Last Thursday the law school sent out an email asking for feedback on its email service and what students thought about the importance of having computers in school.  Some of my professors have told us that there is a growing constituency of GW Law faculty who disapprove of having students use computers in class. They feel that computers are distracting to persons besides the user and take away from the learning environment.  It was my impression that the survey that was emailed to students was probably related in part to this anti-computer sentiment among the faculty.  While I applaud the school for seeking student feedback on this issue, and I know current members of the SBA have also taken steps to help, I feel that I must voice my concern not only about a potential policy banning laptops from class, but also about the broader state of the school's perspective on technology.

Laptop use is essential in law school. Unlike in undergrad, professors do not give structured notes or presentations on the blackboard, and the ability to easily organize and rearrange notes, as well as jot things down quickly is incredibly important.  I have always been a terrible note-taker, but the advent of Microsoft OneNote has greatly remedied that fault.  Were I forced to try to keep up with a professor while writing by hand I would probably resort to my pre-law school note taking system, which pretty much consisted of paying attention and hoping I remembered it later.  This would certainly not help my GPA now.

Additionally, laptops afford students the ability to have all of their course documents on hand all the time in electronic format and to not have to keep track of stacks of papers for different classes. Instead of having four three-ring binders full of papers, I just have different files on my computer where are of my documents are stored.  Not only does this result in better organization, it also helps the environment and saves the school printing costs by reducing the need to print out thousands of cases, statutes, and problem sets.  As another bonus, laptops allow students to always have all of their notes on hand, which is helpful when notes in one class may end up being useful in another.  If an issue from Evidence comes up in Criminal Procedure, I'm not running back to my locker to get my Crim Pro folder: I just switch tabs in OneNote.  As a final note, the value of "Ctrl+F" in law school cannot be overstated.  If every time I thought to myself "where did I write that down" or "where did they say that in that case" I were forced to flip through countless pages of illegible notes or scan a 20 page case, my sanity would take a serious beating.

The main issue that the faculty seems to have with computers is the perceived distractions that result from in-class Internet use.  I for one have never been distracted by anyone else's computer.  Everyone has paid their money to go here, what they get out of it is entirely up to them.  Some will get A's and clerk for the Supreme Court.  Some will do alright and find another less prestigious, but otherwise rewarding career.  And some will update their Facebook, talk on GChat, and even play World of Warcraft in class.  If people don't want to pay attention in class, removing computers isn't going to change their minds.  Students will simply revert to more archaic forms of distraction: talking, doodling on their notebooks, and sleeping. Additionally, the Internet is a useful tool, even in class, for furthering our education.  How many times have we looked up a case that we didn't understand (or read) on Wikipedia in order to comprehend what our professor was discussing, Googled some obscure product that was the subject of a dispute in contracts (even if only to find where Dean Maggs gets his pictures), or used the Internet to figure out some non-legal concept that was essential to the understanding of a case?  I have done all these things, and I know that I am not alone.

To me, the backlash against computers in school is just another sign of the law school's failure to grasp the importance of technology.  Although steps have been taken to remedy our wireless network, it remains pathetic at best, and useless much of the time.  Over spring break I was working in the library at my fiancée's school, tiny Robert Morris University, and was blown away by how much faster her school's wireless Internet was than our own (and she does not pay $40,000 a year to go there!).  Meanwhile, back in the hard lounge, my iTunes update downloads at a "blistering" 18 kbps (for the less tech-savvy of you, the original dial-up ran at 26 kbps, and cable broadband runs around 3 mbps or more, which is over 100 times faster).  To test just how bad our wireless is, on a day when it seemed particularly slow, I hit the "email" button on the portal on my computer in the hard lounge, then walked upstairs to the email stations outside the copy center and opened my email there.  I logged off and headed back downstairs to find that in all that time the same email page had still not yet fully loaded off the wireless network.

My frustration with the wireless service in our school isn't just because it takes 45 minutes to view Facebook pics from last weekend, or the terrifying/depressing probability that I won't be able to watch March Madness online until I go home.  It's also because it takes forever to download the PDF my professor uploaded to the portal, because I have to allot extra time to an assignment because I have to account for the outrageous time it takes to open cases on Lexis or Westlaw, and because I have to add "worrying about getting dropped from the network during an exam" to all the other anxiety that I'm faced with during that time.

Technology is the driving force behind all things in our world today.  The legal field is no exception.  Having the best technology possible is essential, not only towards making this school a better learning environment, but also to make GW competitive among other law schools.  Honestly, if any of you were faced with the choice of attending GW knowing that laptops were not allowed in class, and that our Internet was about as efficient as your 1994 AOL account, would you have still come here if you could have gone to a school that embraced the role of technology in the classroom instead?  I can't say that I would have, and if I had known how important my computer would be to my legal education thus far, I almost certainly would not have.

Professors may view our computers as a nuisance, and their use in class as distracting or even disrespectful, and I can understand that.  Regardless of their personal feelings on the matter, however, computers are absolutely essential to legal education, and their importance will only increase with time.  Our faculty must accept them as a necessary evil, and our school must make technology a top priority, or risk adversely impacting not only current students, but also the Law School as an institution for years to come.