It's not just about distractions. Laptops also encourage a note taking style where you simply are transcribing every word that the lecturer says. This is a less

It's not just about distractions. Laptops also encourage a note taking style where you simply are transcribing every word that the lecturer says. This is a less effective way to learn material, as you can go on "auto pilot" where the words flow from your ears to your fingers without you really having to synthesize any information or really understand it. Studies[1] have shown that this happens even when students are warned against doing this. Hand-writing notes, on the other hand, encourages you to process the information you are hearing and summarize it into your own words, improving understanding and memory of the information. Anecdotally, my entire school (the business school at UT Austin) banned laptops in all classrooms, and I think it was hugely beneficial to my understanding of the materials. In other, non-business classes that allowed laptops, I tended to have to spend a lot longer re-reading my notes and textbooks before I felt like I really understood the information. 1: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/taking-notes-by-hand-could-improve-memory-wt/ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/taking-notes-by-hand-...