Albany, Chicago & Villanova Ban Laptops in the Classroom

Details at Above the Law:

You know, if I didn’t know better, I’d say that Villanova, Albany, and Chicago have lost sight of the fact that students are [paying] to be in those classrooms. This isn’t high school. Students spending class time playing Warcraft aren’t truants — instead, they are bored out of their minds, and deserve a better, more interesting class experience than their professors are providing. It’s like when baseball people bitch that they are losing the youth market to football and basketball. Raise your game or STFU. Of course kids would rather watch LeBron drunk on somebody’s head instead of watching Andy Pettitte scratch his balls for five minutes while Ryan Howard plays hopscotch with the batter’s box.

For my take on the issue, see Taking Back the Law School Classroom: Using Technology to Foster Active Student Learning, 54 J. Legal Educ. 551 (2004).