What’s New in the Classroom: Common Law in Crim, But Nothing on Laptops

This is the first in a new series of posts this month on new things we did in our teaching last semester or expect to do next semester.

One thing I did not do this past semester, but seriously thought about, was restricting laptop use in some way. I have a hard time pulling the trigger on this, in part because all of my strongest instincts are antipaternalist. But I can’t help feeling laptops are doing something pernicious in the law school classroom. Lisa Hatlen had a good post on the topic earlier this fall, which also generated several thoughtful comments. My basic concern is that the laptop has turned many law students into stenographers, with the quality of their learning and of classroom discussion suffering as a result. I find it a bit dismaying when students send me e-mails at the end of the semester quoting something verbatim that I said in class at the start of the semester and asking what I meant by it — this suggests that too much mental energy is going into transcription and not enough into comprehension and critical engagement with the material.

As a potential experiment, I have thought about sharing with students a detailed outline of the material I cover in class (so students don’t feel they need to transcribe) and banning laptops. On the other hand, I respect the fact that most upper-level students are used to having laptops, and that it would no doubt be perceived as unfair to ask them to abandon their well-established classroom practices so that I could conduct my little pedagogical experiment. For that reason, I would not try this except in a first-year class. I would also be reluctant to do it except as part of a cooperative venture with other first-year professors.

So, my only innovation this past semester was rather modest: I decided that I would test my first-year Criminal Law students on certain common-law rules.

I have always emphasized the Model Penal Code in Criminal Law, in part because I like to use the course as an introduction to statutory interpretation — an important skill that students may get little exposure to in their other first-semester doctrinal courses (Torts and Contracts) — and in part because the MPC, with its greater terminological precision, promotes clearer thinking and speaking by students than the common law. But, despite my desire to emphasize the MPC, I inevitably assign many cases decided under the common-law rules. Not only do some of these cases present some of my favorite fact patterns, but they also serve to demonstrate the significance of many of the important decisions made by the MPC drafters. So, for instance, State v. Kihnel, 488 So.2d 1238 (La. App. 1986), gives us not only a laughably inept criminal defendant, but also a clear illustration of why the MPC did the right thing in eliminating the plurality requirement for conspiracy liability.

I have thus always taught common law in Crim, but I have never held students responsible for knowing it at exam time. Still, I have long had the nagging sense that it is a bit unfair (and perhaps ineffective, as well) to ask students to invest the effort required to understand the common-law rules without offering a grade-related payback at the end of the semester. At the same time, I don’t want to distract too much attention during the final-exam study period from what I most want students to be doing, i.e., immersing themselves in the MPC’s statutory scheme. My solution this past semester has been to give students a list of about a dozen common-law doctrines that I consider fair game for the exam. My hope is that students will see mastery of these doctrines as worth their time, while still perceiving the MPC as the body of “law” that should receive their greatest attention.

This Post Has 5 Comments

  1. Nathan Petrashek

    I am, unfortunately, one of the students you talk about who blindly transcribed word-for-word what was said in class. I’ve been conscious of the impact that the practice had on my learning and I generally agree that both intellectual development and class discussions suffer as a result. I’ve made an effort over the past two semesters to cut back on the amount of information I’m taking down to exclude all but the most pertinent points or the points that seem counter intuitive or that I anticipate struggling with. I’ve found that practice to be extremely helpful as I’m paying more attention in class and understanding the material better. There is at least anecdotal evidence in my personal experience that perhaps your experiment is unnecessary as we might come to see the error of our ways ourselves.

    The more frequent objection to laptops I’ve heard is that their improper use is distracting. I suppose a ban would mitigate that problem. Of course, then we wouldn’t get to watch Solomon Torres give up the walk-off run to the Cubs in the bottom of the 9th on MLB Gameday. And who wants to miss that?

  2. Scott Scarbrough

    I graduate this semester and have taken all my notes the old-fashioned way, handwritten in spiral notebooks.

    The problem is not laptop versus handwritten notes, but the simple fact that students are tested on their ability to transcribe and memorize their notes/outlines, regardless of the technology used in the transcription process. (I can attest to this after 5.5 years in the part-time program, as I have hand-scribed the professors’ words as verbatim as I can, averaging about 5 pages of notes per class, which works out to 3,750 handwritten pages pursuing a law degree).

    This transcription requirement disables the sutdents from critical thinking about material being discussed in class. As an example, when I have missed a class and had the professors lecture recorded, I found that I learned more from the recording than I would have learned had I actually been in the class that day. In listening to the recording, I could stop, rewind, and make sure I captured not only the words, but the concept. Whereas in class, I was simply furiously scribbling my notes and did not have time to absorb the infromation. In studying for final exams, I found that I could skip over those notes from a recorded class as I remembered not just the words I wrote, but the concept itself. I simply understood the material much better. It was much easier to answer questions on final exams covering those days I had missed.

    Providing the students with outlines prior to class would enable them to write less, learn more, and be more focused during class discussions.

  3. Michael M. O'Hear

    Thanks for those helpful observations, Nathan and Scott. And, Scott, you are certainly right that the way students are evaluated must play an important role in determining how they focus their attention in the classroom.

  4. Jessica Franklin

    I, too, am absolutely guilty of classroom stenography. And I understand Prof. O’Hear’s concerns about students missing general concepts because they are lost in trying to catch sentences instead of ideas. Also, I have found myself (usually vicariously, over someone’s shoulder, I promise!) checking headlines or celebrity gossip online during class. This, most likely, didn’t further my learning.

    However, I believe strongly that my ability to take things down in their entirety has helped me immensely in law school. I want to pick up on something that Scott said – he noted that when he got recorded lectures, he could stop, rewind, and reconsider the ideas that didn’t sink in the first time. For me, my word-for-word notes are simply a written version of that ability. If I didn’t understand something in class, I had the entire discussion to review and rethink.

    As a 1L, I understood nearly nothing that was said in class, and the ability to go back and pour over a discussion was invaluable. Now that I have more background in the law school classroom, I still value my stenography skills. When I’m grasping a concept from the discussion, I take down the gist of what is being said. If I’m clueless, I take down everything so that I can piece together the underlying concepts later at my own pace.

    Everyone certainly has their own view here, but I am decidedly pro on the classroom laptop issue.

  5. Melissa Greipp

    An interesting study on academic performance among laptop users and those who hand write their notes (h/t Prof. Koenig). Those who handwrite their notes do better long term. From the article:

    Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis in 2012 found that laptop note-takers tested immediately after a class could recall more of a lecture and performed slightly better than their pen-pushing classmates when tested on facts presented in class. They reported their experiments with 80 students in the Journal of Educational Psychology.

    Any advantage, though, is temporary. After just 24 hours, the computer note takers typically forgot material they’ve transcribed, several studies said. Nor were their copious notes much help in refreshing their memory because they were so superficial.

    In contrast, those who took notes by hand could remember the lecture material longer and had a better grip on concepts presented in class, even a week later. The process of taking them down encoded the information more deeply in memory, experts said. Longhand notes also were better for review because they’re more organized.

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