In a May 18, 2011 article in Inside Higher Ed, Steve Kolowich summarized two studies on college students’ laptop typing behavior.  The studies differed from those reported earlier because rather than surveying students and professors, the researchers set up ways to spy on students while they were in class with their laptops.  An exploratory study at the University of Vermont revealed that instant messaging was the only laptop use that appeared to affect performance on assessments.  At St. John’s University a law professor discovered that upper level students spent more time on class unrelated sites than lower level students.  Those results were used to shape laptop use policies and not determine the effects of laptop use on learning.  The professor, Jeff Sovern, said that the “problem is a lot of students use laptops legitimately, so anytime you ban laptops, you’re cutting off the ability of student to do that. . . it’s a decision that, to my mind, should be based on the data rather than ego.”