If an outsider is to sit in any college lecture, they would take away that nearly all of today's college students use laptops. In the technology driven world that we live in, this should not present a problem. However, students use of laptops have become an issue to their depth of understanding subject matter and ability to pay attention to the lecture. In my personal experience, I take the old-school approach to note taking. This has allowed me to become more engage in lectures and understanding the concepts presented through my own ideas and style. When using a laptop, I feel I tend to become a reporter for the lesson, writing down word for word what is said while missing out on some of the meaning behind the words. When peers ask why I do not use a laptop, the answer is simply to avoid what they are doing during class, which is focusing my time on non-class material. The difference I have seen from the switch is night and day in terms of understanding material and developing it further. There are many studies to back up my reasoning, most of which is done on college students. For a number of students, going back from technology driven schoolwork to longhand and self-written notes may present a challenge since so many have only relied on technology. Also, it should be noted that some classes need the use of computers and software programs, while some students may struggle to keep up while writing longhand and actually fall behind even more. When using laptops for note-taking, students are more likely to see a dip in grades, professors lose the ability to teach in their preferred style, and students lose conceptual understanding of material, even before college.

 One main reason for banning laptops as primary note taking devices is simple, college students grade point averages are falling and laptops can be attributed to part of the reason for lower grades. Even though we live in a world where technology is king, the advantages in some departments seem slim in comparison to the disadvantages. Students are not the only ones impacted by the technological craze however, as professors are just as susceptible. Dan Rockmore of Dartmouth College noticed the trend of increased laptop use and banned them in his classroom a few years ago. His attention on the issue was piqued when a colleague in the computer science department proposed banning laptops, with many others in agreement. Acting on a gut feeling, Rockmore had decided long before his peers this was the right move since, "For the kinds of computer-science and math classes that I generally teach, which can have a significant theoretical component, any advantage that might be gained by having a machine at the ready, or available for the primary goal of taking notes, was negligible at best" (Rockmore Par. 4). In general, for his class, Rockmore knew it was difficult to type out the equations they do and laptops would end up having a low value to the class while the potential for students to become engaged in other things was much higher. Also, Rockmore himself admits, like so many others in today's world, he has difficulty staying on task while using a laptop or computer for work and assumed the same would be true about his students (Rockmore Par. 4). So not only are students struggling with handling technology, but their professors are as well. Rockmore has adopted the strategy of not allowing laptops use and even makes his students read studies as to why he does it. A few years ahead of the curve, Rockmore is making use of proposed strategies and more professors at Dartmouth College seem to be moving towards it. If a high profile college such as Dartmouth can get behind the ideas of less laptop usage, that will only increase the chance more schools and universities jump on board. Critics might point to the fact that if decreasing the number of laptops in class might harm the growth of todays students in a world run by technology. However, with the students gaining more knowledge than they would otherwise, using laptops will be the lesser preferred method and students will push themselves for higher grades. 

Currently, most college professors allow students to choose their method of taking notes. Todays students generally elect to use a laptop if given a chance as it is seen as the superior way to record information. By allowing students to choose, the professors are giving up their ability to teach the class the way they would like to. As of right now, there is no country-wide policy on laptop use, with it varying from school to school and professor to professor. Since the ability for a country-wide policy is unlikely, there is little to no restriction and motivation to try and temper down the laptop use in class. If anything, some teachers in the high school setting are pushing for more laptop usage by students. The problem is, our "digital assistants" approach laptops as platforms for play and socializing, not a tool for learning which is leading to worse students (Rockmore Par. 9). By professors not letting students use laptops in their classrooms, the professors would allow more for growth and better test scores for their students. Certain professors are taking the approach of diving the classroom in half, with laptop users on one side and non-laptop users on the other. The advantage in this scenario is allowing students with out laptops to not be distracted by their classmates using them, as studies show students in view of their screens can also experience a dip in productivity. However, in many scenarios, this may cause a divide in the classroom where half the students are able to comprehend the information on a conceptual level, and the other half cannot, leading to mixed scores for the professor to divulge through. Another idea brought up by professors is to implement a switch in the room that turns of the wifi, not allowing students to go on non-class related websites and technology. The problem with this scenario, as well as the previous idea, is students are still being allowed to use their laptops as note taking devices in the classroom and the number of studies already mentioned showed this is not the most effective way for students to take in information. 

Studies show students who rely on laptops in class are generally worse off using the technology. Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer of Princeton University and UCLA, respectively, ran a study to test the effects of laptop usage by students as compared to longhand note taking. In one of their studies, Mueller and Oppenheimer found that both students who used laptop and longhand notes scored similar on factual-based questions. When it came to conceptual questions about applying what they learned in the video, longhand note takers scored much high than those on laptops, recording a z-score around 0.2 as compared to -0.1 (Mueller and Oppenheimer 1160-1161). Also, another study cited by Anna Murphy Paul shows that the problems with laptop use starts when children are much younger. The study showed that grade school to high school students only did work for about nine to ten minutes of the fifteen minutes they were studied (Paul Par. 3) . This becomes troubling as the students develop these bad habits at a young age and watch them grow out of hand as they get older. Murphy points this out by referencing another study done on second and third year law students at St. John's University while they were in lecture, and concluded that laptop users spent about fifty-eight percent of their time on non-class related activities (Paul Par. 13). This is especially troubling as laptops have become commonplace at this point in time and the majority of students will choose to use them in class which leads to the majority of students not paying attention for more than half of the class. No matter what professors do on screen, this will continue to be an issue that is becoming overlooked. Overall, the use of laptops causes students to have a shallow understanding and score worse in their classes.

Laptops as primary note taking devices is becoming all too common on college campus's. If the students knew how much they were affecting their grade, they might just opt to switch to longhand note taking. As tiresome as it might be to try to write out all the notes, if lectures are submitted online then students can learn at their own pace in which they feel comfortable. This could do nothing but help those students who are struggling. Overall, by creating a college environment where students become more adept to conceptual thinking and providing insight to possible complications, laptop note taking can become a thing of the past in favor of an otherwise step back in the way way of learning. 

