


MBA diary: Highly distracted

ESADE student Andrew Pollen believes technology damages the MBA learning experience

EVERETT, an 8th-grade maths teacher, often begins class with an online quiz. Each student is given a laptop and has a few minutes to answer five multiple-choice questions. Everett can access results instantly; he knows which concept is confounding the class and which students are having the most trouble. “The computers are great,” he says. “They provide real-time feedback and remove the stigma associated with seeking help.”

But after the quiz, students stow their laptops under their desks and class continues without them.   “It wouldn’t be constructive to allow laptops for the whole class. It would cause chaos,” he says.

Cut to most MBA classrooms today and such chaos is the norm. As attention flitters between the lecture and the laptop, iPad or mobile-phone screen, professors see more of their students’ scalps than the whites of their eyes. Some students are doubtless taking notes or consulting a reference library, but most are doing homework or simply goofing off.

I don’t deny that distributing class notes and textbooks in digital form saves paper and makes them more accessible on the go. In fact, an extensive trial of iPads in MBA classrooms at the University of Notre Dame showed them to be beneficial. Having discussed the matter with those classmates who went on exchange (as did I, at the Chinese University of Hong Kong) I know it is a current debate in most MBA programmes around the world. 

Business schools take different stances on the issue. Most leave it up to the professors, who generally permit technology because of its potential as a learning tool, though some schools disable the wireless signal inside lecture halls. Yet at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, for example, professors hawkishly enforce a laptop and iPad ban. At the other end of the spectrum, Manchester Business School and Hult International Business School provide every incoming student with an iPad – which seems to me like giving a kid the key to the candy store.

Defenders of technology might argue that MBA students pay handsomely for their education and are entitled to consume it as they see fit, as long as they fulfil course requirements and pass exams. But since students are expected to learn from each other, tuning out jeopardizes the overall classroom experience. If everyone spends the lecture browsing Facebook or shopping online, who is left to contribute to the discussion?

Another argument runs that students are not sidetracked by their devices per se; they are simply bored by course content. If the devices were not available students would resort to other manners of distraction such as reading a newspaper or taking a nap. I have certainly endured lectures in which I felt my time was better spent applying for a job or even checking e-mails. However, it usually results that those who are engrossed in their laptops (including myself, on occasion) miss the concepts that turn out to be interesting or important.

I am in favour of courses that are custom-designed to use technology—for instance, using an online simulation or an interactive e-textbook. Similarly, I would never suggest that laptops be banned from case exercises in an accounting, finance or valuation class. But I think the MBA experience would be richer at business schools around the world if there were sensible restrictions on technology. After all, an Angry Birds top score will only get you so far in life. 

Read Andrew's previous diary here

School discussion page: ESADE

Readers' comments


Travis Pollen

I type much more quickly than I write, so it's essential for me to have my laptop in class. I also use it to look up unfamiliar words and concepts... and check e-mail. But that's on me. The benefits of having technology accessible in-class certainly overweight the negatives.

Tal R

It would be out of line for a student to pull out a newspaper in class and start reading. No one would fault a professor for having a no-newspaper-in-class rule. Browsing web content on a laptop is less conspicuous, but just as rude.

I agree with Travis about the benefits of having a laptop in class for note-taking. However, the value of internet access during class time is dubious. A good compromise could be to restrict students' connections to the internet rather than the devices themselves. Just turn wifi off during class hours.


If you are an adult and choose to pay for a program, you should be allowed to do whatever you choose to do.

If you cannot handle distractions in class, you cannot handle distractions in life.

Matt433 in reply to Mr_K_

While I want to agree - in this case, those distractions impact other people who are also paying for both what is taught in class, as well as the experience brought to class by their peers. If those peers aren't bringing anything other than their presence and distractions, they are a net negative on the class.

Unfortunately, not everyone is mature enough to follow common sense / behave when presented with that freedom - and it is often best to restrict it.


This article addresses to an important issue in classroom teaching. A simple method is to alternate connected and unconnected periods ... first, the professor presents his case and the students take handwritten notes and make questions. Once the professor completes a chunk, the students are allowed to use their tables or PCs for some time, and then, according to the specific class room situation, discussion may ensue or back to the professor agenda.


The key is that professors and teachers need to make the learning experience compelling and involving. Technology is so much a part of peoples daily lives that it also needs to be incorporated as part of the learning process. Keep the students interested, entertained, engaged and informed and they will pay attention.

Alice in Wonderland

Technology has nothing to do with the problem. The problem is about management.

Any teacher that allows his students to goof off in class is simply a poor teacher. The teacher must take control of the class and keep it. If he believes that some student isn’t paying attention then he asks that student a question. If he believes that some student is playing some game on a laptop, then the teacher walks over and looks. And if that student *is* playing a game, then that student it thrown out of the class.

Students have a responsibility to the program and to their fellow students but the teacher is the one who organizes and controls the teaching situation, and so *enforces* those responsibilities. In a school of business it is absurd that a teacher allows his students attention to wander because the teacher is the manager in that context, and he has failed in his management of that class if his students don’t focus and don’t do the job. Any manager who fails in that way *deserves* to be ignored because he clearly doesn’t understand what he is doing.


