Tell the Teacher We're Surfin'

"Several years ago I watched a particularly memorable 'Law Revue' skit night at Yale. One of the skits had a group of students sitting at desks, facing the audience, listening to a professor drone on.
"All of the students were looking at laptops except for one, who had a deck of cards and was playing solitaire. The professor was outraged and demanded that the student explain why she was playing cards. When she answered 'My laptop is broken,' I remember there was simultaneously a roar of laughter from the student body and a gasp from the professors around me. In this one moment, we learned that something new was happening in class."

Ian Ayers in The New York Times' Freakonomics blog muses about students electronically multitasking in class.

Courtney E. Martin in The American Prospect adds her perspective.