Each year, more students at Sacramento State replace pen and paper with laptops to take notes in class. This technological transformation in note taking has been met with resistance by many professors.

Professors see laptops used in class as a toy rather than an academic tool, and as a result, are implementing bans in their classes. These professors are announcing to their classes that notes will be taken “old school” style with pen and paper.

In various surveys across the country, 85 to 95 percent of students admitted to using their laptops for purposes other than academic – i.e. poker, fantasy sports, social networking, e-mail and shopping. With a wireless campus network, Sac State students are privileged to have the world at their fingertips and professors should not restrict that privilege.

Professors claim laptop bans are for the good of the class. A laptop is a source of distraction for both the students using the laptop and those sitting around them who are distracted by the screen. Laptops in the classroom diminish the quality of note taking, class discussions and the relationship between the student and professor.

Laptops can be a big distraction – but that doesn’t mean they should not be permitted in class. I have pulled mine out on at least a few occasions to check email, purchase something, or work on assignments for other classes. As a result of my laptop use in class, my notes have suffered, as well as my understanding of the material. But my notes and my grasp on the material are my responsibility, not the professors’.

Students are paying to go to Sac State. This is no longer grade school, and as such, it is not the responsibility of professors to regulate classroom etiquette so extensively. Laptops are not any more disruptive to class than doodling – and are less disruptive than pen tapping, desk shaking and note passing.

Although professors see laptops as a distraction, there are plenty of students who can be on their laptops surfing the web while simultaneously absorbing the material being taught. And there will be more of them. As technology in the classroom is emphasized and increased in lower schools, greater numbers of entering freshmen have adapted to using the computer as their primary tool in class.

If students are using laptops for stimuli, professors should be worried more about their teaching style than the laptops detracting from it. Standing up in front of class talking for an hour is not the most stimulating or effective means a professor can use to convey course material. Rarely are students allowed to present without visuals. Professors shouldn’t be either.

Instead of trying to fight the infiltration of laptops in class, they should be used to the professor’s advantage. Incorporate technology into lecture with video, audio, models, graphs, pictures, et cetera. With lecture being more stimulating, fewer students will be inclined to surf the Internet during class.

Choquette Marrow can be reached at [email protected].