Laptops in the Classroom: Good or Bad

After watching the section on the documentary in class about the school in New York that assigns a laptop to each kid for their own personal use, made me think about the necessity of laptops in the classroom. They have claimed that since the children have had personal access to their own computer their grades have been better and daily school attendance has also increased. Ever since I saw how the students were using the computers when they were supposed to be doing school work I thought it would be interesting to look around at other students in my classes, not in a creepy way, to see what they were really doing during their class time. I noticed that for the most part people were using them to take notes but I also noticed that kids were checking email and other sites. In my own opinion I think that it is the students responsibility to pay attention in class and if they need laptops to take notes, then so be it, and web surfing and email checking is going to happen, as long as students do not abuse this right, I think that laptops in class are a great idea.

I wanted to see what other people were saying about this laptop debacle and I found a blog from "The Wall Street Journal: Law Blog" that has also taken an interest in this growing debate.

Thehttp://blogs.wsj.com/law/2006/06/14/laptops-in-the-classroom-debate-rages-on/tab/article/

The blog states states that another newspaper has reported that Harvard Law School is debating whether or not to keep laptops in their classroom for the temptations to steer from note taking and class participation. Even though the university has not officially banned laptops from class some professors have already jumped on the band wagon and forbid their students from using laptops. There is also a third point they make, that students have laptop accessibility but there Internet be cut out. It kind of feels that even though these students are adults they are treating them like children.

People have also commented on the article, and for the most part people agree that laptops in class are a good idea, some do agree that the Internet should be cut off to prevent temptation but others like the Internet because they can look up articles and readings during class that can further their ability to comprehend what they are learning. Either way you put it some people are going to like laptops in class and some people aren't. Technology really isn't going anywhere but it is interesting to see how people would react if laptops were banned from classrooms.