PHILADELPHIA — Biology professor Jody Hey was lecturing on human evolution one recent day at Temple University.

His students vigorously took notes by hand in paper notebooks.

There wasn’t a laptop in sight. Nor an iPhone. No student’s face was hidden by a screen.

Hey said he stopped allowing them about a year and a half ago after seeing research that students are too often distracted when laptops are open in front of them and actually learn better when they have to distill lectures into handwritten notes.

“The clearest sign that it’s making a difference is that students are paying attention more,” said Hey, who has taught at Temple for more than 12 years. “And they want to participate much more than before.”

Hey is among a seeming growing number of professors who have chosen to keep l

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