From Facebook To Folsom Prison Blues: How Banning Laptops In The Classroom Made Me A Better Law School Teacher

This article reports on the recent scientific research, as well as summarizing the data collected by the author, on the use of laptops in the classroom. In addition, the author discusses how implementing a no-laptop policy was the genesis of a more contemplative approach to teaching. The article describes the author's adoption of a variety of teaching techniques, based on learning theory and findings about good teaching, in order to meet the legitimate student needs for a laptop, while creating a laptop-free classroom environment. Because of the continued controversy over laptops in the classroom, and the broader discourse concerning the deficiencies in legal education found in the Carnegie Foundation's report, Educating Lawyers: Preparations for the Profession of Law (2007) and the results of the Law School Survey of Student Engagement, this article shifts the debate about laptops in the classroom to a discussion that addresses the changes in law school teaching, which are necessary in educating more competent and skilled attorneys.