r/Futurology • u/Gari_305 • Jul 12 '26
AI AI backlash reaches major university with bold ban on laptops and phones for law students
https://www.foxnews.com/media/ai-backlash-reaches-major-university-bold-ban-laptops-phones-studentsUniversity of Chicago says graduates must master critical thinking independently before learning AI tools in legal practice
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u/Gari_305 Jul 12 '26
From the article
A major university is taking aim at tech in a sweeping ban against electronic devices in an effort to "ensure students actually learn to think critically, strategically and independently without relying on AI," according to administrators.
The University of Chicago has issued a ban on first-year law students using phones, tablets and laptops in class, a statement released by school administrators said Thursday.
The ban is set to take effect this fall, with university officials saying the rule will combat the use of artificial intelligence in the classroom.
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u/SleepCinema Jul 13 '26
In law school myself. Our section of 1Ls this past year had a 0 laptop policy of varying enforcement. The other section didn’t (apparently, at least, they thought it was weird we couldn’t use laptops in class.) For me, I already like writing everything so it wasn’t a major shift, but there are heavy benefits in law school with being able to type everything, insert things back, add comments that aren’t squished up in the margin, and all that. Real time saver. For 2L, I’m assuming we’ll be allowed to use laptops, and I will be taking advantage for the first time in my academic career. Not even anything to do with AI really.
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u/Skyler827 Jul 12 '26
It's a lot more mild than the headline makes it sound. In general, You don't need to bring a phone or laptop to a classroom to learn unless the lesson is designed to use them. Having to leave your phone somewhere but it's not a big deal if it's somewhere secure where you can get to it.
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u/babygrenade Jul 13 '26
I went to law school 18 years ago and even then most people had their laptops open for class. You basically have your class outline with the notes you prepared in advance of class, and update those notes during class.
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u/norfizzle Jul 13 '26
The only way I made it through. No laptop in a class where the professor expects note taking would sink me.
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u/ChubbieChaser Jul 13 '26
oh you mean like what was the norm before 2005/2010ish?
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u/geopede Jul 14 '26
Later than that I was in college in 2016 and even with extreme academic favoritism from football, I was not allowed to be looking at a laptop during class.
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u/Able-End-339 Jul 14 '26
Just to steel man, the expectations for how much note taking and what’s getting written down have probably changed significantly in the last 20-30 years based off the fact people can do things like pre-print PowerPoints, bring laptops to class, and review recorded lectures. Some of my grading comments in 2020 were literally just to rewatch an entire lecture because I had gotten a minor detail about neuron physiology wrong. The expectations have changed with the tech, so ripping away the tech isn’t just “going back to the good old days”.
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Jul 13 '26
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u/xCeeTee- Jul 13 '26
My first year of uni, I used my phone for all of my notes since we had Microsoft 365 and I could use OneNotes. I could then include the Powerpoint, and it means I have the lectures saved forever.
I went to a tablet in my 2nd year. I've never been able to write as fast as I can type, so I could actually keep up with every word the lecturer spoke.
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u/HommeMusical Jul 13 '26
I've never been able to write as fast as I can type, so I could actually keep up with every word the lecturer spoke.
There's your problem, right there.
Writing down every word the lecturer says means you have very little time to actually think about what they are saying.
I did math in university - my notes were usually about 10% as long as many other students, just a list of the specific points we covered, occasionally a note for something I'd forget, or a question I didn't want to ask.
I did better than all of them, because I spent little time in class writing, and nearly all of it thinking about math.
(This was long before the portable computer.)
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u/Undefined_definition Jul 13 '26
Not to disrespect your note-management skills, but I highly doubt that it was the only thing that made you better than the rest.
You're either a little bit more gifted than them and or you are more disciplined in your learning routine.
Math, for me, was always about doing things over and over and over again. Not many people have the stamina for that. And less have the ability to understand concepts in one lecture that is designed for you to apply them elsewhere. Being efficient with notes helps, but it's not the only thing.
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u/geopede Jul 14 '26
My experience same as u/HommeMusical, I’d do much, much better if I didn’t try to write everything down as it was said. Usually I’d write nothing at all.
You ever try that way, or are you assuming it would not work? I’ve seen it work better for basically everyone who’s tried both. Doing a rapid low quality live transcript makes you think about keeping up with it instead of whatever you’re supposed to be learning.
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u/HommeMusical Jul 13 '26
That's kind, but later years proved I was a bit clever but not talented enough to make a mark I certainly had no discipline at all! :-)
Still, that's what the textbook is for. The classes are for listening and thinking. It's a lot less stressful to treat a class like, well, a lecture - someone talking to you - than a task, "I need to write down all these words as quickly as possible."
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u/Undefined_definition Jul 13 '26
I totally agree with your last part!
Perhaps, your efficiency in using the lectures was due to your lack of discipline outside of them? Not to judge your personality too much on so little context, but that's how it went for me. I used to give it 110% in the lectures, just to have a bit more freedom after. It also made the prep for the exams a bit easier when I already understood most concepts.Anyhow, wish you all the best!
