Law Schools, Technology

Albany Law School Returns to Modern Age, Restores Internet Use in Classrooms

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Last month, we reported that Albany Law School was one of many schools that was trying to find a way to stop students from using the internet in class. Trying to stop the internet seemed futile to me, but then again, I’m not trying to keep anybody’s attention while droning on about gift tax basis adjustment for 90 minutes.
At the time, Albany said it was just implementing a four-week trial period of ignoring the progress of modern society. That period is over, and recently we learned that Albany is going back to freedom and liberty.
Here’s part of the letter Albany Law Dean Thomas F. Guernsey sent to the students.

As you know, based on a December faculty conversation, the Law School announced a 4 week experiment to turn off Internet access in the classrooms. Those 4 weeks have now passed. The experiment is now complete and we have experience with how it works (or its limitations) from a technology perspective. We also have comments from the town hall meeting on Friday, a faculty straw poll, a student straw poll, and an alum straw poll. The experiment is concluded.

One tipster rejoiced:

Finally, back to some sense of normalcy! The internet is finally back on at Albany Law School…

But Dean Guernsey’s letter also contained an ominous warning that the internet could be banned again, without a whole lot of student input.


The first part of the dean’s letter emphasized all the different voices the administration was listening to in trying to decide what to do with the internet. But the second part of Dean Guernsey’s email seems to say that the administration doesn’t have to care about student concerns one little bit:

When we turned off the Internet we explained that this was an experiment. Ultimately, however, this is a faculty decision. Accordingly, we have turned the Internet back on in the classrooms today and it will continue on until such time as the faculty meets and formally takes (or does not) action. The issue will be on the agenda for the next faculty meeting.
We will keep you posted on developments, but I wanted to let you know about the next step.

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Is it obvious to people why this is a faculty decision? Because it doesn’t make sense to me. It seems to me that the students are paying for this education; if they want to be distracted (or don’t want to be distracted), it should be up to them. This isn’t high school. We’re dealing with adults who are more than capable of deciding if they want to listen to their torts lecture or not.
It’s probably in the best interest of the faculty to leave the internet on anyway. If you take away Facebook and blogs and everything else, the students might eventually start listening to the lectures. Then they might realize they are learning nothing that isn’t readily available in a commercial outline, and start asking questions like: “How much does Professor so-and-so make?” Or “Why does this process take three years?” And “Is there any kind of refund option?”
Yeah, I think Albany should let the kids play Farmville, and call it even.
Earlier: Boring Professors Ban More Interesting Things in the Classroom

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