[Clubber]

If I were a professor, I wouldn't allow open laptops or phones. I would imagine it's a huge distraction and students are there to listen to the lecture and learn, not goof off with their devices. I'm old and crotchety though. We had laptops when I went to school, but no one (that I noticed) used them in non-computer class.

[msangi]

I would allow them, but then I'd also shift the focus from learning some mechanical procedure or facts to more fundamental concepts and increase the complexity of the problems accordingly.

It's hard to do it right, but I believe it has the potential to to engage students and increase their understanding by separating the boring parts (that a computer can easily do) and the challenging parts that the students need to understand