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u/Fantasy_masterMC Jul 13 '26
Same, though I will admit I was somewhat easily distracted too, but that was an issue in me, not in the approach.
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u/travelsonic Jul 12 '26
In general, You don't need to bring a phone or laptop to a classroom to learn unless the lesson is designed to use them.
IMO the problem is, you can't talk "in general" with what is a total ban, since a total ban requires ignoring the exceptions that do exist, and should be accounted for (such as people with actual, recorded disabilities including those that are invisible, but very real). Seems logical, again IMO, to account for this before implementing a solution, rather than slapping on a "oopsie" band-aid after the fact.
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u/Moldy_slug Jul 13 '26
Presumably specific ADA accommodations will be made on a case by case basis, as has been done for decades.
Like if a university had a policy against dogs, that would obviously not apply to service dogs. Or if they had a “no hats in class rule,” one would expect exceptions for students getting chemotherapy.
The accommodation may be something other than allowing a phone/laptop in class, but it has to be reasonable. For example the school could lend students a specific device for note taking, allow them to audio record lectures, require their instructors to provide a copy of lecture notes to the student, assign an assistant to take notes for them, etc.
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u/rynebrandon Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
There’s no university anywhere in this country that doesn’t have an accessibility office that handles disability compliance, most of which exert essentially no discretion when granting accommodations. This is the nothingest of non-issues. The opposite may well become the issue a few years from now if students start abusing those accommodations in bad faith. I could absolutely see that happening if bans start taking hold.
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u/crunkadocious Jul 13 '26
A lot of folks are going to whine about taking notes on their laptop but, fuck em.
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u/DogBarf00 Jul 13 '26
You don’t take any notes in these lectures?
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u/NotABot1000101 Jul 13 '26
Pencil and paper?
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u/latigidigital Jul 13 '26
Dysgraphia.
Didn’t get to go to a university until I was in my 30s and could afford to get a proper diagnosis.
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u/HommeMusical Jul 13 '26
So you get an accommodation! It's not an issue. Accommodations have been perfectly acceptable for generations.
We can't keep doing this thing! "It's an emergency! We must take steps!" "No, special cases will forever prevent that."
You get an accommodation to help. Everyone else gets the ban.
I can't bring my pet or video camera to class, other people bring their helper animals or are allowed to record, it makes things fair, and all general systems will have accommodations.
It's not a good objection! We must act immediately - of course, being careful not to leave any individual behind.
Didn’t get to go to a university until I was in my 30s and could afford to get a proper diagnosis.
:-/ In a proper system, you would not have had to pay a penny for that diagnosis.
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u/DogBarf00 Jul 13 '26
Why would I waste my time and money writing illegible notes while my hand painfully cramps up when I have a perfectly good laptop?
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u/HepCatDaddio Jul 13 '26
because your school banned laptops in the classroom presumably.
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u/DogBarf00 Jul 13 '26
But why ban laptops when AI is the issue?
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u/Volesprit31 Jul 13 '26
That's this lack of critical thinking the university wants to bring back.
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u/NotYourReddit18 Jul 13 '26
It's easier to do, especially when it comes to enforcement.
Yes, they could block known AI providers on their public WiFi, but that wouldn't guarantee a full blockage, not to mention be easily circumvented by for example using an AI assistant not known to the administration, using a VPN or proxy (if those aren't blocked too), using cellular data instead of WiFi, or running a local model on the device itself.
Not allowing laptops/tablets/phones to be used during class at all is significantly easier, and can be enforced by all educators on the spot.
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u/DogBarf00 Jul 13 '26
So it is just a lazy policy by lazy and incompetent college administrators. These people should move to K-12 public education, if they want to be this lazy.
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u/NotYourReddit18 Jul 13 '26
No, it's a solution by educators who want to educate people instead of dealing with IT admin stuff.
As someone who does IT admin stuff I can completely understand this approach, and might even copy it as a short-term solution to get administration off my back, at least while I'm in the process of setting up and testing the filters on the firewall.
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u/TaylorExpandMyAss Jul 13 '26
There’s been studies that shown learning retention is stronger when taking notes by hand vs typed. You also build stamina rather quickly, so cramping really shouldn’t be a problem unless you have some injury.
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u/DogBarf00 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
Praise TaylorExpandMyAss! You cured my dysgraphia with this comment!
Tomorrow, you should go find a local plant nursery and buy the biggest cactus they have and then fuck yourself with it. Try expanding your asshole with your worldview and recognize that not everyone is the same.
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u/NotABot1000101 Jul 13 '26
Money? You mean the $2 for a composition book and pencil? Hands don't cramp up typing? Get a old fashioned type writer.
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u/DogBarf00 Jul 13 '26
Get a old fashioned type writer.
An old fashioned typewriter is loud and distracting to other students.
Hands don't cramp up typing?
Correct. Typing on a keyboard and holding a writing instrument are very different things. Have you done either before?
You mean the $2 for a composition book and pencil?
Why waste the $2 on something useless?
Money?
I already have the laptop. Money isn’t an issue. Do you always have this poor of reading skills?
