Wireless Classrooms: Why Requiring Laptops may not be Worth the Risks and Distractions

Ryan Kerns

With technology advancing more and more everyday, laptops are becoming very predominate in higher education. In fact, many colleges like Georgia Tech are now requiring that all students own a laptop in order to attend their school. Many people believe that laptops are an easy way for students to transfer their data to and from classes and provide an easy, efficient way for teachers to grade assignments. However, what most teachers tend to overlook is how many distractions computers provide while students are in class. With wireless internet connections, students are able to access their e-mail accounts, log onto Facebook, or just sit there and play games online during class. For example, my English class requires that we have our laptops with us throughout the entire class. Unfortunately, as soon as people are done with their assignments, they turn to their e-mails and other things on the web. What is worse is the fact that many of the kids will chat on their Facebook accounts during an actual lecture when the information is important. According to Michael Bugeja in his article called Distractions in the Wireless Classroom, this is a reoccurring theme across the nation. He goes on to explain how one such teacher is banning laptops from her classroom. She claims that the result is, “huge increases in attention and better performance on exams… students have even mentioned that they feel like they are doing better without the laptop." This just helps to prove that laptops may more of a distraction than they are worth.

Unfortunately, distractions are not the only problem with requiring laptops. With crime rates on the rise, laptops have been a prime target for robbers on college campuses. This creates a huge risk for important information being stolen including identity theft. Andrea Foster explains one extreme case of this in her article, Increase in Stolen Laptops Endangers Data Security. She explains that, “a thief walked away with a laptop containing the University of Virginia biochemist's name and Social Security number, as well as those of more than 7,000 other professors, staff members, and students.” She goes on to say that, “[t]he next month, Mr. Grant discovered that criminals had amassed at least $22,000 in debt under his name.” So, with everything that seems to be going against laptops in the classroom, are all of the distractions and information security risk really worth a more efficient way to grade assignments?