How to deal with students who regularly ignore my ban on using laptops in the classroom?

Question

In my class (for undergraduate students) I do not allow students to use laptops so that you can focus more the lecture. (I do allow taking notes on tablets or using mobile phones.) Most students comply without any complaints. However, I noticed one student keep turning it on even after I have reminded them twice. I am not sure how should I deal with it. Should I talk with the student and see if they have any special reason? Or should I simply ignore it since it's just one student?

Update: The reason that I allow tablet instead of laptop is the research on the negative effects on their use to other students sitting nearby: On or off task: The negative influence of laptops on neighboring students’ learning depends on how they are used

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Update 2: There seems to be quite a lot interest in this question. I didn't realize this is such a controversial topic. I suppose that I have met quite a few colleagues and my own teachers who do not allow laptops in classrooms, so I did not see it as out of ordinary. A little bit Googling shows that I am far from alone in doing this:

• A Truce in the Laptop Wars
• The Case for Banning Laptops in the Classroom

Also I teach math instead of something like programming. There is really no need for students to use laptop in the room. If they want to take notes, paper notebook and tablet with stylus pen would be much faster than typing on a laptop. And from my experience when students on laptop are called upon to answer questions, most of the time their answer is "Sorry, what is your question?"

As for the distinction of tablet and computer is that students usually use them as a notebook and write on them using electronic pens. And yes, most of our students, if not everyone, have a tablet computer. Mobile phones are not really possible to ban anyway. They are too small.

End of story: I made a compromise with the student and suggested them to sit in the 3rd row in the room. Out of consideration for fairness, I also told other students they can do the same thing.

Answer 1

There is no meaningful difference between a laptop and tablet as far as distraction. Students today take notes on these devices more often than paper. You shouldn't expect them to purchase the exact combinations of devices you find acceptable; if a student has only a laptop they should be able to use one for notes. A phone is far less convenient for note taking. I'm old now compared to an undergrad but I would definitely prefer a laptop I can type on to a tablet that has no keyboard or a finicky one.

I would do nothing and I'd reconsider the policy so that it's fair to everyone and students who are obeying the current rule aren't disadvantaged.

Remember also that these students are adults and it's in large part up to them to find what is and isn't distracting for them. You should only consider intervening in a case where it's hurting other students.

Answer 2

To be honest, I think you've got it backwards. I also think you're potentially discriminating against students with accessibility needs or those without much money.

A phone is a major source of distraction. Note-taking on a laptop allows far more concentration of the subject matter than having chat notifications pop up while you're trying to type on a tiny screen, let alone if your note-taking ever requires a sketch.

I'm older than an undergrad, but I, my postgrads and my (school-age) daughter all seem to agree that a phone is only really useful for taking notes if you have nothing else, i.e. paper beats phones.

Tablets are nice if you can afford them, but to take legible notes on one at any speed requires a keyboard, and at that point you've got something functionally equivalent to a laptop. Laptops are often required equipment, and poor students can often get support to rent/buy one. I've never seen such support for tablets.

The reason I really think this needs to stop though is that assistive technology is far better on laptops than phones, for many conditions. As an example, consider simply large text for the partially sighted. On a phone you may not even be able to see an entire sentence at once, with sufficient text size to read it, and if you have more complicated notes than just text (such as equations) they often don't get scaled - if they can even be done properly on a phone. LaTeX (for which options on Android and iOS are limited and a problem in the context of assistive tech) can be used by people who are completely blind, and now that Word uses LaTeX equation syntax, laptop users can have both large-print equations and a format that can be read by screen readers. Similarly students using text-to-speech because they struggle to hear you have more options on a more powerful device with a bigger screen.

Answer 3

Why do you decide which device (laptop, tablet or smartphone) students should use? The goal of lectures is transfer of knowledge and student's notes is important part of this process as long as it doesn't bother others. Why do you create an artificial obstacle in this process? Many scholars prefer laptops to other devices and work more productively.

Answer 4

Enforce your rules, however arbitrarily they may be chosen (*)

The best recipe for chaos is setting up rules and then not enforcing them. IF you want your students to follow your rules (any of your rules), at the minimum you have to call them out on breaking them. Repeat and escalate, mild but firm:

1. mention generally ("I would like all laptops to be put away now")
2. warn generally ("I see there are people using laptops against my instructions - please put those away")
3. notify specific person ("You there at the second rank, please put that laptop away")
4. warn specific ("I am sorry, but if you do not put away your laptop, I will have to ask you to leave")
5. "Allright, you had your warning, now please leave the room"
6. Call security and have them escort the person away.
7. Call their mom. (no, just kidding - but you can take a minute to reinforce your rules to the group)

(*) As others have mentioned, the gap between premise and conclusion in your argument is probably larger than what you like. I wouldn't make such a distinction between tablet or laptop, nor would I conclude it is disturbing other students without further (direct) evidence or complaint. But, rules are rules and it is your room for as long as the lecture lasts.

Answer 5

At the risk of being labeled as draconian by other Academia SE users, I admit that I "ban" laptops (but not phones and tablets) in most of my courses. That said, such a rule must be supported with good reasoning.