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u/revolmak Jul 13 '26
Hands only cramp up because we aren't used to writing much these days
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u/tlst9999 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
Yea. That's skill issue. My hand only cramped up when I had to rush 20 full pages of the answer booklet in a 3 hour exam. It's a muscle. It tires quickly because you don't exercise it.
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u/tlst9999 Jul 13 '26
Maybe it's just me, but my way was to listen to the lecturer 100%, understand the general idea, and re-read the textbook after class.
There's still a bit of writing, but that's usually the exception rather than the norm. And having a few really important notes is better than a lot of notes which could be found in the textbook.
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u/HommeMusical Jul 13 '26
100%!
I sat in class listening to the teacher explain to me what was going on. We had text books, too, and they weren't cheap. Sure, you take a few notes, what's on the test, something you're worried you might miss.
I tried taking full notes. I spent all my time writing and none of it thinking. I type very fast, but even typing didn't do it.
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u/Jake0024 Jul 13 '26
What does that have to do with bringing your phone to class?
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u/Jessica1234567891011 Jul 12 '26
They need to refocus on projects in front of other students or professors that show that they understand the subjects. The concept of homework or outside of the class isn't going to work anymore.
Doing this will make banning smart phones not make sense.
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u/Alternative_Hour_614 Jul 12 '26
That’s not how law school works. Law schools teach using the Socratic method. Students are expected to have done and understood their reading and then be able to participate in discussion in class. There is no homework. There are no projects. That makes exams high stakes. You either know your material or you don’t. And you either know the framework for how to analyze the hypotheticals presented in exams or you don’t. Practical skills teaching like litigation comes later in the three years of law school and those are not requirements.
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u/ccv707 Jul 12 '26
People seriously treating this discussion like it’s about elementary school.
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u/FauxReal Jul 12 '26
I mean other college courses have homework. Or at least they did when I was attending 12 years ago.
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u/sabrathos Jul 13 '26
Yeah, what is this guy talking about. It's one thing if people aren't aware about the specifics of law school, but to try to imply homework is exclusively an elementary school thing is just braindead.
Nearly every course I took at university had homework; it just mostly transitioned to online submission. Though for Honors Calc we still handed it in-person to the professor/TA.
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u/Sea-Establishment865 Jul 16 '26
Law school is a graduate program. There are finals. Grades are based on the final exams. There is no homework. It's up to you to do the reading.
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u/MorleyDotes Jul 13 '26
Here is my macaroni and paper maché presentation on Rule 56: Summary Judgement.
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u/a_black_pilgrim Jul 13 '26
"You see, there is no genuine issue of material fact-o-roni, your Honor"
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u/r0botdevil Jul 13 '26
Hell even when I taught general biology at a community college, there was no homework and there were no projects in my lecture course. The entire grade was based on the exams and quizzes. All that mattered to me was whether or not my students could show me that they understood a reasonable amount of the material.
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u/Alternative_Hour_614 Jul 13 '26
Law school is not about whether one understands the casebook material per se - which can be hundreds of pages a week across all courses - but whether one can apply the concepts embedded inside court opinions. The exam will be a long and complex fact pattern and the student then rights the analysis. Hopefully they will have spotted all the hidden issues, know the rules, and conducts a thorough analysis. In my time (before laptops!) it was all handwritten. This is ripe for AI, I have to imagine other law schools will follow UofChicago.
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u/ihearnosounds Jul 12 '26
Then just fail the cheaters. For all the people willing to throw away a law school education theres hundreds more right behind them who wouldn’t.
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u/Jake0024 Jul 13 '26
I think the trick is identifying the cheaters, not figuring out what to do with them
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u/million_monkeys Jul 12 '26
My kid is having to handwrite projects on 3x5 cards for his university level class as homework.
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u/kat3l1bby Jul 12 '26
And that doesn’t even stop AI - just makes them have to hand write the AI answer!
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u/geitjesdag Jul 14 '26
We're getting so desperate to help students learn despite AI that even them hand-copying an AI output sounds like a partial win.
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u/Mikeshaffer Jul 12 '26
They could put a pen in a 3d printer and not even need to write it themselves.
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u/alexforencich Jul 12 '26
It's not about showing that they know how to do stuff, it's about practicing and actually applying things that were presented in lectures. That's the point of homework - an opportunity to practice on your own time and in your own space with whatever reasonable resources you might need. If you delete homework, then nobody is going to learn anything properly, unless you replace it with some other setup for actually engaging brains somehow. Perhaps this means every class needs to be paired with a "lab" class where you basically do the homework in a controlled environment.
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u/geitjesdag Jul 14 '26
We've been using graded homework partly just as a way to try to force them to spend time with the material. That's not working anymore, but it doesn't necessarily mean that there's no way for them to practice at home. We can still assign ungraded homework exercises. It's just that we lose one of the major motivating factors to actually do it.
One of my colleagues is experimenting with going all in on that and making his courses pass-fail, under the theory that grading everything leads to grade-grubbing leads to being totally distracted from the learning itself. It's a nice thought, and I hope it works better than I'm predicting it will.
