Study shows laptops hurt students' grades

The study, conducted at Winona State University, examined the behavior of students in two large psychology seminars, both held in lecture halls with wireless Internet access. Students who brought laptops to the classroom admitted that note-taking wasn’t always a high priority: Eighty-one percent said they checked their e-mail during class, 68 percent said they kept instant-messaging software open, and 25 percent confessed to playing games on their machines. Students who brought laptops to class their GPA is 5 percent lower than their computer-free classmates. News from The Chronicle of Higher Education