When my older son heads off to college this fall, he'll be starting a whole new educational experience: using a computer in class. His sister will be doing the same as she starts high school. 
My son's class was the last group at his high school without laptop computers; as one of the three co-valedictorians put it, "We were the last class who couldn't facebook during algebra." That line went over like a lead balloon with my husband, who was already concerned about the distractions a laptop in class can provide.
He has firsthand experience with this, as he finished an MBA program a few years ago and had a university-issued laptop. He knows just how many of his fellow students spent more time instant-messaging their friends rather than taking notes during a professor's lecture. Today's distractions are more likely to be facebook and text messaging rather than AOL Instant Messenger, but the results can be the same.
All concerns about distractions aside, however, laptops in classrooms seem to be here to stay. There are benefits, of course: Microsoft One Note is a powerful note-taking tool (I use it for work) and it's easier to keep track of one laptop than five or six separate notebooks. Many instructors provide their Powerpoint slides and other files to help students remember the course material.
There will be many conversations this summer with both of our older kids about good time management and the need to stay off facebook until after class. After all, there's always something that's going to distract a student. Back in my relatively tech-free high-school and college days, we'd doodle, pass notes, covertly read magazines or novels that were definitely not part of the required reading list for English class, or even do homework for other classes. It's going to take a joint effort by both instructors and students to keep everyone focused on the work at hand.
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