In the Wall Street Journal, Melissa Korn writes about some effects of college professors banning laptop use in class: students complaining about hand cramps and an inability to read their own handwritten notes.

As professors take a stand against computers in their classrooms, students who grew up more familiar with keyboards than cursive are struggling to adjust. They are recording classes on cellphones, turning to friends with better penmanship and petitioning schools for a softer line.

In “Should Professors Ban Laptops?,” a research piece from the Fall 2017 issue of EdNext, Susan Payne Carter, Kyle Greenberg and Michael S. Walker describe the results of their study which found that allowing any computer usage in the classroom reduces students’ average final-exam performance.

In “Laptops in the Classroom: An Open and Closed Case,” Marty West, Nora Gordon and Morgan Polikoff discuss their own policies toward laptop use in the classroom.

— Education Next