Note: this post was anonymously submitted to Legal Geekery. The content doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of the LG authors, but we thought that it would stir some interesting debate.
There is a lot of discussion going around lately about professors banning laptops in the classroom, so I feel the need to chime in. There are already related discussions on Volokh and here on Legal Geekery, and I want to raise my hand too.
Having had the opportunity to take a class this semester that banned laptops outright, my professor regurgitated the same arguments made by every other electronics-banning professor: facebook, inattentive students in general, lexis, research class or writing class, emails, blog checking, ect. The way I see it, if you need to tell students (especially those over the age of 21) that they are not attentive enough and you have to ban laptops to get them to pay attention, maybe you should find a better way to teach the class. The law is and should be interesting and that’s the reason many of us have elected to pursue a law degree.
As a 1L, students need to pay attention because they need to hear you go on and on about the ever elusive how to think like a lawyer. But as 2Ls and 3Ls, we figured out that you, just like the bar, are testing our ability to memorize the nutshell/outline and how to argue both sides of your hypo, and that aside from the rule or exception that was the topic of that day’s class, nothing that you lectured about is on the final.
Professors: we understand that you are supposed to teach law school; we understand that you teach in a manner different from undergrad professors; we understand that you are really important and really intelligent, and that you spent years researching and writing on difficult and highly specialized topics to impress other professors in your area. But what you seem to miss in all your wisdom is that, now more than ever, law students want law school to be applicable in the real world. When you “point out” theories that are only theories and aren’t applicable in the glorified horse trading that the practice of law actually is, and make fun of students for not “seeing your side,” maybe at the end of the day we would rather look at our classmates’ vacation photos. If I can pay twenty-five dollars and get your class in a nutshell, all-the-while avoiding your taunting hypo wheel muck and your vision of how the law should be, and still get an A in the class, so be it.
Moral: law professors ban laptops because law students don’t need them; hobos don’t have laptops and don’t need them= I don’t want to be a hobo, seriously…
Incoming search terms:
- where to sit in a law school classroom
No related posts.
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
i’ve seen law students doodle in class rather than pay attention. maybe we should ban pens so students won’t be able to doodle. or does a pen’s usefulness outweigh the fact that an inattentive student might be so distracted by its presence that they choose to doodle?
@Charles, don’t forget that pens should also be banned on account of the fact that people twirling them could be distracting to students seated behind or around them.
Um, weird, is it just my school that has a laptop requirement? Laptops are mandatory at my school – in fact you can get an extra financial aid stipend to buy one. We’re not supposed to surf the net and stuff, but of course people do.
@Jessica, Nope, you’re not the only one. Our school requires them also. But in my limited time as a law student (All two weeks and 1 day of it) two of my professors have made it a point to say something along the lines of “IF the school didn’t require them THEN they (the prof) would ban them.” So somewhere down the line the administration has obviously directed my professors to no ban laptops.
I agree with the point raised in the article and it’s the same I’ve made to my professor that won’t post her powerpoint slides until after she’s taught all her lessons for the day, most of us are paying for law school with enormous student loans. Loans that will be looming over our heads for years to come. Any reasonable and prudent person would think the out of pocket costs alone would be motivation enough to go to class and pay attention. If a student decides on their own that class or their attention isn’t worth what they pay the law school, so be it.
@Scottie, Well, maybe I should have mentioned my school’s strict attendence policy – we can only miss 4 classes (per semester per class) before we are expelled. No such thing as an excused absence either, so if you use all 4 and then have an emergency, you’re screwed. Although you can appeal the decision.
So in my school, not a big deal about powerpoints keeping people from going to class – besides the enormous amount of $ we’re paying, we can’t miss much due to the attendence policy.
I can type upwards of 108 words per minute–faster still if I start using abbreviations and ignoring such niceties as punctuation. If I wanted to, I could probably get to near-court-reporter speeds. I could then copy, verbatim or nearly verbatim, everything that’s said in class–how wonderful!
Except that it’s not. Four-fifths of what’s said in a law school class is bunk. The skill is in figuring out what isn’t.
Laptops tend to turn students into stenographers, frantically racing to copy everything said. This is before we factor in the inevitable distractions.
“But we’ll have computers when we practice!” I hear you protesting. Well, not if you intend to spend any time in a courtroom any time soon. Judges in my jurisdictions will not permit laptops in the courtroom. Attorneys survive on their animal cunning, supplemented by legal pads. Somehow, interests are represented, matters litigated, and resolutions reached.
Turning to the OP’s attack on professors in general, it’s worth noting that the whole point of looking at theories that “aren’t applicable in the glorified horse trading that the practice of law” is not to shovel “facts” into your skull. The actual practice of law is largely about understanding how to conceptualize problems–to turn a client’s angry whining into a viable cause of action (or defense) that you can turn to a client’s advantage, earning yourself your fat hourly fee in the process.
Sure, you could practice out of a form book–or, I suppose, these days, Google– but remember: failing to get your head around the theory of the case could prove fatal to your client’s interests. It might even get your ass hauled into court for malpractice.
But you know what? You’re a big kid. Keep your laptop, and your attitude.
@ouij, well argued and spoken like the resident LG technophobe :p
@Joshua Auriemma, A worrying number of law students, I find, have a profound lack of intellectual curiosity. All they want to do is memorize “facts” that they can vomit onto their SecurExam files at 150 wpm.