As a professor with a leading Indian Business School, I find that open laptops distract the attention of the students. Most of the time they are engrossed in facebook or Orkut or watching EPL. If one attends class with the laptop open in front of her/him, what is the need of having a professor in front - rather have a video of the professor !!

As I noted above, as an instructor, this problem is under your control. *Engage* your students and maybe they won’t fall asleep.

If somebody is looking out the window, ask him questions. If you think that somebody is lost in his notebook, walk over and find out! If he is doing something stupid then make a definitive judgment on it that the whole class can hear. And enforce it! Dismiss him from the class or have him stand up by the blackboard, or any number of context sensitive engagements. The instructor sets the rules and enforces them, if he doesn’t do either, then he can’t blame inattention and poor engagement on the students - or their tools.

The instructor is the manager of the classroom. Whatever happens there is a reflection of his management skills. If people are dozing off, then he had better change how he runs the place.

Laptops are a tool, just like calculators are tools. The class notes can be in front of the student, but that is not a replacement for an instructor who *engages* his students in the material. It is only a replacement for absent instructors. Engage your class with questions and get them to think about the material. If you just expect them to just sit there and copy whatever you write on the blackboard then it is not surprising that they are doing something else. That is not a problem with your students, it is a problem with how you teach.


Somebody who is enrolled in an MBA program is certainly spending a lot of money to be sitting there. If his sense of time and value tells him that he can use that period to waste it over internet browsing then let him take that risk - after all it is his money, time, and desire to waste valuable opportunities. What sort of a leader will emerge from such pre-occupation will be his test in life. Those who are aware of their talents and responsiblities will certainly avail every opportunity available to them. And enhance those through a world class education.

kdesarker in reply to Alice in Wonderland

My dear, I suggest you come to India and teach - first hand experience will get you a different perspective as it is not only me who is facing this issue - but 90% of our faculty is facing this problem. I can bite the bullet that perhaps I may be lacking something - but when 20 odd faculty members complain of the same issue then there is a ISSUE out there. Vast majority of Indian students enter b-schools thinking that "I have paid a princely amount so I am entitled to a degree and a 5/6 figure salaried job". And shortcuts are a part of Indian culture so people are always thinking that if I can cross the line without breaking my head on what the faculty is talking about - then why run and break my head. :)

Magnum Opus in reply to kdesarker

I strongly support what Kdesarker has written. "Engaging" the students of this generation and getting them interested in the learning process,is one of the biggest problems that faculty members face here. This is generally a cultural phenomenon in India that we seem unable to maintain consistently high standards and prevent dilution at the time of admission, examination and evaluation.We seem to be ever ready to sacrifice rigour and tougher standards everywhere. No wonder, I find that even in well-known schools of business in this country, majority of students are unable to discuss issues and implications of managerial policies and strategies with any meaningful analysis and depth.
Perhaps, it is to do with our fascination for "short cuts" and "let-it-be" culture which has been the hall mark of the life in this country.
The students who enter the portals of the business schools in this country have a deficient preparation to start with, have a strong job-entitlement orientation (because a lot of money has been paid for MBA course to the business school)and are easily distracted by the modern tools of technology like smart phones and iPads which engage them more than the subjects and the academic course work. The fun-and-entertainment orientation is too strong to allow the serious learning process to take priority and precedence. We seem to be caught up in a vicious circle because even the administrators of business schools do not seem to be interested enough in tightening the academic standards and losing the stream of students and consequently revenue for their set-up.

I have been educated abroad and it pains me to see the general decline in our management programs at MBA level in India which are practically shorn of any academic challenge and rigour for the students. I am not against introduction of technology in the class room but providing iPads and other devices to the students when they are not focused on learning process to begin with, is more like adding fuel to the fire.


This is an issue that transcends the business world as much as it does in education. As much as I like to see technology get used the simple fact is that, in my experience, in 90% of cases these electronic devices are being used to send email or do something other than focus on the task in hand.

My all time low experience is when my boss was sending me emails to action when apparently conducting my end of year review (our working relationship ceased not long after this point).

Sorry, all electronic devices are banned in all meetings where I am the chair. Call me a dinosaur all you like but I get measured on results and that means having a team focused on the task in hand not 'poking' their mates.

Gurinder S Ahluwalia

Laptops & Ipads in school may distract the youth but in higher education, particularly MBA we need to allow the use in classroom during lecture & discussions. Most classroom are wired these days and the faculty uses new & projection as teaching aids. Moreover online video & websites could be shared in real time if students are wired too. Its the way to go !


in academia, society, or business, banning or ignoring the prevalence of new technology is usually the most short-sighted and counter-productive approach. sensible boundaries or etiquette can be set, but along with inevitable downsides every technology carries the potential to enhance the learning format. particularly in MBA classrooms, where people will go into the workplace expected to leverage technology to be as informed, organized, and productive as possible the discussion should be around how to embrace the trends in technology and incorporate them into the educational process. burying your head in the sand and maintaining a "traditional" academic process is a great way to speed up your obsolescence as an academic institution. i'm sure at some point in the 90s people looked at web based portals and said by moving discussions and access to materials outside of the classroom it encouraged students to skip lectures. no doubt that it did, but the benefits were far greater for all parties and systems like Blackboard are now an indispensible part of every University's approach



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