labtops in classrooms?

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Elena Choy, an economics professor at several community colleges, wrote the essay about if laptops should be in the classroom as seen in The Little, Brown Reader. While Choy gave her reasoning for both being for the laptops in the classroom and banning them out of the classroom, I’d have to say that I agree with her for many reasons but on the flip side, I also disagree with her. The use of laptops by students within a classroom setting is a distraction for several reasons. They are not vital to the learning process or note taking in class. The whole purpose behind classes at college or even in some high schools is for the student to write their own notes based on the teacher's lecture or lesson. This is a difficult skill and so the distractions should be kept to the minimal. When students are given only paper and pen the worse they can do is doodle. However, a laptop does not just have Microsoft Word or Word-pad, it has games and the Internet on it, (which would be very tempting not to surf the web) it would take a restrained teenager not to be lured during a boring lesson (I know I would). Teachers and professors have little control over what their students are doing on their laptops, thus it is a distraction for them too, as stated also by Elena Choy about the upraised laptop lids and how the teacher wouldn’t have any eye contact with them. Without laptops the teacher can tell immediately whether or not their students are paying attention. However if some of the students are working on laptops it is impossible to teach in front of the class and be assured that they are paying proper attention to the lesson or really into that solitaire game. Additionally, if students are encouraged to use laptops then their handwriting skills will seriously suffer. They say practice makes perfect. Thus laptops can be seen as a distraction from the learning and practice of vital

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