There is one sentence on a syllabus that will instantly send a shiver down my spine: “No laptops or smartphones will be allowed in the classroom.” The average college student is constantly plugged in, even if they don’t want to be. The amount of important course material and ease of communication with others using technology means that, for many students, the laptop or the smartphone has become the next Swiss army knife. This generation is fortunate enough to have a device that allows you to quickly type up notes, organize important files and documents, respond to critical emails and communicate with other students and instructors all in one.

Thus, it is very disappointing when I see that sentence in a syllabus, because, oftentimes, it makes me think that the professor does not fully understand the daily life of a student. They believe that stripping the student of a tool that they have come to rely on and properly use to get tasks done will somehow improve the teaching environment. In actuality, what is happening is that these professors are just making life harder for students.

The power of a computer in the classroom is unmatched. With it, we have access to a wide variety of tools to make the lecture experience much easier and accessible. We can use laptops to follow along with course material during the lecture. We can do a quick Google search if something doesn’t make sense to us, or if we become interested by something discussed in class and want to know more. And, of course, the ability to quickly organize and pull up necessary documents and files makes college life a lot more comfortable.

I believe the common misconception of most instructors who enforce no-tech policies in their classrooms is that laptops and smartphones will distract almost all students. Yes, I concede that some students do walk into class and do nothing but browse social media for the whole time, however the majority of those students would probably just “zone out” if you took their tech anyways. If those students want to get distracted now and pay the consequences later during the next exam, fine by me. But those students should not be used as excuses to enforce the middle school-level mentality of punishing the whole for the sins of a few.

Furthermore, it doesn’t make much sense in this modern day and age to remove one of the most important tools a student needs simply because a professor isn’t “comfortable” with tech. The notion that technology should not be allowed because you “didn’t need them back in the day” is ridiculous. No one cares how you did it back in the day.

In fact, I have found during my time here at NC State that my comprehension during class time drastically goes up when I type up my notes. This is because I am a much quicker typist than I am a writer, so when a new PowerPoint slide appears, I can quickly copy the notes from the slide and turn my full attention back to the professor, rather than waste time slowly and neatly writing shorthand nonsense. This is just one example of how technology can be used fluidly in class to make the experience smoother and more accessible for all parties.

Lauren Margulieux with Georgia Tech made an excellent counterargument against an assertion made that laptops can be a major distraction for all those present in the classroom. She brought up an outstanding point: There should be better communication from instructors to the students about the expectations that should be set in the classroom when it comes to tech, so that distractions are limited.

Technology is not something that educational instructors should be afraid of embracing, especially on a campus like NC State’s, which is home to some of the brightest minds in computer programming and engineering. We see the headlines in the news: the slow introduction of tablets and other technology into the classroom is met with resistance by concerned teachers and parents. American society is afraid of using the very tools that we made to help us in our tasks. We should be fully committed to using technology in class.

The Department of Education’s stance on technology is firm: “Technology ushers in fundamental structural changes that can be integral to achieving significant improvements in productivity.”