Computers in the law school classroom.

A while back I wrote about the perceived problem of students' using computers in class, especially when there's internet access. Today, there was a "Coffee and Doughnuts" session at the Law School to bat the topic around. I have a 9:30 class, so I skipped the session, but I did drop by the Faculty Library for a moment to get some coffee and had a chance to listen to a couple minutes of one student's statement. The student seemed to be saying something I expected a lot of students would say: it's the faculty's job to make the classes so fascinating that the students are not tempted to do things like check websites and email. If I had attended the session, I would have said something you would expect a faculty member to say: it's the student's responsibility to pay attention and not to distract other students. I assume this faculty viewpoint was expressed at the session, and I also assume that there were some pro-regulation types who advocated a new written policy outlining exactly what students can and can't do with their computers and some hardcore turn-off-the-damned-internet types.

But I wasn't there. If I had been there, I would have simulblogged, that is, if the damned internet was turned on in the Faculty Library.

If you were there, feel free to email me and give me some info about what was said (or send me a link if you blogged about it).

Miscellaneous fact: the doughnuts had green icing for St. Patrick's Day.

UPDATE: Sorry for the double posting before. Blogger has been horrible these last couple of days. Your post doesn't seem to go through, so you try again, and then both go through. Grrrrr.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here's one description of the session.