Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Colleges worry about always-plugged-in students

http://articles.boston.com/2011-04-24/news/29469460_1_mit-social-networking-laptops
Tangled in an endless web of distractions:
Colleges worry about always-plugged-in students
by Tracy Jan
Boston Globe
April 24, 2011

...

[S]ome MIT professors are urging college leaders across the country to free students from their tether to technology. Over the past decade, schools raced to connect students to the Internet � in dorms, classrooms, even under the old oak tree. But now, what once would have been considered heresy is an active point of discussion: pulling the virtual plug to encourage students to pay more attention in class and become more adept at real-life social networking.

�I have been a bit skeptical about the value of making an entire campus wireless,�� said Lawrence Bacow, president of Tufts University and former chancellor of MIT, where he was a professor when it began wiring all classrooms in the mid-1990s. �It seems like everyone is always plugged in and always distracted.��

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology � home to the father of the World Wide Web and where the Internet is accessible even near the banks of the Charles River � students� eyes obsessively wander, midconversation, down to laptops and cellphones, checking for missed updates from friends.

In class, professors complain about students trading stocks online, shopping for Herm�s scarves, showing one another video clips on YouTube � leading some faculty to call for the unwiring of all lecture halls.

�Students are totally shameless about how they use their computers in class,�� said David Jones, an MIT professor. �I fantasize about having a Wi-Fi jammer in my lecture halls to block access to distractions.��

<rest of article at link>

I think this is a problem not just for college students.

I totally agree that this a problem! It's scary how distracted kids are nowadays...

I don't think they should cut off or make rules against something if it can be used in a responsible way. A policy against disturbing others in the class by any action should suffice. These people are suppose to be adults and should be able to handle some simple rules. If they only affect themselves, let them.

Don't punish everyone because of what a few irresponsible people do.

My mother-in-law recently got her degree. She told many stories about going back to school "late in life" but the one that I remember vividly is how she would sit in the back of the lecture hall, diligently taking notes on her laptop and look around briefly and see every other laptop screen with images of solitaire, ebay, gambling, zappos, facebook, etc etc. She couldn't believe that (likely) the parents of these students were spending so so so much money to send these kids to school and this is what they were getting out of it.

I can't believe it's not the parents asking for the unwiring of lecture halls.