Amanda Crowe, a freshman and Hatchet columnist, argues that professors are justified in banning computers from their classrooms.
The GW professors who have started to ban computers from their classrooms, and other professors nationwide, are perfectly justified in doing so. In an educational setting, it is hard to make much progress if the students lack respect for their instructor. Shopping for new shoes online while the professor is speaking isn’t exactly the definition of respect.
Read her full column here.
Amen! I find myself sitting in the front row of lectures so I can avoid letting my eyes wander to laptop screens of my colleagues.
To that shady kid in my political science class: We all know you were facebook stalking.
It’s totally irrelevant whether the presence of laptops is in general helpful or unhelpful for the individual student. We are all adults and college is, if anything, a time to make both good and bad decisions.
As far as laptops being harmful because they distract other students – this argument is equally problematic. There are many things people might be distracted by besides laptops (clothing, doodling, etc.) — should these things be policed as well? Girls are distracting too. It seems the easier choice would simply be to avert your eyes from other people’s screens. This might be hard for you… but you are ultimately responsible for your education. You *can* muster the willpower to not look at someone’s screen. It’s not like that person sitting in front of you is enchanting you with their laptop.