‘A breath of fresh air’: Students and Faculty Adapt to No-Tech Classrooms

Across the Chicago area, both Loyola and the University of Chicago are imposing stricter limits on technology, including laptops, phones and iPads during lectures.

At Loyola, students in the Interdisciplinary Honors Program are going technology free, with each course in the curriculum requiring notes and assignments to be completed by hand.

The recent decision as of this year comes as educators deal with the unintended consequences of technology in academic settings, from distracted students to over-reliance on artificial intelligence tools to help complete assignments, according to Loyola faculty members.

Teaching Professor in Loyola’s Interdisciplinary Honors Program Christopher Whidden said the decision to restrict technology was made collectively by seven faculty members with decades of combined teaching experience.

“We’re always open to trying new things in honors, and one of the major experiments that we tried was, ‘Let’s see how technology in the classroom goes,’” Whidden said. “I think we all decided that it didn’t go well, and we needed to make a change.”

In the classroom, Whidden often saw students distracted. 

“They were playing the New York Times Games, and then this has effects on who they’re sitting around right? Because if one student is playing Wordle, you know, the student behind is thinking, oh, now I’m playing Wordle too. I’m thinking about it,” he said.

Other students were watching ESPN during classtime, he said.

“Psychologists have shown that most of us vastly overestimate our ability to multitask, and when we’re not focused on a single thing, we’re not focused on anything,” Whidden said. “In the honors program, and for myself as a professor, I want to put students in a position to succeed. When I am permitting them to multitask, it puts the mistaken belief that they can do that, going against all data.”

First-year honors student Flannery Walsh finds the modified approach to in-class learning a reprieve.

“I really like writing notes by hand,” first-year honors student Flannery Walsh said. “I feel like it slows the class down and makes it easier to understand the concepts, instead of copying everything down on the board.”

Honors program director Michael Schumacher analyzed the trend of transitioning learning styles.

“Loyola is not necessarily unique in these decisions. Across academia, we’re finding schools doing this same thing,” Schumacher said.

At the University of Chicago, first-year law students are now required to put away computers and phones during class. The university now mandates devices stay away during class, requiring students to take notes and complete all assignments, including homework and exams, by hand. 

“This ensures that our students are learning to think for themselves in a rigorous, critical way without relying on shortcuts through AI,” Dean of University of Chicago Law School Adam Chilton said.

Chilton said his stance is to build students’ ability to analyze complex ideas independently, without using AI. For a profession that promotes a broader concern, an over-reliance on technology could diminish students’ ability to build on independent work, debate and reasoning, he said.

In the absence of technology, Whidden said Loyola’s honors program policy isn’t about rejecting the benefits of technology outright, but creating space for meaningful engagement. Whidden believes the policy is like “a breath of fresh air” as a faculty member, and, he senses, for students as well.

“Personally, I hate generative AI, and I love that we’re being encouraged to use our thoughts and own ideas in class rather than looking something up and having it tell us what to do,” first- year honors student Sophia Monroe said. “It’s also nicer to have a conversation with someone when they’re not staring at a screen.”  

Another aspect of the proliferation of technology is the strain on educators themselves. Researchers have identified “technology fatigue” among teachers, describing it as the pressure to constantly learn, integrate and manage digital platforms with little to no support, resulting in burnout.

While educators have noted the benefits of tech-free classrooms, Schumacher also pointed to broader life skills. As an example, analog classrooms could also help students cultivate what Schumacher calls “soft skills.”

“I think it’s better now to try to disengage artificial intelligence to get people to meaningfully communicate with each other,” Schumacher said. “The best way to do that is to put technology away, keep the cell phones away, et cetera.”