Law & Business | Professor Bainbridge

Laptops in the classroom

The tech revolution at the nation’s top law and business schools, where students now routinely use laptops and wireless connections in class, has created an insurgent population: professors, who believe they’re losing the fight against wandering minds. In retaliation, at schools such as Harvard, Yale and Columbia, some profs have banned laptops from class altogether. In a more measured approach, the University of Chicago Law School cut its classroom Wi-Fi signal this spring, citing an “epidemic” of Web browsing during lectures, while at UCLA law, profs can activate a “kill switch” to disable Wi-Fi if they sense an attention deficit. The results, they say, are striking. “I’m getting much better eye contact,” says Michigan law professor Richard Friedman, who installed a no-laptop policy in January. “It’s been like renewing an acquaintance with an old friend.” To others, though, the crackdown lets the real culprits off the hook. “If you’re so boring that students are zoning out, you ought to rethink if you should be teaching,” says UCLA law professor Stephen Bainbridge—though he admits that he’s flipped the kill switch in his own classroom more than once. Tetris, anyone?

I discuss the issue in some length in my article Reflections on Twenty Years of Law Teaching: Remarks at the Rutter Award Ceremony.

Posted on Wednesday, May 14 2008 | Permalink

I must admit that my Internet connection kept me awake through more than one law school lecture. I think that students should be allowed to browse as long as they are not disturbing the professor or distracting other students (which I realize is very tough to determine). If a student wants to browse and risk missing out on a lecture and potentially lowering his/her grade - so be it. I also agree with Professor Bainbridge that some professors may just need to be a tad bit more compelling in their classrooms.

Posted by ChillableHours on 05/14 at 01:19 PM

And whatever happened to old fashioned manners and respect?

Sigh.

Posted by on 05/14 at 02:19 PM

I think laptops in the classroom are great. It’s the noise cancelling headphones I object to.

Posted by on 05/14 at 08:39 PM

I think some profs just cannot bear to face the fact that their lectures are neither interesting nor informative. Banning laptops just plays a small part in helping them avoid facing that reality. If I were back in law school I would simply refuse to sign up for any course that did not allow me to take notes on a laptop. It’s a huge advantage when it comes to reading and organizing your notes at the end of the semester…

Posted by on 05/16 at 03:59 AM

Maybe the professors are afraid the students are reading something that refutes what they are teaching.

Posted by on 05/16 at 12:54 PM

If professors want to keep the attention of students in their classes, they should take a more Socratic approach to their lectures. Also, Powerpoint normally spells doom for an interesting lecture. I tend to think that web-surfing is a symptom rather than the problem.

Posted by on 05/18 at 02:13 PM

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