Surfing the Web may soon disappear entirely from Georgetown classrooms, as a growing number of professors enact policies either banning or discouraging laptop use during lectures and discussion sections.

For David Goldfrank, a professor in the department of history, the turning point came at the beginning of a World History II discussion section in 2007.

“I started with a directed question, and the student replied, `Wait a minute, please. I need to turn on my computer where I have my notes,'” Goldfrank said. “[ . As a professor,] I don’t want to know what is in your computer; I want to know what is in your head.”

From then on, Goldfrank said, he has banned laptops from all of his classes.

With these sorts of policies, Georgetown follows an increasingly popular trend that has been documented at colleges nationwide, including Yale University and The George Washington University.

Georgetown Law Professor David Cole conducted a test in one of his courses that resulted in 80 percent of students stating that they are more engaged without their computers in class, 70 percent of students liking his no-laptop policy, and 95 percent of students confessing that they had used their laptop for purposes not relating to the course material, he said in a recent Op-Ed in The Washington Post.

Cole claims that students who use their computers to take notes become stenographers rather than actually processing the information, and those who are surfing the Internet are simply not engaged.

The worry that students are spending their time on non-class-related activities, such as e-mail, instant messaging and Web sites like Facebook is not unfounded.

“I don’t have much self-control,” Cristina Cardenal (COL ’11) said. “When there’s a lull in conversation and I have my laptop . I want to go on the Internet.”

Senior Associate Dean Hubert Cloke enforces a no-laptop rule in his American Civilization class, but is quick to note that laptops themselves are not the cause of distraction.

“Even with only a notebook and pen, if you don’t want to pay attention, you don’t have to – you can draw or do work for another class or sleep,” Cloke said.

Georgetown students also have practical reasons to disagree with the blanket bans on technology.

“There are certain classes, in certain subjects, in which laptop use is simply necessary – classes that require constant note-taking at rapid speed,” Renata Moniaga (SFS ’11) said. “It’s clear that we’re not using our laptops to avoid paying attention. It’s O.K. for professors to restrict laptops, but they should change their teaching style to reflect that new classroom structure.”

The type of classroom setting can also affect how useful a laptop could be for some students.

“It’s important to draw a distinction between using computers in a discussion section and using computers in a lecture hall,” said Pierre Thompson (SFS ’11), whose teaching assistant for Comparative Political Systems last semester discouraged laptop use in discussions. “Computers can be useful in a discussion section, where people are expected to contribute and cite specific facts. With a laptop ban, there’s a missed opportunity to use technology to enhance student learning.”

But even these beneficial uses, Goldfrank said, are not reason enough to reverse his policy.

“The few advantages, such as a student’s targeted looking up a disputed or unfamiliar fact during a lecture, could not come close to balancing the negatives,” Goldfrank said.

Students concede this point, but for Moniaga, the issue is one of freedom of choice.

“If students aren’t paying attention, they’re only hurting themselves. When professors ban computers, they’re not treating us like adults. They should leave the decision to the students.”

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