On this page:
6.1 Background
6.2 The Course Policy
6.3 Popular Press
6.4 Research Literature

6 Laptop Policy

Thanks to Cassandra Jacobs and (alum!) Jake Eakle for feedback that improved this document.

    6.1 Background

    6.2 The Course Policy

    6.3 Popular Press

    6.4 Research Literature

Note: “Laptop” is used in this document as a proxy for a broad range of devices, including tablets, smartphones, etc.

6.1 Background

Numerous research studies over the past several years have found generally adverse learning impacts of having laptops in classrooms (a list of papers on that and related topics is in Research Literature and summarized in Popular Press).

Some of this literature is mainly an argument about how using laptops causes students to harm their own learning. However, not all students are alike, and some may feel they’re excellent multitaskers or that using a laptop actually helps them (presumably almost everyone in those studies felt that way...). Anyway, they may feel that they should be allowed to take responsibility for their own education.

The research, however, also shows a much more pernicious problem. Student learning is also negatively impacted by someone else’s laptop use. This isn’t surprising: screens have flashing content, keyboards make noise, and distractors are, in general, distracting. This is where an individual’s exercise of rights become problematic: you have the right to squander your educational opportunities, but not to take away those of others.

This phenomenon isn’t confined to the research literature. In end-of-semester surveys across multiple courses, I have found non-trivial percentages of students express frustration (sometimes in a colorful manner) at others’ laptop use. In fact, it’s seeing this on surveys that prompted me to look up the research.

At the same time, laptops are sometimes useful in coursework. Most commonly, you may be asked to try out a program, especially a concept you haven’t seen before (and hence can’t imagine in your head).

6.2 The Course Policy

I am instituting a new policy on laptop use in class that reconciles these different pressures.

By default, laptop use is prohibited. There are only three exceptions:
  • I’ve explicitly given permission to use laptops for some task. (If I haven’t but you think some task is laptop-suitable, ask. I may want you to think about it instead of blindly typing it in.) When the task ends, you have to close“Close” means “screen no longer visible and no more typing”. More broadly, the device should be inert, neither producing discernible output nor being given input. your laptop.

  • You have some documentable reason that requires laptop use. If so please discuss it with me beforehand. Also, in light of the rest of this document, I’d appreciate your positioning yourself in class in a way that your laptop’s screen will not distract others. Note that this does not mean you have to relegate yourself to the back; perhaps that isn’t where you would like to sit! But closer to the ends of rows would help. Thanks.

  • Emergencies.

6.3 Popular Press

The following articles are not scientific literature but summarize the research in easily-accessible terms.

(Note that Susan Dynarski is a distinguished professor of education, not just a random person with an opinion on the Web.)

6.4 Research Literature

The following are research papers you can read to learn more.