Some context:

1. I teach undergraduate mathematics at a small liberal arts college in the US.
2. I encourage any students who feel that they could benefit by using a laptop during class to speak to me about accommodations.
3. I provide printed or PDF "outline notes" for students to fill in by with a pen/pencil or on a tablet during class.

The outline notes make laptops unnecessary for note-taking purposes, except for the previously mentioned accommodation cases. (Although I'm sure there are occasionally students who don't ask for accommodations that should, sadly.)

While I agree that students are adults and should be able to decide if they wish to be distracted or not, I am not ok with students distracting those sitting around them by watching soccer matches, playing games, or streaming Netflix. (All of these things have happened in my classes.) If they want to do that during class, they're welcome to do that on their phone.

So, how do I enforce this? I explain the "no laptops" rule and the reason for it on the first day of class, and I find students are generally pretty agreeable about the rule. Each class day comes with a simple "classwork" assignment that students complete in assigned groups for a participation/attendance grade. Students who ignore the "ban" receive a tiny penalty on this classwork grade and an email reminder that laptops should be put away during class.

I have gotten very little pushback with this system, and many, many students have told me how helpful it is for their learning to have the notes outline to fill out, whether on paper or PDF.

That said, without outline notes AND a willingness to provide exceptions, I think it is unreasonable to ban laptops--there are simply too many students for whom it is the most effective form of unstructured note-taking.

Answer 6

I'm unconvinced by your premises:

1. Your linked paper (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360131520301007) does not seem to support your conclusion.

It is examining the effect of screens on nearby students, not the effect of typing on nearby students.

Specifically, its finding is that internet browsing (which is not a keyboard activity!) to look at off-topic stuff on the screen is deleterious to those nearby.

Other sources claim about 40% of lecture time is spent on off-topic multitasking per student, which as your linked paper shows will also affect others. But there's an implicit assumption in these studies that it's "laptop vs no screens present" rather than "laptop vs phone and tablet".

2. Your claim "If they want to take notes, paper notebook and tablet with stylus pen would be much faster than typing on a laptop." does not seem backed by evidence, and seems contrary to reality.

Average WPM (words per minute) is 40, for normal computer users. 60 for touch-typists. 80 for advanced touch typists.

By comparison, the average handwriting speed is 8 WPM, with variance up to perhaps 20WPM for very skilled writers. Call it a quarter of the speed.

3. You write "I do not allow students to use laptops so that you can focus more the lecture. (I do allow taking notes on tablets or using mobile phones.)" yet with touchtyping you can watch the lecture and keep notes, whereas with stylus or pen, you're forced to look at what you're writing and ignore the lecturer.

However, your experience of laptop users being more distracted counts for a lot.

And in support of your position, I'd add that there is also debate on whether handwriting, by being such a terrible way to take notes, actually forces people to memorize things better, eg https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24760141/ claiming that "We show that whereas taking more notes can be beneficial, laptop note takers' tendency to transcribe lectures verbatim rather than processing information and reframing it in their own words is detrimental to learning". That's definitely open to argument, though. Does length of time of recall matter? Do verbatim notes improve recall at exams because you can study them? And so on. Feels more like something to warn students about, than pass a rule on, though, as not everyone learns the same way, and in general they should find what works best for them.

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Overall, though, and to finally answer your question: if you have a rule, I'd argue you should never ignore because it's just one student, or you will not only foster resentment among the non-rulebreakers, but also imply to others that rulebreaking is OK. So you pretty much have to engage, either to lay down the law, revise the rule, or discuss with the student involved.

So, while I might be somewhat skeptical of your premises, I feel you did the exact right thing.

Answer 7

It's been 15 years since I was an undergrad, but I went completely paperless halfway through my degree, and learned quickly how to take advanced mathematics notes on my laptop. I seriously doubt I would've been able to take accurate Linear Algebra notes on a tablet or phone, since using the keyboard (and keyboard shortcuts) was absolutely fundamental to being able to type out stuff like this on the fly. Due to the large amount of social media apps these day, without having read any recent papers on the topic, I would hypothesize that a tablet or phone would be more distracting to the individual than a laptop. At the time (this was circa 2008), the majority of my classmates were taking notes on paper, so I did once have my professor call me back after class demanding proof that I was actually taking notes and not gaming or otherwise distracted. I showed him my Word document containing that day's notes and he never again questioned my laptop. Looking back, I hope that it had opened his eyes to expect this possible of other students he would encounter after I was gone.

Answer 8

Your students are adults and should be treated such as.

You bring here some evidence about a research done on a single experiment about the effects of laptop on attention in a classroom.

Students are attending your class because they willingly decided to attend university (or because of social pressure to attend university). They have enough intellectual capability to read the paper and understand it, so share the paper with them (great lesson for them, research can have a direct impact on their life, a part from dubious economics paper) and set a rule that students using a laptop should preferrably sit in the last row or in the last seat of a row, to minimize the possible impact on others.

