More colleges, professors shutting down laptops and other digital distractions

Tablets such as the iPad will only make it harder for students to pay
attention in class and for schools to ban devices. Because the iPad can
be used to read textbooks, professors might be unsure which students are
goofing off and which are studying. Seton Hill University in
Pennsylvania doesn’t seem to mind. In the fall, the school is going to
give each incoming student a MacBook and an iPad. How distracted will
those students be?

And students just don’t understand why professors care. In the
University of Denver student newspaper, one student argued that it’s the
student’s problem if he or she isn’t paying attention and not the
“responsibility of professors to babysit the young adults in the class.”
The parents who pay thousands of dollars to universities probably
disagree with that sentiment, as does Krahel.

“The thing is, I’m responsible for these kids’ grades,” he said. “So it
reflects badly on me if they fail. And I’m not going to pull punches;
I’m not going to deliberately inflate their grades. But I’m not going to
give them the opportunity to shoot themselves in the foot.” —Laura Mortkowitz, The Big Money (Washington Post)