161: Should You Use a Laptop in Law School Classes?

Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast! Today, we're talking about using laptops and other technology in law school – when to use them and when to leave them at home – because this is not as straightforward as it might seem.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Some of the “Pros” associated with note-taking on a laptop and why these don’t actually lead to increased retention or learning
• Why using laptops can be so distracting – and how that affects more than just the student taking notes on her laptop
• Whether or not it’s fair for professors to ban laptops in the classroom
• Are there any students for whom laptop use may do more good than harm?
• How to back up your hand-written notes
• Some recommendations for handwriting your class notes

RESOURCES:

• Is Handwriting Notes a Good Thing or a Bad Thing? (https://lawschooltoolbox.com/is-handwriting-notes-a-good-thing-or-a-bad-thing/)
• The Pen is Mightier Than the Keyboard: The Advantages of Longhand over Laptop Notetaking by Pam A. Mueller and Daniel M. Oppenheimer (http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797614524581)
• Scientific American: A Learning Secret: Don’t Take Notes with a Laptop (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-learning-secret-don-t-take-notes-with-a-laptop/)
• The New York Times: Laptops are Great. But Not During a Lecture or Meeting. (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/22/business/laptops-not-during-lecture-or-meeting.html?_r=0)
• Deep Work by Cal Newport (http://calnewport.com/books/deep-work/)
• Tips for Using the Cornell Note-taking Method (https://lawschooltoolbox.com/tips-for-using-the-cornell-note-taking-method/)
• All the Supplies You Need to Start Law School Right (https://lawschooltoolbox.com/supplies-need-start-law-school-right/)
• Laptop Multitasking Hinders Classroom Learning for Both Users and Nearby Peers by Faria Sana, Tina Weston, and Nicholas J. Cepeda (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131512002254?via%3Dihub)

Episode Transcript: Download the Transcript (https://lawschooltoolbox.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/LST-Ep-161-Should-You-Use-Laptop-in-Law-School.pdf)

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Thanks for listening!

Alison & Lee