Andrea L. Foster, "Law Professors Rule Laptops Out of Order in Class," The Chronicle, Information Technology (From the issue dated June 13, 2008):
Law professors say the Socratic method, the cornerstone of a legal education, in which professors ask students to accept or refute a long series of questions, is under assault by the vast array of amusements available to students on their laptops. The learning method calls for focused interaction between students and professor, as he or she tests their assumptions. Laptops, psychologically and literally, get in the way.
Still, some professors strongly defend using them. They say students' access to the Web can actually enrich class discussions. They accuse professors who ban laptops of being Luddites, paternalistic, or, worse, boring instructors who blame the Internet for their pedagogical shortcomings.
Ann Althouse, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, is among the laptop proponents. There will always be distracted students, regardless of the Internet, she says. Before the Internet, students gazed out the window, doodled, or simply fidgeted.
"The idea that we're going to somehow save these students from being distracted is a bit absurd," she says.
[Professor Althouse's blog is available at http://althouse.blogspot.com/]