Adrian Hall

Ethics Paul Firenze

Final Research Project
December 15th, 2014

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Utilitarianism of Embracing Laptops in Education

Belonging to an institute that presents each student with a
laptop as part of being enrolled as a full-time student, one would
consider the actual benefits of their use. Through the philosophies one
would come to understand through studying ethics, the benefits are
very comparable to the consequences of using them. In light of the
technological age, the use of computers in the work place, and the
benefits of education through application, one would need to consider
most consequences connected to the use of laptops. Brought on by
these factors, the goal is to weigh the good and the bad results of the
use of laptops in the classroom, under Utilitarian Ethics.
Utilitarianism is the separation of performing an activity based on
the pleasures of its results outweighing the possible pain. In the Letter
to Menoeceus, Epicurus of Samos writes, Pleasure is the beginning
and the goal of a happy life. John Stuart Mill continues off of this
philosophy and similar ideas from Bentham in Utilitarianism, that Utility
is, Pleasure itself, together with exemption from pain. Placing these
terms together, one can understand that with, specifically, laptop
technology in the classrooms, what makes it exactly ethical, based off
of these Utilitarian principles. The education and investment in such
technology must overcome the amount of possible distraction and
hindering of each individuals personal education.

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Wentworth Institute of Technology is a college that provides to
students interested in the fields of technology, such as engineering,
design, information management, and applied mathematics. The
school caters to its students by presenting them with a laptop, with
preloaded software, upon their arrival to the institution. Students are
given these laptops with the most updated hardware and software,
programs that meet their curriculum needs, and technical
requirements based off of what is expected by the industry (Laptop
Program Overview). Departments then structure curriculum and syllabi
to execute the students performance with the given equipment.
Students are then expected to use these tools to help them achieve
most objectives and assignments within the classroom.
With the expectation that students always need their portable
devices to complete their schoolwork, what are the results of this
behavior? Students carry laptops back and forth to class to take notes,
complete and submit assignments, and conduct research for studies.
They learn how to better present by using visual aids allowed through
the use of technology. The only problem is that while students are
expected to use the laptops for their own benefit, there is a limit of use
before the laptop becomes a distraction from their absorption of
material.
Guidance from administration pushes that students are supposed
to use their laptops continually throughout all of their education, it

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becomes difficult to control how much students are using them
specifically to advance their minds pertaining to their intended subject
matter. Wentworth does not have website filters to block students from
accessing distracting matter while they are in class hours. It wouldnt
be fair to students that have a break in their schedule or students that
are on internships and utilizing the campus for housing. The
responsibility then lies in the hands of the students and their
instructors. Instructors have to really push for the efficient use of
laptops and they need the help of students to respond positively to
their expectations in the classrooms. This could be presented by
having discussions about taking notes and disconnecting from the
network source while doing so, to prevent social media distractions or
computer-based messaging. Utilitarianism ethics need to be
considered as teachers and professors determine which rules they feel
will help their pupils gain the most.
Technology in the classrooms is a trend that can be seen and
discussed all over the world. Not only is it something that is happening
at Wentworth, in the greater Boston area, but schools such as the
Universidade Lusfona do Porto, are analyzing behaviors associated
with the use laptops in the classroom. Maria Jos Ferreira, an Assistant
Professor of the School of Psychology, writes in her research article,
Intelligent Classrooms and Smart Software: Teaching and Learning in
Todays University, that students are using Word, Powerpoint, email,

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and Web pages (Ferraira 24). She continues to describe that although
students are gaining this knowledge, the Nature of available features
is seen to limit creativity subtly infringing on academic freedom
(Ferraira 24). She has this notion that with these learned programs,
students are satisfied with the accessibility and tend not to look
beyond other mediums for completing work. Ferraira makes a point
that from a center standard that all educational factors should revolve
around technology, including note taking, learning can become
depressed along with class participation (Ferraira 25). Through
research of laptop use, it can be contested that because technology
can decrease motivation and effort, there is more pain from its use
and therefore not making those using it completely happy with the
principle.
Another way to examine this practice would be to look at the
actual experience and discuss the ethics behind activity to teach about
future behaviors and proper use. In Gaming, Texting, Learning?
Teaching Engineering Ethics through Students Lived Experiences with
Technology, writer Georgina Voss, Faculty of the Arts at University of
Brighton, reveals that, The social nature of young peoples
engagement with digital technologies and content has potential as an
instructional tool for ethics education (Voss 1380). As most ethics
classes run, students discuss principles and philosophies, while
teachers play devils advocate to create discussion about different

