When we professors were students, we were all guilty of being off task from time to time during a class. Maybe you thought there wasn't any harm in jotting a note to a friend. Perhaps, in more recent years, you stole a quick glance at Facebook during a lull in the lecture.
No big deal.
But when I handed out an article in class the other day for my students to read silently, I was surprised to hear a keyboard clicking. I strolled over to see one student hurriedly pick up her article and pretend to read, and I quietly reminded her to stay off the Internet.
No big deal.
Not one minute later, I was aghast to see that the same student had put her article back down on the desk and was now moving the mouse around.
This time it was a big deal.
Being in my early 30s, and having recently finished my own coursework, I grew up on the cusp of the instant-gratification....