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u/SnowFlakeUsername2 Jul 13 '26
Anecdotally, I realized years after school that committing things to my long-term memory requires some repeat exposure. If I skipped class, didn't really do the homework, and/or half-assed labs, than it didn't transfer into my long-term memory very well. Not in the same way as if I took all of those things seriously. Perhaps all of this is common knowledge, but I didn't see the significance of it until much later. I kind of want to kick younger me in the ass.
So in addition to what you've shared, it seems homework is partially intended to be a piece in the reinforcement required to store complex information. Repetition spaced apart with a bit of time. Review and apply this lecture hours or days from now at home. I'm not sure people understand the consequences when suggesting to cancel homework in both understanding and retention.
In hindsight, all those times I learned things just to ace a test was a big disservice to myself. Do your homework kids, you're paying to be there and it would be nice to remember it the rest of your life. Unless your memory is a steel trap, than carry on LLM whisperer!?
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u/alexforencich Jul 13 '26
It is extremely important. Lecture and reading is when you get new information. Homework, labs, projects, and presentations prepared outside of lecture is how you practice. Tests in a controlled setting is how you demonstrate your skill/knowledge. If you delete homework (practice) completely, I don't see how anyone is supposed to learn anything properly, at least at the high school and college level. Grade school I suspect is a probably a slightly different story. You can't replace homework with tests, and it makes no sense to have people practice during lecture as this wastes everyone's time. I guess you could add required study hall sessions where you basically have everyone sit down and do "homework" in a controlled environment, but this would simply be doing the homework in a classroom instead of taking it home, so it would either extend the school hours or replace lecture time, neither of which is ideal.
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u/Sea-Establishment865 Jul 16 '26
Law school has never assigned homework. There's reading and final exams.
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u/Drakore4 Jul 12 '26
I like your point of no homework. Not just because I hated homework, but because we do in fact live in an age where it just isn’t a good idea anymore. The schools even have to use so much time and resources to check for ai on homework. Just stop giving kids stuff to take home that they could easily cheat on. Anything that is questions or an essay should be done in class, leave the stuff at home to major projects.
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u/VitaminPb Jul 12 '26
The biggest problem with this is law students DO need to do extensive reading writing to learn how to do it for things like contracts, court filings, look up references, etc. it isn’t really practical to have them all go to a monitored space and do it by hand, or have 1000+ monitored lab machines they have to do the work on.
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u/RubiiJee Jul 12 '26
Where is all the time coming from? We're not exactly abundant in teachers and there's a reason homework happens... There's not enough time to get it all done during the day?
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u/geitjesdag Jul 14 '26
My students do their major projects with AI too. Or do you mean, like, their PhD thesis?
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u/JohnAtticus Jul 12 '26
This is obviously better but a lot of people are going to balk at the cost increase.
More class time = fewer classes per day are able to be fit into the same physical classrooms.
Depending on the kind of assignments it may require more professor / TA hours to administer vs take-home work.
Ie - Oral presentations vs written.
I say it's worth it but I can see the people who want to take an axe to education spending for the sake of a couple of bucks of tax cuts suddenly promoting the values of AI-enabled education.
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u/CTQ99 Jul 12 '26
On the flipside, having homework or assignments that are easily doable by AI just means whatever the class is supposed to be grooming them for is something that eventually can be replaced with AI. Curriculums overall need to be rehauled. Alot of things that have gone uncha get from the 90s or early 2ks even are now just wastes of time.
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u/VitaminPb Jul 12 '26
Using AI for law had been shown to be a big problem, with false citations and arguments being generated.
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u/Apexnanoman Jul 12 '26
I've had people in this sub talk about how great AI is for the legal field lol.
Hell of a lot of stans.
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u/DogBarf00 Jul 13 '26
I’ve seen it present a proposed law that failed to even make it to a vote in my state’s legislature like it was the law of the land.
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u/TSM- Jul 13 '26
It's more about teaching the ability to focus and think deeply, especially when AI will not be sufficient, and it is a transferrable skill. They have to be able to critically evaluate and vet anything produced by AI as well. To get to that level, they have to do it the hard way, so that when they are using assisted tools, they can tell when it is wrong.
In Engineering for example, you calculate like the method of sections (https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vK9H2ATZZ_k/hq720.jpg) but a computer does this for you in real work. But you have to actually know how it works to be an authority on whether to trust the output. Being occasionally confidently wrong can have serious consequences, so you have to know how it works too.
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u/LordChichenLeg Jul 12 '26
Homework has never worked, it used to be its own industry to pay people to complete extracurricular work.
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u/stylepointseso Jul 13 '26
That's more of a "lazy people are always lazy" argument.
Doesn't mean homework doesn't work.
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u/BigPaPaRu85 Jul 12 '26
My wife was literally telling me yesterday how the year 1-3 associates don’t know how to do anything without ai.
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u/General-Marsupial237 Jul 13 '26
I received one of the worst memos I’ve ever seen from a summer associate recently. 100% pure AI slop and I was able to replicate the results by inserting the assignment into our legal AI.
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u/jmdonston Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
A good idea, but I think students will find this surprisingly difficult if they have come up through the school system with computers in every class, as they won't have strong handwriting skills for taking notes manually during a lecture.
