I have a friend back at my american university who takes brilliant notes on her laptop, with diagrams pasted in that she’s made in paint, and so on. It made her a great study partner later on because she had all the information in a very legible format. Here at edinburgh uni, laptops seem to be pretty rare in class.
I use mine for taking notes because I can type much faster than I write, and it makes more sense too!
Over a decade ago I used a laptop for taking notes in class. It permitted me to get more information down more clearly, for I can type far better than I can handwrite. Since I don’t have a very good memory, it was very important that I get as much down in notes as possible. The year I started using a laptop in class, my grades jumped an entire letter.
The ones chatting via the internet would simply chat out loud, disturbing the class. Better they keep quiet and chat away on their laptops.
People that do not want to pay attention can use the laptop as a babysitter. Were it not for a laptop, they would find something else to use as a distraction.
That’s why as a prof I never took attendance unless the faculty demanded it (compulsory attendance was common at colleges, but not at universities). That way the people who did not want to pay attention could simply skip class.
I’ll bring it to the lectures for my capstone project mostly for something to do for three or four hours while the lecturer drones on about software design. I’m a networking/systems student, and he doesn’t even pretend to provide any information that’s relevant to anybody who doesn’t plan on being a C# applications programmer.
I’m also taking a gimme web development class, and I bring it because I find it far easier to use vim (and all the other *nix tools) to write web pages than to futz around with notepad and putty on the lab boxes.
I’m a night student, already working in my field in a professional capacity. Most of us are just punching the clock until they mail us our diplomas. I think I’ve only cracked a textbook for one class in 4 years, and I’ll probably end up graduating with a 3.9.