Laptop lapses

My 8:00 class looks a bit disjointed this morning: roughly half the students face forward while the other half have turned their desks to face the back wall. It looks like half the class is being punished, but no: they're just taking their midterm, an in-class essay, and those who choose to use a laptop are facing the back wall so I can see all the screens. I've told them that they can use any resource available inside the classroom, but if I see any signs of e-mailing, instant messaging, googling, or other attempts to connect with people outside the classroom, their grade is toast.

I really would prefer not to spend the next hour looking over the shoulders of hard-working students, but prior encounters with cheaters have made me cautious. My composition classes emphasize writing as a recursive process involving revision, and computers make revision much easier--but they also introduce new problems, not the least of which is misplaced trust in spelling checkers. In the past I have had students use instant messaging to "help" each other during exams, and more than one student has discovered the horrors of losing a finished essay to a technological glitch.

I warn them about these problems in advance, and I remind them that technological difficulties do not excuse late work. Still, many prefer to write on laptops, and I am loath to tell them no. So there they sit, facing the wall, their fingers flying across the keyboard as if writing for their lives. The results will be legible, but will they be coherent? I'll know in an hour--or slightly less.

P.S. Class is over--finally--and the biggest problem was getting the last few students to leave! I kept having this conversation:

"I need more time."
"Time is up."
"But I'm not finished."
"But time is up."
"But I can't write a whole essay in 90 minutes."
"One of the goals of an in-class essay is to assess your ability to organize your ideas and write under pressure. That means when time is up, you turn in your essay."
"But I need more time."
"Everyone would like more time. Turn it in."
"But I'm not finished."
"Another class needs this room. Turn it in."
"But I need more time."

Finally I had to chase the last two students out of the classroom, but they followed me into my office to continue to beg for more time to finish their essays. One refused to leave my office no matter how many times I said "No no no no no!" He would walk out and then walk back in with a big grin on his face and a huge "Please" issuing from his mouth. I don't know how many times I said no before he finally left.

Now I have a big pile of student papers on my desk and two more midterms to give. I need more time.