It’s hard to believe how much the personal computer has changed, even in the last five years. When I started college a number of years ago, although most of us had laptops, most people still took a pen and paper to class to take notes. By the time I graduated three years later, almost everyone in any given class would show up with a laptop to use for taking notes. Many programs and graduate degrees even require the entire student base to buy and use the same laptop, outfitted with the same software so that there is less confusion, fewer compatibility issues, and improved communication.
This rise of technology certainly isn’t without its issues however. Although taking notes on a computer is certainly faster than doing so by hand, computers also provide a whole new realm of distractions in the classroom. Instead of doodling on the sides of their papers, students have the option to play solitaire, IM friends, browse their social networking sites, read the news, or as I witnessed in one class, day trade. In a lot of cases, I think these distractions actually outweigh the benefits of having a computer in class in the first place, especially when they start compromising education.