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viewpoints. Voss has the idea that by focusing on the experience of
students using technology, ethical practice of using technology can be
learned. If an instructor gives a student a chance to make ethical
judgments, explain and compare them with those that other students
make, the student is more likely to learn than if she gets no such
experience (Voss 1378), is a perfect example that Voss makes that it
is better to gain some than none, which would fit the principles set by
Utilitarianism.
To further breakdown the importance of laptops in the
classrooms, would be to look at the uses and ethics of it applied to
industry, following the higher education experience. Sven Ove
Hansson, from the Institute of Technology in Stockholm, researches
The Ethics of Enabling Technology, in it subject-based titled article.
He concludes from his research that, The quality of life of people
depends to large extent on the availability of technology (Hansson
265). Hansson believes that enabling technology will help us further
investigate ethics, not only in healthcare, his field of study, but also in
the surrounding society (265). The idea under Utilitarianism ethics is
that the effect on the quality on life and the advancement of the
discussion of ethics are exact reasons to weigh the pleasure of
technology, including laptops, and enable it.
Nord, a Professor of Management Science and Information Systems at Oklahoma
State University, Paliszkiewicz, part of the Department of Economics and Organization of

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Enterprises at Warsaw University of Life Science, and Koohang, a Professor of
Information Technology at Middle Georgia State College, all are in agreement about
enabling technology. They performed research as a group to show how organizations are
using social technologies in support of their business. Social technologies are becoming a
widespread strategy across the globe. This leads the group to evaluate the fact that
College graduates will be expected to understand social strategy for business and the
hows and whys of social technologies in the business world (Nord 13). With this
theory, the so called distraction that is seen in most college classrooms can be reevaluated as a self-learned self-education to move with the times of the future as students
are seeing the benefit raising beyond the drawbacks.
From personal experience, the use of technology has many pros and cons that
would make it beneficial or a drawback. In the hopes of testing this, a presentation was
given without the use of laptop to create a visual aid. The students were told before that
nothing would be used and some demonstrated that they absorbed all information by
actively responding to the presentation with questions or comments. The use of laptops
still interfered with the experiment as students who were in the audience ignored the
speaker and looked at their digital screens. Those students gave no input and only lifted
their heads to the sound of the word, Computer. The best solution would be to
determine the balance best fit for the audience, whether a laptop helps the presenter and
the audience falls back to no technology. The benefits do not win over the drawbacks
from the given trial, but with the idea that the future is really only calling on the use of
visual aid through technology, students would be better off establishing rules for

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audience-presenter respect and only the presenter is allowed to use their technology for
the period in which they present.
In conclusion, Utilitarianism Ethics supports the use of laptops in the classroom
as a moral behavior, as the supports rise over the problems. Technology has been proven
as a more efficient way as it will help the future of those students and the rest of society.
In the classroom setting, Utilitarian Ethics come into play as instructors contemplate how
to help students best absorb the materials they are teaching with the use of technology, as
they try not to impede on the already learned uses or take away a key resource that will
progress them in their future careers. As an ongoing discussion, those who choose to
embrace laptops in their classrooms, would be best advised to have conversations of the
ethical approaches to using them to allow the students to be fully informed of the
consequences of their behaviors.

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Works Cited
Ferreira, Maria Jos, and M. "Intelligent Classrooms and Smart Software:
Teaching and Learning in Today's University."Education and Information
Technologies 17.1 (2012): 3-25. ProQuest. Web.

Hansson, Sven O. V. E. "The Ethics of Enabling Technology." Cambridge

Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 16.3 (2007): 257-67.ProQuest. Web.

"Laptop Program Overview." About The Program Wentworth Institute of

Technology: Department of Technical Services. Division of Technology Services, 20142015 Laptop Committee Members, Web.

Nord, Jeretta Horn, Joanna Paliszkiewicz, and Alex Koohang. "Using Social
Technologies For Competitive Advantage: Impact On Organizations And Higher
Education." The Journal of Computer Information Systems 55.1 (2014): 92104. ProQuest. Web.

Voss, Georgina. "Gaming, Texting, Learning? Teaching Engineering Ethics

through Students' Lived Experiences with Technology." Science and Engineering
Ethics 19.3 (2013): 1375-93. ProQuest. Web.