The Philosophers' Cocoon

3 responses to “Banning laptops in the (UK) classroom?”

1. Corvus splendens

   August 13, 2026

   We’ve tried this before but a sufficient number of students now have some form of device use as part of their disability support plan that it just fell apart for me; I’m not in the business of trying to distinguish between legitimate and “illegitimate” device use while also trying to teach, and in a large class it’s hard for me to remember who has what accommodations without the paperwork to hand.

   I have tried to instil in seminar students, where discussion is meant to be the priority, that a room that is silent except for the tapping of keys is a failure state for what we’re trying to achieve in that timetable slot. But this is symptomatic of a wider problem, I take it, than “mere” device use; they’re increasingly unwilling to say what they think and then sustain a discussion about it, so I’ve been focusing on that more broadly rather than trying to get them to put devices away.

   We did at one point have a “no phones or laptops while the speaker is up” rule in our graduate seminar but enough grads, even, were relying on laptops for note-taking that this quietly transitioned to a “okay, but don’t obviously be doing your emails or writing a paper” rule.

   TLDR; have tried at times, have had no success, wonder whether laptop use is a symptom of something else rather than an evil in itself.

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2. Anonymous

   August 13, 2026

   Echoing above, I’d only make recommendations, not bans. Trying to ban anything would lead you straight to complaints about discrimination — some probably legit — and you don’t want to fight the administrative overlords.

   Just tell them that a) note-taking by hand is supported by evidence to be awesome; b) note-taking by laptop is okay-ish as long as it is neither typing everything down nor making minor annotations on slides. The basic idea is that understanding with one’s own mind is key, and writing things down in one’s own words is the way to get the brain/mind working.

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3. Anonymous

   August 18, 2026

   I had the same concern re. students with disability support plans. My solution was to ask all of those who wanted to use devices to sit in the back half of the room, so the other students aren’t distracted by people scrolling Tik Tok, etc. (Those who need to use laptops, but don’t want to be distracted, could sit in the front row of the rear half).

   Overall, it worked well. The only faff was students coming in late, as I had to remind them a fair bit where they needed to sit.

   For what it is worth, I think a lot of students get annoyed with other students who spend most of the class doing other stuff on their laptop. I can see it in their faces and some have expressed their irritation to me. It really is distracting for them and it erodes the sense of a space in which we’re learning together (that’s not meant to be too idealistic, just that it’s hard to generate good discussions with students if lots of them are lost in their devices).

   Whenever I observe another colleague teach, I’m pretty amazed at how many students are merrily checking Facebook or playing computer games the entire time (sitting at the back means you can see everyone). At least a good number still like to make handwritten notes and they definitely engage more.

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