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May 30, 2006, 08:20 AM ET
To Ban or Not to Ban
More students these days are surfing the Internet during class, and often their activities are not educational. Professors worry that as wireless networks and laptops become ubiquitous, students will direct about as much attention to the front of the room as airline passengers do to a flight attendant reviewing safety information.
To keep students focused on class, some professors now ban laptops from their classrooms, arguing that the devices are just too much of a temptation. Other professors ask laptop users to sit in the front row, in part so the professors can glance down occasionally to see what is on the students’ screens. And a few colleges have set up systems that let professors switch off classroom Internet access during some sessions. Such measures come after colleges nationwide have spent millions of dollars equipping classrooms with Internet access — and most recently with wireless-Internet nodes. (The Chronicle, free link)
Give your view on laptop bans in a Chronicle forum on the issue.
Categories: Leadership, Teaching
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