Calls to ban laptops in college classrooms are based on accumulating research showing their negative effects not only on users but also on students sitting nearby. Survey research documents that students believe they can simultaneously pay attention to what is happening in the classroom while surfing the Web, checking emails, and visiting social media sites, but cognitive neuroscience says otherwise. Most of the negative press appears to stem from the use of laptops in large lecture halls and in classrooms where Internet-connected laptops are serving no pedagogical function.