Regarding your experience,

from my experience when students on laptop are called upon to answer questions, most of the time their answer is "Sorry, what is your question?"

I suggest to call upon any student, not only the ones on laptop, and please share the statistics.

Answer 9

Introduction

Existing answers that discuss this rule mostly discuss about the effect of using a laptop or not on students. Therefore, I want to start by stating that, if the use of laptops affects the lecturer negatively, then it is arguably reasonable to enforce such a rule. Then, I will give an example of that situation in real world and describe how the rule had been enforced in that example to answer the poster's question.

As some other answers have pointed out, university students should be treated as adults. Therefore, even if not using laptops is truly beneficial to students, or in general, if there is some way to learn better, I believe a professor still should not force a student to use that way, because a student has freedom to choose how to learn. On the other hand, if using laptops can be proven to affect the professor's performance, which in turn affects all students who listen to his lecture, then that could be a good reason to ban laptops.

Example

I am not a professor, but I have experienced lectures of a professor who enforced a no-laptop rule there, and who arguably had good reasons. That is the example that I will give in my answer.

Last summer I was self-learning 6.034 Artificial Intelligence by Prof. Winston (R.I.P. Prof.) at MIT OpenCourseware. He published the recordings of his lectures, and in the first lecture where he did an introduction to the course, he emphasized that one of the class rules was no-laptop.

"..., and conclude with some of the covenants by which we run the course. One of which is no laptops, please. I'll explain why we have these covenants at the end."

Unfortunately, he probably had forgotten to explain why no laptop was allowed at the end of that lecture. Nevertheless, his gave his explanation elsewhere. But instead of directly going there, I want to sequentially narrate the events.

When I heard this rule, I was quite skeptical of the benefit of it. Partly because I didn't know the professor before, partly because I had been taking notes in a paperless way --- in classes I used to take notes by my keyboard attached tablet, on which I can both type in LaTeX and draw. Yet only after completing a few more of his lectures, I noticed they were really enjoyable, which meant they took great efforts to prepare and the prof. cared about his lectures and his students. So I was quite eager to know his reasons behind that laptop rule.

Throughout the whole course of 23 lectures, there were three times when he took action for some student(s) violating this rule.

Lecture 8, before starting, he was showing a program that was performing a task in a computationally impossibly way: "We're going to wait till either all the laptops are closed, or this program terminates, whichever comes first." He sounded quite firm from the recording, but he didn't actually pause the lecture for that. Because it is a recording, I don't know if the students obeyed or not.

Lecture 11, When he noticed an open laptop, probably. "Can you put that laptop away, please?" No further action. Also unclear if the student obeyed.

Lecture 14, "Could you close the laptop, please?" Same as in Lecture 11.

To conclude, he probably only took action when he noticed open laptops and only took action verbally. He fully explained this no-laptop rule instead at the start of his How to Speak talk.

"Now, in order to do that, we have to have a rule of engagement, and that is no laptops, no cell phones. So if you could close those, I'll start up as soon as you're done. Some people ask why that is a rule of engagement, and the answer is, we humans only have one language processor. And if your language processor is enga-- could you shut the laptop, please? If your language processor is engaged browsing the web or reading your email, you're distracted. And worse yet, you distract all of the people around you. Studies have shown that. And worse yet, if I see a open laptop somewhere back there or up here, it drives me nuts, and I do a worse job. And so that ensures that all of your friends who are paying attention don't get the performance that they came to have. So that's it for preamble. Let's get started."

He explained why the language processor he mentioned was important near the end in Lecture 19, by mentioning a series of experiments conducted in Harvard University (link to paper), which he remarked as "in my way of thinking, is the most important series of experiments ever done in cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, actually", and which basically demonstrated the language processor played a vital role in the difference between the intelligence (mostly spatial capabilities in that research) of a human adult and that of a child below 5 or a rat.

Conclusion

Putting all these together, Prof. Winston believed using a laptop in lectures could

1. negatively affect the student, especially by jamming the student's "language processor"
2. more importantly, distract surrounding students
3. most importantly in his opinion, affect him as the professor, which implies all students would be affected.

And he had enforced such rules only verbally by

1. Before the start of some lectures, warning that he would not start until laptops were gone, although he didn't actually seem to stop for that
2. During some lectures, asking the student who he spotted to have opened a laptop to put that away.

, which may not have good effect on some students who regularly ignores your ban, but at least respects the students' freedom as adults. On the other hand, I believe you could use Prof. Winston's reasons to persuade these students.

As I have only been a student, I don't personally know if a professor's performance will really be affected by seeing a laptop. But I hope Prof. Winston's reasons and how he enforced the rule could help you.

Answer 10

While it may be better to have compliance by your students than to forcibly hold them to certain events. These are adults we are referring to here.

Perhaps the single student prefers take notes more efficiently with a physical keyboard.

Subjecting them to personal opinion or research based on what is more helpful is circumstantial, and may be harmful rather than helpful in this situation.

However, I'm glad you made the decision to allow students to utilize their hardware. In this case the more the merrier, when it comes to taking notes with the diversity is a good thing.