Take out your quills and inkwells
4 November 2009 • Ricardo J. Bascuas • 12 Comments » • Tags: NoneThe other day in Evidence we were discussing a Rehnquist opinion that referenced two obscure cases dealing with the Smith Act. If you didn’t know what the Smith Act was, you would have no idea what Rehnquist was scrawling about. Way back in the 1990s, this would have required some minor effort by the standards of the day. But today when I ask, “What did the Smith Act deal with and what is Rehnquist saying in this paragraph?” and upwards of 100 students just stare at me quizzically, it’s a little disconcerting. “If you could take a short break from instant messaging and just ask the box in front of you, we could get on with this.” This happens all the time, and I still don’t get it.
So, I was thinking of banning laptops next semester when I teach Crim Pro to the 1Ls. It’s not that I entirely agree with the numerous professors—or entire schools—who complain that students don’t pay attention. It’s not as though law professors 
were enrapturing before students had laptops. Back in the twentieth century, if a professor was dull, we messaged each other and made grocery lists and even played games in class, all with a pen and paper.
But the way students use laptops makes learning harder and more time-intensive rather than more efficient. They walk into class with the textbook and the supplement to the textbook plus this six-pound appliance that is a blank slate. They haven’t taken any notes on what they read. They just sit there waiting to type every word, so they can then spend way, way, way too much time trying to figure out what it all means at some unspecified future time. Outlines are typically upwards of 90 single-spaced pages, making studying for finals more daunting than it ever should be. Watching them use their laptops this way is like watching someone try to change the channel by throwing the remote control at the buttons on the television from across the room.
I asked the upper-class students in Evidence what they thought. One student said manual note-taking is a necessary legal skill that needs to be practiced and another said banning laptops was ridiculously paternalistic. So, I thought about that and now I’m thinking I might ban laptops for the last two weeks of this semester.
I was a student in professor graham’s class when he sent a message out over the summer that laptops would be banned. My first reaction, what dean can I speak to. But, I can say with certainty, that I learned evidence better than any other subject in law school and I attribute it mostly to the ban on laptops. However, the ban on laptops is only one piece of the puzzle, it needs to be complimented by more creative and engaging teaching. Randomly calling on students from a list is not engaging nor creative.
Do not ban laptops. Instead, once or twice a week, announce at the beginning of class that every student must take written notes and turn them in at the end of the class. You will return the notes the next day, a week later, whatever. Also, do not announce the day(s) beforehand; let the students carry the laptop to class everyday without knowing whether they will be allowed to use it.
How’s that for paternalistic?
Or, you could ratchet-up the Socratic methods (Do you think Professor Hausler, may he rest in peace, would have had a laptop problem?).
I must be the outlier.
I take notes on what I read before class. I supplement those notes in class with the lecture material. If I didn’t have my laptop, I simply couldn’t do this. Supplementing notes would be impossible when they’re in ink. I did this in your class and every other. I’m not the only one.
Instead of banning laptops and punishing the good students because of the bad, reward the good students and forget about the bad. I can’t recall if you required attendance, but if you do, don’t. Instruct the class that attendance and participation will result in a grade bump, but that the absence of either will result in a ‘downward departure,’ so to speak.
Don’t want to come to class? Don’t want to prepare? Great, you’ll pay for it. Students like me will do fine. The others can sink or swim if they want to.
I think you should ban laptops. I handwrite all my notes, and it is much easier to learn by writing than by typing verbatim what a professor says (most of it is irrelevant garbage anyways).
Really, if you type notes verbatim, almost none of it is useful; some of it will even be the random and usually wrong answers given by a fellow student while attempting to answer a question that itself has nothing to do with the class, let alone the exam.
#3, supplementing notes in ink is extremely easy. First, when you read before class, write your notes in ink of a certain color. Then, in class, you can supplement your notes with a different colored ink. you can even draw arrows and other fancy things to organize your notes instead of typing paragraph after paragraph of undifferentiated crap.
What did all these people with laptops do before law school? You didn’t use laptops in high school, and the majority of people in college still don’t use them either. Why do law students always think they are special?
no wonder the rest of the world hates us.
4, it’s quite glib to assume all laptop users take stream-of-consciousness notes. Students should be able to take notes in whatever manner works for them.
Being able to take notes on a legal pad is a legal skill that any law students should graduate with. What are you going to tell the judge at calendar, sorry didn’t bring my lap top so I didn’t write it down.
I’m with 6. While I didn’t use my laptop in undergrad, I find it essential now to supplement the notes I took from the reading (which I actually do read everyday). I personally think that doing it this way helps the outlining process because I’ve already typed most of what I need — I don’t have to go through and try to understand my hand-written notes.
Also, I’m not sure I’m falling for the presumption that using a laptop to take notes is inherently killing our ability to take notes by hand. I think there are people out there who are good note-takers (hand-written or typed), and there are people who just are not. There’s no reason to think preferring one over the other makes you any less effective.
I will be one of your ILs next semester – please allow us to use computers! Before each class, I take thorough notes on my computer, supplement them during class, and this enables me to stay organized and focused. Each student has his or her own way of taking notes that works, and you shouldn’t punish those of us who take notes on a laptop.
Grow some balls. take some hand notes. that’s how its done in real life. See 7.
calm down 10. and balls? no thank you.
And to what extent should we consider the fact that some professors speak much much much faster than others, thereby making it almost impossible to take handwritten notes? Perhaps some of the people on this blog list would disagree, but not all students have quick handwriting abilities. We live in a tech-weenie world and our underdeveloped hands from hours of holding comfortable, ergonomic video game controllers and hours of tapping sensitive computer keyboards have atrophied our ability to grip a pencil and write by hand for more than three minutes before cramping commences.
Some students prefer to take the final exam by hand, and others by computers. Overall, it probably benefits the professors more when reading typed exams saving them from deciphering scribbles/ chicken scratch, which some call handwriting. Likewise, if students can take better notes in class because they’re comfortable typing notes, and thefore produce better answers on the exam, wouldn’t that benefit professors grading exams as well?