After reading “Stay offline or just stay home” I felt compelled to write a response. I 100 percent agree that the emergence of technology in the classroom is a bad thing when used inappropriately.

Laptops and now smartphones can be a huge distraction for students, and not just for the ones using them. However the solution provided in the “Stay offline or just stay home” article has one huge problem: Marquette has an attendance policy.

If we stay home, we get dropped. The College of Business has an attendance policy that if more than two weeks of class are missed, you will be dropped from the class. For example, in a 75-minute class you are allowed four absences. So, if we want to be able to pass our classes, we need to attend; we cannot simply “stay home.”

This is our education and more importantly our money, and whether or not we decide to attend class should be our decision—not that of some attendance policy.

Eliminate the attendance policy and there is a good chance you will see the number of laptops and smartphones in the classroom decrease.

I also think it is very easy for faculty to put all the blame on the students, rather than possibly looking at themselves.

If students can still pass and succeed in their class while using laptops, smartphones, etc., then perhaps the material they are delivering in class is just not that crucial to the success of the students.

I know from personal experience that when I am enrolled in classes with engaging professors and interesting content, my smartphone is nowhere to be seen (most of my classes at MU). However, you throw me in a class with a “snoozer” professor and content I can get from reading the textbook, I’ll be tweeting all class, and more than likely, tweeting about how unbearable it is.

By Curtis McCormac, Senior, College of Business Administration