I used to think that the law, as a profession, was more than just a bunch of hacks and fakers. After three years of observing my contemporaries in law school, I’m not so sure anymore.
I don’t necessarily blame the laptop for this. Laptops don’t really create habits of mind in and of themselves, but they do amplify whatever habits of mind the user had before.
@Joshua Auriemma, let us not forget the world of hurt (and tort liability) should one of those pens go astray and poke someone’s eye out.
@Scottie, Any reasonable and prudent person would avoid a course taught primarily by means of PowerPoint, which is white possibly the worst system of information-delivery yet devised.
Just how bad is Powerpoint at delivering complex technical information? Fatally so. Don’t believe me? Consider the amount of information not conveyed in the Powerpoint slides on the damage to the Space Shuttle Columbia:
http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001yB&topic_id=1
A number of thoughtful people have commented on PowerPoint’s uncanny ability to prevent real information transmission and its tragic consequences on the battlefield. See, e.g.
http://armsandinfluence.typepad.com/armsandinfluence/2006/08/death_by_powerp.html
on Powerpoint’s role in the planning for the occupation of Iraq. Note particularly the example slide, a monument of meaninglessness: http://armsandinfluence.typepad.com/photos/arms_and_influence_refere/ppt1s.jpg
See also, e.g.,
http://www.afji.com/2009/07/4061641
an essay pointing out the same for the Armed Forces Journal.
I graduated in 2004, before Blackberrys and smartphones were a must-have. I’d say less than half of my class used laptops on a regular basis. I remember a few of the professors walking around the room during lecture and students quickly minimizing their web browsers! Today though, for those who want to surf the net or email during class, smartphones enable them to do it much more discreetly.
Surviving law school without a laptop in the classroom is next to impossible these days.
@Toby Lason, Really? I’m doing just fine.
@Toby Lason, I love my laptop, don’t get me wrong. I think that the article makes good points about teachers needing to be more engaging in the classroom. However, I find the ability to think about the debate in class when I don’t bring it with me. I don’t have any problem in the classroom without a laptop. If I am on my computer, I am typing everything without even thinking if what I am writing is important or not. My friend is constantly on his laptop and doesn’t even take notes. I can see if someone was a great multi-tasker and could browse facebook and take notes, some people in my class can do that and as long as their screen doesn’t distract me, I commend them! However, I couldn’t and thankfully I know not to bring my laptop into class. I think it just makes me nervous, for those with potential, who will never make it because they were too consumed in mindless websites to pass the time.
@Toby Lason, I love my laptop, don't get me wrong. I think that the article makes good points about teachers needing to be more engaging in the classroom. However, I find the ability to think about the debate in class when I don't bring it with me. I don't have any problem in the classroom without a laptop. If I am on my computer, I am typing everything without even thinking if what I am writing is important or not. My friend is constantly on his laptop and doesn't even take notes. I can see if someone was a great multi-tasker and could browse facebook and take notes, some people in my class can do that and as long as their screen doesn't distract me, I commend them! However, I couldn't and thankfully I know not to bring my laptop into class. I think it just makes me nervous, for those with potential, who will never make it because they were too consumed in mindless websites to pass the time….
I am going to revisit two themes I have seen here and elsewhere: 1) How can a school require you to have a laptop and simultaneously keep you from using it and 2)Since when is law school the law subject matter equivalent to kindergarten?
I think the first one speaks for itself. Law schools shouldn’t require you to purchase one and then give the professors “latitude” to ban them. They MADE you buy them for the friggin classes!
My biggest problem is with the second issue. More and more in school and at work, I am getting tired of being treated like a 6 year old. Ignore the fact that I am a “non-traditional” student and therefore somewhat “older” than the average law student. Realistically, you will have to be at least age 20 to get into law school. By then, if you haven’t realized that the whole purpose of being in class is to learn something, maybe you should be allowed to surf the internet and fail. Or, if you only attend classes because your college insists on an attendance policy, but you feel like you can get away with not paying attention… who cares? Do I care? As long as what the other student is doing is not distracting to me or the rest of the class. Does the professor care? Why would he, he’s getting paid the same if you soak up his every word like honey or sit in class with earplugs in. Does the school care? Really, seriously, are there any pretentions that your law school cares? They may care about the overall pass/fail rate on the bar, but I think that if someone can make it through law school while surfing, texting and blogging in class, they could probably pass the bar reasonably easily…
Bottom line is, yes I know that some snooty old judges will not allow me to use my laptop in court. But some of them will. And, oh by the way, at that point I will be all on my own, and have to worry about paying the bills vis a vis representing my client. How is any of this related to how I take notes in class, or if I choose to do so at all. When are adults going to start being treated like adults again? This is just another example of how our nations “institutions” feel the need to hold our hand, monitor our every behavior and control every activity in which we engage. It is a mindset, it is extremely pervasive and to me at least, it is extremely unnerving, not to mention aggravating. Let me do it my way, and if I fall on my face, well then at least I have learned…. LEARNED!!
@KellyH, To each his own, I suppose. Given all the great recording technology and my own ability to type faster than I can write, I can’t imagine going through class without the new generation’s version of the pen and notebook.