Some might see my posts as inconsistent, but I see them as a revealing statement about what I think of faculty meetings.

I saw people

– watching DVDs (with an earplug in!)

– playing Snood (requires enough of your visual cortex that your listening center is likely to be entirely off)

– updating resumes

– updating their student comments

– checking up on Friendster.com

– downloading Stuff

– IMing

– writing op-ed pieces

– and yes, flirting.

There’s a way to deal with the internet use. Many ways.

You can make it a practice to walk around the room, or put a professor in the back of the room sometimes.

You can disable wireless internet for the room, if feasible.

You can log onto IM yourself, add your students to your buddy list, and check it once or twice during class. If people are online, send them a message. “psst: you’re in class. unless you need to share notes with the person on call, or are awaiting an urgent message, please log off.” This works even better if you’re projecting your screen on the wall of the lecture hall.

As far as those who can:

I’m smarter and thinking in more depth when I type the prawf’s words as they’re said. I can use formatting, links, fonts etc. to livenote, showing a student’s q and the prawf’s a.

If I’d had my blawg when i was in law school, i might have

– blogged fascinating conversations

– blogged hilarious prawf comments or silly student responses

– blogged about what we were doing in class, even if I had to write up the post before or after class, rather than during.

– revealed embarassing or even potentially career-damaging facts about prawfs. Good thing I didn’t have this blawg, and am in no position to harm anyone but myself.

Good luck with this interesting issue – glad you’re not an absolutist.