Laptops in the classroom: Mend it, don't end it

LAPTOPS IN THE CLASSROOM: MEND IT, DON'T END IT
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Justin Reich]
[Commentary] More and more professors are banning laptops from their classrooms. They argue that the computers turn students into stenographers instead of critical thinkers, or, more often, distract them with online shopping or e-mail. These are the same laptops, mind you, that many schools required students to buy in the first place, and they connect wirelessly to a network that universities have spent millions to install. Technology fees and tuition hikes are hard to swallow for students taking notes with a pencil. After a decade of infusing technology into university facilities with gusto, the bandwagon is crashing into the classroom door. Provosts and presidents can rewire facilities and require laptop purchases, but these innovations are for naught if professors use the same old lecture notes. Computers can transform the way students learn only if instructors change the way they teach.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0515/p09s01-coop.html