Trudeau really hit home with this comic strip. Every single person in my section at Babson owns a laptop. Nearly everyone brings them to class. Most professors expect a level of multi-tasking, although some only want them open for note-taking.
The situation depicted in the comic actually happened to me earlier in module two. I’ve heard of classes where the majority of students are in a single Skype chat room.
Laptop use among college students has skyrocketed in recent years. I think there is opportunity in offering products that protect and stylize these expensive, common equipment. Here is an idea I recently threw into the bullpen on StudentBusinesses.com.
It’s only one [little] step further to eliminate the need for physically sitting in the class itself, since if everyone had a virtual presence (checking in via laptop, Blackberry, iphone, or office behemouth) the lecturer could still lecture, be heard, call on virtual attendees, get –and share– responses, hand out assignments. The notion of “class participation” as a %-component of your grade is questionable anyhow. The idea is always: pay the school for your credits, get the information and take what you want from the lectures, reading assignments, etc. Why exactly do we continue to need to physically assemble –unless we want to meet and greet, etc. — which is fine, but irrelevant to the degree/credit goals. Hmmm?