This article is featured in the 2025 Homecoming Special Issue.
If you don’t already know, professors, we’re here to tell you: Students aren’t taking notes on their laptops. We’re sitting right behind them. They’re playing Wordle, texting in their friend-group chat or online shopping. They’re doing work for a different class, filling out a job application or planning a trip to Paris with their boyfriend. We at Dartmouth, in device-ridden classrooms, are thoroughly checked out. The Dartmouth Editorial Board urges professors and students to consider banning laptops in their classrooms. An easy, evidence-backed solution, this would be beneficial for all of our learning and mental health.
Banning laptops and phones from classrooms is gaining popularity across the country. The New York City public school system is rolling out phone-free schools this fall, and reports say it is going better than expected. Dozens of U.S. states, as well as foreign governments from South Korea to Finland, have introduced bans on smartphones in classrooms in recent months. Even some professors at Dartmouth have experimented with device-free classrooms in recent years. In our experience, the outcomes have been universally positive.
An abundance of empirical evidence backs us up. The first large-scale randomized control study on the impact of phone-free classrooms on learning — conducted by a University of Pennsylvania professor last year — found that phone-free classrooms led to an improvement in grades. Across 10 higher education institutions in India with 16,955 students, the study also found that phone bans quickly became popular with students. This may be because banning laptops and phones from classes harnesses the power of collective action. The pull of these devices, which are designed to be maximally distracting, is hard to resist individually.
Decades of research on pedagogy provide more context. When we read words on a page or take notes on paper, we’re engaging our brains in a fundamentally different way than we do on devices. A review of 33 high-quality studies comparing students’ reading comprehension between a screen and paper found that all ages, including college students, remember more when reading on paper.
Reading levels are broadly dropping across the country. Professors are assigning fewer books. Students are reading fewer books for pleasure. Over the last two decades, the number of Americans reading for pleasure has declined by 40%. Average reading scores for high school seniors fell last month to their worst level since 1992.
Another study showed that those who multitasked on a laptop did worse on exams. So did those in direct view of the multitasker. Even one distracted student on a laptop in a lecture hall distracts others and degrades the learning environment.
Yes, there are disciplined students who use their laptops solely to take notes on their computers. But even when used solely to take notes, laptops leave students worse off than pencil and paper. Students in several studies performed worse on conceptual questions when using their laptops for notes. Students did better on conceptual questions when they took fewer verbatim notes, as opposed to reframing in their own words – countering the claim that laptops benefit students by allowing them to copy more information down.
It’s not really a debate about choice: By choosing to open up your computer in class, you are fighting against a million distractions which are designed to draw your attention as powerfully as possible. And it’s not a fair fight: tech companies are worth billions of dollars, and they aggressively push to get their products in every classroom. This also isn’t about being punitive. It’s about reclaiming classrooms as places for learning, free from distractions.
For all the talk of dialogue, it’s impossible to have dialogue where half of the students have their face buried in a screen.
We are not arguing for a one-size-fits-all approach — there will be exceptions for specific students or specific classes where laptops are needed — but carving out spaces where we can spend an hour or two free of devices would go a long way.
Let’s take steps towards getting addictive devices out of classrooms and fostering real face-to-face dialogue. While the College subsidizes and promotes ed-tech, including generative artificial intelligence, the resources to make classrooms device-free are limited. We have heard from professors who spend money out of their pocket to support student textbook purchases — not a single Dartmouth administrative office contributed. Further, the library has been declining to buy multiple copies of assigned books, issuing digital licenses instead.
The College should look into models such as Amherst’s College Textbook Program, a program in which, for a small fee, the university pays for students’ textbooks at 20-60% savings. Since Amherst buys course materials in bulk at cheaper prices, the program is a win-win.
Technology is a tool, and sometimes it can be an aid. Addictive algorithms mine our attention and data. The important thing is to ensure we are the ones using the technology — consciously and deliberately — instead of being used by the technology. An hour or two of device free classroom time would show that it is possible and productive to choose to step away from these devices and engage in face-to-face dialogue.
The Editorial Board consists of opinion staff columnists, the opinion editors, the executive editors and the editor-in-chief.
