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Been there.

Done that.

Didn't change a damn thing.

Yeah, because an hurricane is an everyday event.

I'm talking about a periodic (high-tide) flooding of the subway.

Been there.

Done that.

Didn't change a damn thing.

Which is exactly why there ought to be legislation of some kind to prohibit the kind of thinking that makes American businesses not required to obey the Constitution when it doesn't involve dealings on American soil. American soil or not, the business operates in America, where such rights are supposedly "protected".

There is such a law that allows foreigners to sue businesses in US courts for wrongs they commit or for which they supported in other countries. The Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) of 1789 was created just for this. It has been used to sue a number businesses, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, and other large corporations have been sued using the ATCA. Shell was sued for supporting the execution of Ken Saro Wiwa and other Nigerian by the Nigerian military rulers. Chevron was sued in LA for the shooting of peaceful protesters at "Chevron's Parabe offshore platform and the destruction of two villages by soldiers in Chevron helicopters and boats" in Nigeria. Of course during his presidency Bush tried to Bush even tried to get the US Supreme Court to disallow human rights violation lawsuits, more evidence he supported torture.

Falcon

I haven't read all comments of this obviously very popular topic. so forgive me if I'm repeating something here.

You might want to contact Suffolk Univeristy and its administration. To the best of my knowledge they record (on video tape) all lectures and make them available to students. I'm sure they have studied the effects of this on class attendence.

Fine teaching text, so far.

• Babson College Wellesley
• Bentley College Waltham
• Berklee College of Music Boston
• Boston Architectural Center Boston
• Boston College Newton
• Boston Conservatory, The Boston
• Boston University Boston
• Brandeis University Waltham
• Bunker Hill Community College Boston
• Cambridge College Cambridge
• Emerson College Boston
• Emmanuel College Boston
• Fisher College Boston
• Harvard University Cambridge
• Hellenic College Brookline
• Lesley College Cambridge
• MIT Cambridge
• Massachusetts College of Art Boston
• Massachusetts College of Pharmacy
  and Allied Health Sciences Boston
• Mount Ida College Newton
• New England Conservatory of Music Boston
• New England School of Law Boston
• Northeastern University Boston
• Pine Manor College Chestnut Hill
• Radcliffe College Cambridge
• Simmons College Boston
• Suffolk University Boston
• Tufts University Medford
• Wellesley College Wellesley
• Wentworth Institute of Technology Boston
• Wheelock College Boston

While I have no basis to make this broad generalization, I'd imagine that it's no different at RPI than anywhere else.

They were still phasing in the 4x4 curriculum and Total Laptop Domination while I was there, so my experience was probably somewhat different... but if it wasn't laptops, it was (gasp!) reading something other than the text or notes during class, or (GASP!) writing messages on paper to the person next to you. And this was WAY back in 1999! ;)

In some ways, the latter was even more instant than this so-called "Instant" Messaging technology, because you could snicker as soon as the person was half-done writing their snide or humorous comment to the point that the punch line was understandable.

Another benefit is the longevity of such comments - I have many notes between myself and the guy who sat next to me in class in my Human Physiology I notebook (the paper kind) that still refresh my memory of specific lectures. Class was made memorable by the daily choice of attire by the professor (they didn't call her "Jane, the Lion Tamer" for nothing) and subsequent note-taking on non-physiological topics.

I'm in a different kind of school now, and find that the frequency of laptop use/abuse in class is inversely proportional to the communication ability of the lecturer. There are some classes that I assume that I need to take a few notes and otherwise sit there, learning by osmosis. The rationale that everyone uses isn't one of "keeping back channels open to discuss classwork," but "staying awake and surviving through this class so we look alive and don't get called on." It is something of a survivalist response, but there have been times where the majority of the class has been in an AIM chatroom, and the victim of a random-assed question directed at one student by the prof has been assisted by classmates via AIM. This helps the student in saving face, but is it really helping learning?

The most disturbing comments I heard were from a student who visited another school and noticed that a few students were watching DVDs on their laptops during class. When she asked the prof about it, the response was a flippant "hey, at least they're coming to class."

There are certain classes in which I don't dare plug into the ethernet jack - not out of fear of the prof, but because I might be distracted and miss a good point by the lecturer or another student. I actually enjoy this environment more, since I don't feel the need to distract myself to stay awake.

I do feel somewhat guilty paying $234827539438579348573945834.56 a year (+/-) in tuition just to chat in class, even if some of the profs are begging to be talked about with classmates in real time to catch the humor of their phrases and mannerisms. I'm going up to my eyeballs in debt to learn; I an chat on AIM (iChat, really) anytime I want to - for free.

Perhaps it will force the issue of recognizing talented, engaging lecturers versus those who read off whatever's on the podium. Maybe schools should start using "percentage of time I was chatting on AIM during class" as a new criterion in faculty course evaluations...