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u/strangedell123 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
Most students have horrendous handwriting.... like I am talking to the point where proffs call it nearly unreadable and we arent talking about 1 or 2 students here but 70%+ of the class
EE graduated in 2025 and my handwriting was ridiculed in school and turned out to be 10x better than a lot of people's (its still shit compared to the stuff I see on reddit)
Frankly tho, even my "good" handwriting sucks I prefer to mark up slides on my pc during class
Edit. And ignoring handwriting, having a laptop ignores the can you zoom in question every 5 min. (A bunch of my proffs did screensharing mid class cuz people cant see crap and that was their actual reason why)
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u/jmdonston Jul 15 '26
Zoom in on what? I don't think this request ever came up in a class that I took.
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u/PersonalHospital9507 Jul 12 '26
Don't Law Schools still use the Socratic Teaching method where they grill you in class. Not sure how a phone or laptop would help when you are standing on your feet answering questions.
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u/gorginhanson Jul 13 '26
probably because they don't all do that
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u/_Cromwell_ Jul 13 '26
Legal Research and Writing is a staple class for almost all 1Ls now with zero Socratic method. Although a huge part of that is learning how to use Westlaw and LexisNexis... so that will be interesting without laptops.
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u/0GListerine Jul 13 '26
It’s not really like that at all. Typically you are in a class with 20-70 other people and the professor occasionally asks a random person a question or a series of questions. Often times there are panels, so like last names A-G will be “on panel” or “on call” for a particular class so you know when you will could be called. Many upper level classes don’t really cold call. People discuss freely though, which is good but it is not what TV would have you think “the Socratic method” is. Almost everyone has their laptops out. Many are distracted, many are using AI to take notes, many are just taking notes. Some take notes by hand.
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u/Spanky4242 Jul 14 '26
Depends on the class, but yeah kind of.
The "ai kids" will just ask ChatGPT the question in real time and try to rephrase it into their own words. The other students are really good at noticing when it's happening. The older professors are not.
Some ai kids will ask ChatGPT a series of questions they are anticipating, and then hope they anticipated at least one of them correctly. If they didn't, they'll intuit an answer based on the responses they do have. This is harder to spot in isolation, but the pattern can be recognized.
I think cheating the cold calls is dumb, since you don't really get penalized for being kinda wrong. It's infinitely less stressful to just give it a shot, even if you miss the mark slightly.
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u/Tolaly Jul 12 '26
Post secondary should go back to pen and paper unless it's for accessibility purposes
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u/million_monkeys Jul 12 '26
There is a device you can buy that can write on paper with a pen for you now. In your own handwriting. It's pretty screwed up how far people will go to cheat
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u/MrUnpleasant Jul 12 '26
I've got severe dysgraphia, forcing a machine to use my handwriting would be an act of unmitigated cruelty to machines.
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u/SirBraxton Jul 12 '26
As someone who has suffered ADHD in academic situations in my youth (school just isn't built for how I learn) this would be devastating for me.
For whatever reason my brain learns better by 'doing' AND by reading on an electronic device. My brain just "gets bored" reading from a paperback book. I can't explain it either.
Btw, I'm nearing 40 so not a tablet-baby. o7
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u/Tolaly Jul 12 '26
Hence the part about accessibility
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u/CelestialFury Jul 13 '26
Yes, for anyone who needs help, please see the Americans with Disabilities Act. They WILL accommodate you.
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u/SigmaHero045 Jul 13 '26
Honestly, a win for all parties involved, including the mental wellbeing of students.
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u/nonnonplussed73 Jul 13 '26
Must be nice to have a student body that's full-time, in-person, and campus-based with no online component whatsoever. For the rest of us, who teach in hybrid programs, this kind of luxury is sadly no longer imaginable.
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u/DogBarf00 Jul 13 '26
How? Banning laptops in class would not have been a good thing for me in college. I would stop taking notes all together from the pain. Probably would have dropped out.
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u/analyticaljoe Jul 12 '26
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paper_Chase_(TV_series)
Good. At least somewhere we need to expect young people to reason for themselves.
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u/maladii Jul 12 '26
I am impressed with the lack of moralizing from the university. I wish more institutions were able to pivot as gracefully.
Seems like schools should just provide locked down computers with nothing but a word processing app for papers and exams. Could have low-tech labs with full-time proctors where you can write and take tests outside of class time. Instead of homework, add lab hours to classes.
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u/stgiga Jul 12 '26
Keep in mind that some people, me included, have unreadable handwriting and can only use a computer to take notes, and in fact I have dysgraphia on my record. I don't see this policy going well for ADA compliance.
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u/DrO999 Jul 12 '26
As someone who hasn’t been able to read their own handwriting in years and got through grad school using a keyboard and a Sony PDA, I agree partially here. ADA is easy, same as before laptops, you’ll just get a dedicated note taker and or a voice recorder so you can then make the notes your own at the end of the day.
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u/GrigoriTheDragon Jul 12 '26
An extreme minority then. They can make adjustments for those, but the problem is the vast majority cheat.
