If an outsider is to sit in any college lecture, they will take away that nearly all of today's college students use laptops. In the technology-driven world that we live in, it should be noted that some classes need the use of computers and software programs, and this should not present a problem since most students are taught the skills of computer usage in elementary skills. However, student's use of laptops has become an issue in their depth of understanding subject matter and ability to pay attention to 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 to understand the concepts presented through my own ideas and style. When I started to use a laptop for notes in college, I felt I tended 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. After the first few lectures of my first semester, I switched back to longhand note taking. 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 regarding understanding material and developing it further. There are many studies to validate my experience, most of which are done on college students. For a number of students, going back from technology-driven schoolwork to longhand may present a challenge, since so many have relied so heavily on technology. 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 student's grade point averages are falling, and laptops can be looked at as part of the problem. 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. Therefore, 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 for 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 starts lowering laptop usage in classrooms, that will only increase the chance that more schools and universities jump on board. Critics might point to the fact that decreasing the number of laptops in class might harm the growth of today's 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. Today's students generally elect to use a laptop if given a chance, as it is seen as the superior way to quickly record information. By allowing students to choose, however, 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 a country-wide policy is unlikely, there is little to no restriction and motivation to try and temper down laptop usage 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 dividing 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 others 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 grade. 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 that this is not the most effective way for students to take in information. 

Studies show that students who rely on laptops in class are generally worse off than those who do not. 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, however, 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). Another study cited by Anna Murphy Paul shows that the problems with laptop use starts when children are much younger. In the experiment, the research team had a member sit it and watch the student do homework as they normally would for twenty minutes. The students were told to do whatever their normal procedure was and just pretend the researcher was not with them. 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 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 campuses. If the students knew how much they were affecting their grade, they might 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 a 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 at 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. 

