades in college, and I did well in my classes; however, I was a ****** student. I showed up to classes only if I thought I needed to, and I stayed awake only if the material was interesting.

    If I had had a laptop, my grades would have been significantly worse. It's still ultimately the responsibility of the student to determine if a laptop is going to help or hinder their performance. Though I still think it's the duty of the professor to provide an environment that is conducive to learning. If someone is being disruptive, it is the professor's responsibility to put a stop to it.
    1983 posts | registered
  20. I wonder what year the USMA study was from. My class (2006) was the first to be issued laptops, those those lacked wireless cards, as did most of the buildings.
    43 posts | registered
  21. You know, this isn't a problem just in the classroom. The business world, with laptops (and blackberries) everywhere, has the same kind of issues.
    1651 posts | registered
  22. quote:
    Originally posted by Jeff R.:

    Just a comment on this belief. Learn LaTeX (or straight TeX, whatever). I took notes in all of my physics and math classes, as well as all of my CS classes using LaTeX, and there was no speed penalty. Sure, for graphs it isn't the best, but it is doable, but for integrals, derivatives, greek characters, etc., it's pure gold, and faster than writing for me most of the time. Especially the greek and hebrew symbols. \aleph is MUCH faster than actually writing an aleph for me...
    997 posts | registered
  23. I can see both sides of this argument, but I'm leaning more towards laptops being a distraction than a useful tool. I just don't see the necessity for a laptop in most normal classes - the benefits are minor, while the potential for distraction is much larger.

    I had a laptop in college, but just so that I could work on my own computer in the library (and bring it back and forth between home and school) - I never took it to class. I'd take handwritten notes, and then if I really wanted a digital version for some reason (like to search), I'd type them up. That also served as a kind of refresher since I'd be looking at the material again.
    1519 posts | registered
  24. I refuse to handwrite in a course that isn't heavy on mathematics. When I move to a tablet PC, I won't use handwriting for that either. It's slower, I can't read what I write, it's harder to reproduce and form into an outline, and it wastes paper.

    In my MBA classes, the function of my notes is to provide a list of what we've covered in class, so I can then limit the extent of book studying I do. Concepts are rarely so facile that I can understand them when they're first presented in class, so most of my learning occurs following class. Arguably, this is the inverse of how studying should occur. A student should review the material completely before class, and then rely on the professor only to fill in the gaps. The entire class should be a question-and-answer session.

    But, the only reason to bother preparing in advance is if the class has great volumes of complex material. Math classes qualify. Law classes qualify. Most others don't, especially where they cover "soft" issues that lend themselves to least-common-denominator testing. Any intelligent student will modify their effort to suit the course material. These teachers are annoyed ultimately because their material and subsequent exams require so little effort that students don't bother.

    In sum, the laptop issue is a red herring. The real question is the extent to which we need professors and the traditional classroom environment.
    2513 posts | registered
  25. quote:
    Originally posted by wallinbl:


    So long as the laptop isn't making noise out loud, i don't see the issue.

    It's not my responsibility to make sure that your easily distracted mind is catered to. If you don't have the mental discipline to pay attention in class when there's pretty pictures on someone's laptop, that's something you have to fix about yourself. Having someone else remove the laptop is not the correct answer.
    1983 posts | registered
  26. Depends on the course.

    Math/logic? I might as well throw a brick in my bag and take that with me. Graphite and dead tree all the way.
    History and political science lectures can be dicey. Most of those courses that I've had take a new issue or topic, explain it in relatively simple terms, then add a considerable degree of complexity in the readings that the class is tested on later. A laptop is helpful for this, since I can put text down faster and more comfortably than with a pen. I remember a lot more material by typing it into the computer. Most of it I never look at again - I don't need to. An Internet connection can be useful if the professor mentions something in passing and I'm interested in knowing what it is, but that's not a necessity.

    Then there are the hopelessly bad lectures where the professor stammers along extemporaneously, delivering little or no useful/interesting information. No outline or plan as to what he's going to fill the next two hours with, just his brain and maybe a few slides. (The good professors don't try to do this - only the ones who think they're good.) I've had a handful of these. My normal response is to quit coming.
    1200 posts | registered
  27. Having been part of a mandatory laptop program in college I have to say I'm a fan. I could take notes WAY faster on a laptop than on paper, and as an added bonus actually decipher them later too. Smile

    As for laptops being a distraction, I found the guy in front of me playing WoW, etc. to bet a LOT less distracting than the loud chattering conversations students would have when the odd teacher that disliked the laptops forced those same slackers to close them and "pay attention".

    The people who are determined to goof off in class are going to do that regardless of the technology available to them. At least if they have laptops they can goof off quietly without distracting the other students.
    278 posts | registered
  28. cause of distraction = boredom
    there should be better things to do in class than playing games etc. in a class even under that kind of circumstance.

    discipline, motivation, yes, is very important, however, even West Point cadets find it hard from the Internet distraction during class, so, probably we shouldn't try too hard on fighting again human nature...

    tech or non-tech solution to remove Internet-related distraction
    joshv -- There is a relatively simple solution here - don't provide wi-fi in the classrooms.

    dnjake --
    true technological advantages may not have been uncovered yet in many higher learning institutions...

    In sum, imho, on People,
    maybe Students need more discipline where appropriate,
    probably Lecturers/Professors need to make lecture more interesting/engaging, for one thing, to draw and keep the attention...

    On Technology, disable wireless or otherwise Internet connection to lecture halls/classrooms during class session in general rationale is simple, there's virtually no benefit for the learning process of the subject
    matter other than distraction unless warranted for special occasion or instructor's use something...

    I've posted a similar note with a more depth note at the following URL,
    (posted by knowledgenotebook)
    5 posts | registered
  29. quote:

    As a lecturer (UK based) I'd be very wary of setting such a rule; at least permanently. I might encourage students to try it in one or two sessions, but then to allow them to use their own strategies.

    I think there are two main aspects coming into play; the first is whether the individual student feels that a laptop is beneficial to them - if they find note taking easier on it ; if they like to have the slides that the lecturer has up on their screens & use the notes field in powerpoint to add their own notes / a tablet PC to annotate them by hand / work on a Google doc with a friend - it's what suits them best & we shouldn't interfere - indeed; sometimes ideas of that sort can give students ideas about working that they mayn't have had before.

    Others may prefer to have paper to take notes, others just to listen. Just because something suits one student, it doesn't mean it's right for everyone else.

    The distraction issue is another matter- yes, it can be distracting to have screen in front of you / hear people typing.
    The point about making laptop users "sit at the back" - may work (if that's where the power supplies are!), but as others have pointed out, students who like to sit at the front may also like to use laptops. But what's wrong with left/right splits ... so laptop/non laptop users get the benefit of the front / back choice - as well as reducing the possible distractions - I do agree with those that say doodling & doing the crossword aren't distracting in the way that surfing [either relevantly or non-relevantly] is to the person sitting next to you.

    (And, even if they are surfing, at least they've made the effort to come, so presumably expect some gems of knowledge, even if they feel they already know most of it - but we don't have grades for attendance here).
    1 post | registered
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