Bwog has seen what you’re up to…

The topic of whether laptops and smartphones should be allowed in class is by now a long-established source of debate among academics in universities worldwide. After sitting in a large lecture at Barnard where the lecturer began with a gentle request reminding students to refrain from online shopping in class or at least have the courtesy to move to the back if it is so vital, this student got thinking about the weirder things they had seen people getting up to in class…

Bwog put together a few highlights from around campus that raised an eyebrow or two:

• Playing Microsoft Solitaire for three successive lectures
• Playing a Flags of the World game… and getting every single one wrong.
• Playing CoolMathGames
• Arguing with their mother via iMessage on MacBook
• Texting their friend, seated directly next to them, about how creepy the professor was.
• Furiously googling the Professor
• An online chess match with the person next to them, complete with a checkmate victory dance

Studies have indicated that students multitasking on laptops do not just injure their academic performance, but also others with a direct view of them. Is witnessing someone else shopping for winter coats in seminar the second-hand smoking of academia? Maybe next time, it might be worth telling your friends to save adding the overpriced Yoga pants to their basket until after discussion section.

But in case you thought the blame might be placed squarely on the potential for distractions enabled by the age of the laptop in lectures, Bwog spotted some old-school analog diversions too…

• Eating a Chipotle Bowl in class.
• Consuming a banana in a suggestive manner in a FroSci Lecture.
• An intense two-player match of Tic-Tac-Toe on paper in the middle of a 3000-level class.

We’ll just stick to worrying about typing good notes while checking our e-mails for the millionth time.

Crowded classroom via Bwog Archives