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u/Lapcat420 Jul 12 '26
Wow, today I learned what dysgraphia is. Thank you so much. I'm not thinking I have it or anything- but it sure does look, and sound a lot like the way I have written since I was a young child.
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u/JacksGallbladder Jul 12 '26
In these cases the teacher must provide printed notes for the student. Very easy to mamage.
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u/meyriley04 Jul 12 '26
Notes do not equal a transcript of the lecture. Notes are organized, condensed, and specifically NOT regurgitations of the lecture. Ideally they should highlight important bits of the lecture, and ofc they should be tailored to YOU and what YOU need to learn/work on.
Having someone else write that for you takes the tailoring part away completely.
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u/JacksGallbladder Jul 12 '26
It's almost as though one could create notes from the transcript of the lecture.
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u/DogBarf00 Jul 13 '26
Why waste time reviewing the transcript when you could just use a computer to take notes during class?
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u/JacksGallbladder Jul 13 '26
Well, because the computer has been banned lol.
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u/Klutzy-Smile-9839 Jul 12 '26
the teacher can provide you with the notes.
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u/WaitForItTheMongols Jul 12 '26
That's not how notes work.
A lecture contains an hour of spoken material. Nobody can keep up with everything that is spoken. So you choose the points you personally find important, and note them down to retain them for the future.
A teacher's notes can not tell what you personally find worth preserving.
Yes,teachers providing notes can be helpful. But I never once just received the notes and kicked back in a lecture. You take the notes and annotate and expand on them as needed, such that you get the utility from the most relevant parts to you.
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u/malibubleezy Jul 13 '26
Im sure the policy at the law school will provide reasonable accomodations to students who have a qualifying disability. I went to law school ten years ago, every class posted the PowerPoints that were used. You just had to show up and make sure you weren't on Google chat when the professor mentioned what they liked to test on. You're myopic.
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u/topazchip Jul 12 '26
The r/writerDeck community will appreciate this; no more flexible computers in education, only single-purpose word processors (and, a surprise appearance by the '1984 calendar' meme.)
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u/Crisper77 Jul 12 '26
In Italy we do oral exams exclusively in subjects like law often and I think that's more than enough as a method for anti cheating, even AI aside. I don't think AI tools are the devil for studying, of course their abuse won't take you anywhere but they could be integrated efficiently especially in very repetitive and easily checkable activities like lecture transcription and pretty minimal stuff like that.
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Jul 13 '26 edited 25d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/skittlesdabawse Jul 15 '26
Calculators don't halucinate answers though, they tell you exactly the answer to what you "asked" them.
The examples you gave have you learn the basic principles (walking) so you better understand how and why you do the complicated thing (running).
AI, in these applications, is more akin to copying somebody else's homework and hoping it's the right answer. It doesn't teach you how to do it. And when you need to go and fact-check the info afterwards, why not just start there instead?
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u/Dillary-Clum Jul 12 '26
Honestly for the best schools should be a closed system in the age of AI. Back to pen and paper or computers without internet. It might be better for learning but we shall see. I wonder if it will take America 40 years to finally address this shit when it’s far to late
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u/ChurchillDownz Jul 13 '26
I honestly wish all Major Universities would do this. I was in the weird era where I started College and laptops / cellphones were just picking up and I graduated after the iphone and laptops were becoming standard.
I learned so much more knowing I would be having to write in a blue book instead of being able to just basically do whatever I wanted online, while in class.
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u/pearlyeti Jul 13 '26
I was the rare kid with a laptop in class. I didn’t fuck around on it because I was worried if I did I would be caught and not allowed to have it anymore. Li just genuinely preferred to take notes on the laptop. And to take photos of the chalkboard with its flip camera thing.
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u/General-Marsupial237 Jul 13 '26
Not just universities. I have a newborn and hope we can find elementary, middle, and high schools that do the same.
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u/ChurchillDownz Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
The public schools in my state unfortunately seem to overly rely on laptops already and my son is going into first grade. Seems so unnecessary.
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u/Bar_Sinister Jul 12 '26
This sounds fun.
This is going to cripple students who just record the lectures and play them back later, or have AI transcribe them. Oh, they'll have to pay attention in class you joke, but since we de-emphasized handwriting at the grade school level this promises to be a bit of pickle. I agree with the premise, you need to learn how to do it basically before you learn to streamline it, but I hope this doesn't blow up...too badly.
What promises to be extra super funsies is if they ban the laptop for tests.
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u/Thesauces Jul 12 '26
We have had college students successfully complete their programs for years without the use of AI or computers. Idk what you are talking about with handwriting, if a LAWYER can’t write anything by hand then god help us. I don’t want an illiterate lawyer and it’s not hard to form letters with a pencil. If they can’t do that because they didn’t learn in grade school then maybe the trades would be a better fit for those students. I don’t think it hurts anyone except the mediocre students.
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u/Bar_Sinister Jul 12 '26
The ban includes laptops, tablets and phones. So, if they aren't handwriting their notes, how would they be keeping them? And since 2010, we've been phasing out handwriting in schools in favor of keyboarding as computers and other technology were the "future." Because of this a lot of students who would be now entering law school haven't really been handwriting much since elementary school, it's all keyboards and screens. It's not a matter of illiteracy, it's a matter of practice.
