I visited a middle school where all the students had laptops. The teachers would instruct the students to put their laptops in 1 of 3 positions: closed, open facing the student, and open facing the teacher.
The "open facing the teacher" seems strange, but it was incredibly useful because the teacher could quickly verify that all the students were looking at the right thing. It seemed like they turned their computers around 7 times during the class, and so it has the added benefit of not letting them screw around on the laptops.
I don't know if this is standard practice, but it worked well, and would be more cumbersome with a tablet.
The "open facing the teacher" seems strange, but it was incredibly useful because the teacher could quickly verify that all the students were looking at the right thing. It seemed like they turned their computers around 7 times during the class, and so it has the added benefit of not letting them screw around on the laptops.
I don't know if this is standard practice, but it worked well, and would be more cumbersome with a tablet.