Professor Luddite

A professor at the University of Memphis Law School banned laptops from her class. Her claim was that the laptops prevented her students from analyzing and thinking about the concepts she was trying to present - in essence she said the laptop users were trying to transcribe her course rather than interact with her ideas.

Ultimately, while her move may have been satisfying to some, it is shortsighted. There is an old joke in the academy that goes like this "How many university professors does it take to change a light bulb?" The reply is "Change?" Ultimately, this technology is what law students and all students have grown up with. It is what they will use in their courtroom activities. The professor should adapt rather than trying to stop the change.

A few years ago I realized that two kinds of things happen when I teach with students with laptops. The first is what I would call the "googleization" of lectures. When I say something outrageous, it gets checked out instantaneously on Google. When I realized that, it actually enriched the discusssion. We could mutually use the service to check facts. At the same time, some students used their wireless laptops to do all sorts of other things in class (in essence to electronically day dream). The way to solve that problem is to make sure that the course becomes more collaborative and interactive. This professor should take her summer and learn a bit more about how to use technology in the classroom and not try to hide from it. Afterall, the Luddites were not successful either.