“No Laptops Allowed”! USYD Professor Sets New Lecture Rule — “Hoping More Students Take Part in Class”

“No Laptops Allowed”! USYD Professor Sets New Lecture Rule

A History of Science lecture at USYD has a rule: students are banned from using laptops in class.

This course mainly teaches about relationships throughout the history of science. Before class, Professor Ofer Gal showed students several historical images related to the course and asked them, “What is it that you don’t see in these pictures?”

“No computers, no phones.”

Professor Ofer Gal said that using computers and phones is not a way of learning — it never has been. Passing on and creating knowledge is a social activity.

When the rule was first announced, some USYD students were puzzled, because using a laptop in class is what most students opt for — it’s handy for taking notes and viewing slides.

But after a few weeks of getting used to the new rule, students felt it made them more focused in class. Some students also said they never use a laptop in class anyway, because it often distracts them into doing other things.

But not all students support the professor’s approach. Last week, one student anonymously complained online that the laptop ban discriminates against students with learning difficulties.

The student wrote in the post: “Professor Gal complains in almost every class about how terrible technology is, and it really annoys me.”

The student said he had already emailed the professor asking him to drop the practice, explaining that some students have special needs — such as those with motor impairments who need a laptop to take notes — and that his policy was “discriminatory”.

In response, a University of Sydney spokesperson said, professors have the right to restrict students’ use of laptops and other electronic devices, but no ban applies to students with learning difficulties.

When the media later interviewed Professor Gal, he said his daughter had told him that Stanford University introduced a similar ban back in 2017, and he had noticed that University of Sydney students rarely used laptops to take notes — so he introduced this ban. For students with learning difficulties, however, they can raise their needs with him and he will try to accommodate them.

In the years before the ban came in, Professor Gal also stopped recording his lectures online, because he felt students were no longer turning up to class.

This year, lecture recordings resumed. Professor Gal estimates that of the 90 students enrolled in this course, only about a third turn up every week. Another 30 students attend remotely. Professor Gal said he hopes those attending in person will take part in classroom discussion.