Legal Commentary

Hi, folks, and thanks to Dan for inviting me to join the December chorus!

I'll start out with a question that was raised in a meeting today:  How many law schools require incoming students to own a laptop? We (the South Carolina "We") adopted a mandatory laptop purchase policy a few years ago and are now reaping the full benefits and detriments that accompany laptop use in the classroom.  On the positive end, students are able to type their notes during class and more easily transform those notes into outlines.  They can research cases and explore other course-related materials under the direction of their instructors.  They can use their laptops to type their final exams.  On the negative end, students are also playing video games, eBaying, and viewing internet porn.  They instant message and email one another.  Even worse, in my opinion, they are less engaged in class and more engaged in transcribing my every expressed thought, word for word.   

This semester, I and my fellow first-year section colleagues prohibited our students from using their laptops in our classes.  The results were intriguing (see my rhapsodizing here).

But, understandably, our students fear that the anti-laptop contagion will spread and question the ability of faculty to ban laptops from their classrooms in light of the laptop purchase mandate.  We have since established that there are excellent, non-classroom reasons for our mandatory laptop policy, but are curious to know whether other schools require their students to have laptops.

Thanks in advance for any and all thoughts on this matter.