The Laptop Dilemma

[onefixedstar]

I was invigilating a first year exam today. It was in one of those lecture halls that have tightly packed seats with little pull up desks, and so we made the students leave their bags at the front of the room. We ran into problems when two students protested that they didn't want to leave their laptops at the front of the room. Eventually they did, and we promised to keep an eye on them, and nothing bad happened. But I can see this becoming an increasing problem as more and more students bring laptops to school, and I'm not sure what to do about it.

Comments

[reiber.livejournal.com]

You simply tell them that they will need to leave it at the front of the room during an exam, and if they don't like it, don't bring it with them that day. Problem solved.

[onefixedstar.livejournal.com]

Which is what we did, but I wonder if we're going to face more vocal protests as more people bring laptops in. I suppose, in the end, numbers don't matter, though. We tell them to leave them at the front. The end.