The article also says: > I teach philosophy, which is hard. And I trust that my students can read, so if I have a lot to tell them I write it down and get them

The article also says: > I teach philosophy, which is hard. And I trust that my students can read, so if I have a lot to tell them I write it down and get them to read it. That’s not to say that I don’t go over it sometimes in class. But the point of having class is to do learning that won’t (or possibly can’t) be done outside of class. That is, mainly, problem solving: thinking and talking together about the arguments and ideas that I want them to understand, and practicing the skills of analysis and reflection that philosophy is particularly good at developing, and which are essential to doing philosophy. So they don’t really need the laptops for note-taking. As someone who prefers typing to handwriting, went into this article with lots of skepticism. However, if the author doesn't want his students to take any notes during class—digitally or on paper—then clearly no one will need a laptop. The rest of the discussion is moot. It also means the author's experience won't be generalizable to other classes. Unless the author believes that students should never be expected to take notes during class, which IMO would have been a more interesting argument. He makes some nods in that direction: > But the point of having class is to do learning that won’t (or possibly can’t) be done outside of class. That is, mainly, problem solving: thinking and talking together about the arguments and ideas that I want them to understand, and practicing the skills of analysis and reflection.