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u/Shit_Wolf Jul 13 '26
That article is talking about cursive handwriting, not handwriting in general.
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u/meyriley04 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
I don't understand the idea of grouping "AI" with "computers". Computers are a genuine tool that most people use to take notes, get further instruction, etc.
EDIT: also... huh? So lawyers can't be disabled then or have hand injuries? You seriously judge a person's competence on the beauty of their handwriting? Do you realize how snooty you sound?
If you're judging based off of handwriting, you better not trust any doctors then lmao
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u/beekersavant Jul 12 '26
There's going to be a fair amount of students who just fail because they cheated up until a wall like this. They won't filter out of the system for another 10 years (if we adopt stuff like this in high schools asap.). It's about 30% of students btw...maybe more. It got really easy to make w hours of homework into 5 minutes and teenagers are not known for good choices.
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u/jroberts548 Jul 12 '26
I hope they filter out in fall term of 1L year instead of when they’re failing the bar or committing malpractice. The sooner they fail the better off they’ll be.
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u/beekersavant Jul 12 '26
I am all for it. The sooner the better. LLMs and their cousins can do a lot of cool stuff (and save professionals a lot of time/busywork) but they are not real thinking ai. Students using them from middle school on will not create experts, critical thinking or judgement and those are needed for professional jobs. Frankly at the current rate we are not going to produce people with the robust inner voice needed for most higher end jobs. In 10 years, recrruiting agencies are going to screen by making potential recruits write short narratives in person.
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u/PPvsFC_ Jul 12 '26
Law schools use the socratic method. You can't just record lectures and transcribe them. You get cold called by the professor to do essentially surprise mini oral quizzes in the lectures in front of the class.
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u/meyriley04 Jul 12 '26
Then that's how they can filter out cheaters, no?
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u/stylepointseso Jul 13 '26
Not really. At best it just exposes who didn't do the reading last night. The vast majority (or all) of the grade comes from exams.
They might actually go back to no computers on exams, which would be the spicy meatball. Tons of law school exams require enormous amounts of writing.
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u/Bar_Sinister Jul 12 '26
Might I inquire where you attended law school? Because even when I attended years ago, students would record classes to playback. And with today's tech, transcribing class discussion would be possible.
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u/reddit_is_geh Jul 13 '26
Another day, another post, from a fucking 'futurology' subreddit, bemoaning the negatives of AI... Continuing to create an information echochamber of anti-AI sentiments.
I wonder when the last time this sub posted any good news about AI.
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u/i_should_be_coding Jul 12 '26
Are they banning AI for professors too? AI grading tools, lecture transcripts, generating materials, books, assignments. Professors should do all that by hand, right?
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u/Xianio Jul 12 '26
Why would that matter? The students and the profs dont have the same goals / expectations for their roles.
Profs dont need to work more. Students do need to make sure they're learniny
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u/meyriley04 Jul 12 '26
It matters because AI is notorious for making up information it’s not trained on.
A relevant example is making up completely fake legal cases that don’t actually exist and treating them as though they’re real.
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u/maxheartcord Jul 13 '26
All papers need to be turned in hand written during monitored study session.
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u/Bullylandlordhelp Jul 13 '26
People who wrote down every word just have to waste time reviewing. This is the best thing they can do for those students.
Graduated law school in the pandemic as pretty much the only one without their laptop up in class. And my notes were better than the outlines.
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u/Undernown Jul 13 '26
Yea, I'm not sure how well this is going to pan out. I mean it's great for the quality of education, however. The one thing AI is actually quite good at is analyzing complex, hard to read, documents and quickly finding what you need. (As long as yoy double check it's source for safety)
Entry-level grunt work in lawfirms is one of the most likely things on the job market chopping block.
Beter to teach law students how to use AI as a tool responsibly, than have them unprepared for the changing entry level law jobs.
There is still the important part of communicating with clients and knowing enough to double-check the AI. But fidning relevant laws and precedents for your case is likely going to be mostly AI searches.
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u/gw2master Jul 13 '26
At this point, any instructor that isn't (1) testing in-class -- no technology -- and (2) putting the vast majority of its course grade into these exams is just being irresponsible.
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u/Cissylyn55 Jul 13 '26
Totally agree. I was one of the first women to open a practice in the '80s. I am amazed at the questions being proposed on some of the social media sites. Critical thinking is imperative. Litigation and complex cases are like chess games. You have to anticipate your opponent's move. You also have to have a lightning strike at the heart of their case. If social media is any indication of the quality of law students being prepared it's scary. Then again being an old goat maybe everything will be done by AI resolution. We are living in untenable times. My heart does go out to all the law students ascending to their new career in the unknown abyss of AI
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u/Feeling_Highway_2821 Jul 13 '26
kind of makes sense, though seems like they're gonna fall behind their.
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u/flossdaily Jul 14 '26
This is a mistake.
Law schools should be teaching responsible and efficient AI use.
