Amsterdam Univ.’s social sciences department bans laptops, phones and tablets

Students enrolled in the Interdisciplinary Social Science program at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) are no longer allowed to use phones, tablets, and laptops during lectures. According to the university, the ban is aimed at making sure the students have their full attention on the study materials. They can now only use paper to take notes, NOS reports.

Sixty to 80 percent of students that bring electronics to class usually end up doing something not related to their studies in class, Cyrilein Eversten, an associate professor in the program, told NOS. “Whether this is online shopping or sending each other things on Instagram. They were mentally absent from the lecture and from the material.”

Speaking of the new pen and paper requirement, program director Michaela Hordijk said that "there are scientific studies that say you remember what you’ve written down better." Other studies say, "Well, that’s overstated.”

One student told NOS that the new rule works well for them. Another student said that “the responsibility for preparing for the exam lies with us. I think we should have a certain freedom of choice within that preparation in how we want to do it.”

Paul Kirschner, professor emeritus of educational psychology, told NOS that he used to have a similar rule for his lectures at Utrecht University. “Turn off all the electronic devices, because they are a weapon of mass destruction," he used to say. According to him, handwritten notes are way better at making students actively engage with information.

“Writing is slower. That means people have to summarize and paraphrase what I’ve said. Then you are processing the information. And learning is processing the information,” the professor said.