Reply #9: I think it depends very much on the course work.

[SOteric]

I can see a laptop as a very serious tool for some sciences. But obviously, surfing DU instead of listening to a lecture on the military reforms of Marius and Diocletian would be a wrong and bad thing.

And I tend to disagree that the professors should bear any burden for being 'more interesting.' The objective in a classroom is to gain an education. It's an objective backed up with a hefty tuition typically paid by a students parents or with tax dollars. There's no objective relevant to the classroom for being entertaining unless one is studying something like Theatre.

I understand there's difficulty in paying any attention to a real snoozer of a Prof, I've done more than my fair share of it myself. Suck it up and drive on. Some things in life are just plain not amusing and one can't be dragging a laptop everywhere just to keep oneself entertained.

That said, many students learn material more quickly by writing or typing it out. Some amount of visual stimulation seems to activate their learning centers.