Saturday, April 15, 2006

Law Students Addicted to Laptops

Memphis, Tennessee - 865 miles outside the Beltway

(AP) - A University of Memphis law professor has banned laptop computers from her classroom and her students are passing a petition against it.

Professor June Entman says her main concern is that students are so busy keyboarding they can't think and analyze what she's telling them.

Students have begun collecting signatures on petitions and tried unsuccessfully to file a complaint with the American Bar Association.

Student Cory Winsett says if he must continue without his laptop, he'll transfer to another school. Winsett says he won't be able to keep up if he has to rely on hand-written notes, which he says are incomplete and less organized.

While laptops can be helpful, they rarely are necessary. They definitely encourage excessive note-taking which is both counterproductive and a distraction to other students.

The whining Memphis students would be well served to stop complaining and try some old-fashioned learning. Otherwise they might not make it through law school, let alone the Dreaded Bar Exam.

For more information, read five letters to the editor berating the whining Memphis students.

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