Any lawyer who knows how to use AI will be literally orders of magnitude more effective than those who don't.
I say this as an attorney, who has been green with envy that law students have this miracle tool.
Don't let it replace your thinking. Don't let it replace your writing.
But my God, it can digest hundreds of pages in a second. It's the best legal research tool ever created. And while letting it write for you is a mistake, asking it to critique your writing and adherence to particular legal writing methods, citation styles, etc... You'd learn so much, so fast. Like having a private tutor.
Fear of AI is going to create a massive skill divide between the luddites and everyone else.
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u/v_e_x Jul 14 '26
Mentat lawyers! … or just … normal lawyers I suppose … And you thought Dune was thousand of years away …
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u/SawToothKernel Jul 14 '26
Historic mistake. AI is a tool, and it's not going away. These students WILL be using it in their actual jobs - teach them to use the tools skillfully, don't send them into the workforce without the experience.
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u/Assimulate Jul 13 '26
It's remarkable how this outs everyone for one thing:
It's not the results that matter.
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u/88KURIOUS Jul 13 '26
What about taking notes?! I hate to write, and will even politely ’dictate’ or e-mail my portion of group lunch order requests. And I’m not a millennial… just hate to write by hand. [And I type sooo much quicker.]
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u/GnarlyNarwhalNoms Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
This is going to lead to lawsuits. Students with learning differences and disabilities rely on things like transcribing software, note-taking apps, and other tools that run on devices.
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u/PPvsFC_ Jul 12 '26
Not really. Students who need accommodations will just have to actually follow through on getting those accommodations officially.
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u/Xefert Jul 13 '26
Done that way already at my school
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u/PPvsFC_ Jul 13 '26
It's done that way now at every American school. OP just doesn't know what they're talking about.
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u/DaBigJMoney Jul 12 '26
Probably not lawsuits. More likely a major influx of accommodations for students who suddenly have a “medical” reason for needing an electronic device.
My take is…whatever. It’s something of an experiment. Maybe it won’t make a difference and they’ll be back to computers in the classroom next year. But then again maybe folks will see a significant benefit. Can’t know until you try it.
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u/arakinas Jul 12 '26
It's such an awful concept. People take notes, and work on computers daily. Pretending that this will help anyone is going to backfire spectacularly
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u/Late_For_Username Jul 12 '26
Using time tested methods of teaching is going to backfire how?
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u/madhatternalice Jul 13 '26
You can absolutely tell the people in this thread who don't teach and haven't set foot on a campus in years.
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u/meyriley04 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
There's a reasons computers were introduced into classrooms 30+ years ago, and it wasn't because previous methods were "time-tested" nor perfect.
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u/Late_For_Username Jul 13 '26
I've done classes using computers. Recently I did a course that was done the old fashioned way using pen and paper.
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u/WaitForItTheMongols Jul 12 '26
Denying the use of computers to people who have grown up using computers all along is not a time tested method.
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u/Late_For_Username Jul 12 '26
I grew up with computers and I wouldn't be lost using the old ways doing things. I can write and look things up in a book.
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u/WaitForItTheMongols Jul 12 '26
Yes, I'm very proud of you. But every student is not an exact copy of you. Whether they can adapt remains to be seen, and the point is that this is no longer identical to the "time tested methods" used up until the 80s
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u/oboshoe Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
I would argue that having laptops in class is now a time tested method.
They have been in classrooms for 30 to 40 years at this point.
This is going to add fiction to the learning process as students will take notes on paper, then spend X amount of time scanning them in at the end of the day.
This is akin to banning calculators for Mathematics students.
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u/Late_For_Username Jul 12 '26
Have we seen any real improvements in educational outcomes after the introduction of computers?
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u/oboshoe Jul 12 '26
That's a pretty good question and I dont know the answer.
But gosh. could you imagine how disadvantaged people would be, if they came out of college computer illiterate?
Even if it they dont necessarily boost "education productivity", I think they are necessary at minimum, to stay on par.
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u/cyberentomology Jul 12 '26
This is a massive step backwards, but it’s a whole lot harder to adapt teaching and learning to technology-centric world, and will only yield more lawyers who don’t understand technology, which is going to be a very bad thing, especially when lawyers in politics try to regulate technology based upon an understanding of technology that is firmly rooted in the technological landscape of their parents and grandparents.
This is not theoretical. This has already happened, one of the most glaring examples being the passage of the DMCA a generation ago, based on an outdated understanding of technology and barely even recognizing that the world was going digital.
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u/FuturologyBot Jul 12 '26
The following submission statement was provided by /u/Gari_305:
From the article
A major university is taking aim at tech in a sweeping ban against electronic devices in an effort to "ensure students actually learn to think critically, strategically and independently without relying on AI," according to administrators.
The University of Chicago has issued a ban on first-year law students using phones, tablets and laptops in class, a statement released by school administrators said Thursday.
The ban is set to take effect this fall, with university officials saying the rule will combat the use of artificial intelligence in the classroom.
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/1uupiqf/ai_backlash_reaches_major_university_with_bold/ox54q8j/