I'm not saying it's right that people goof off on their laptop during class. And yes, for discussion classes laptops should definitely not be needed, because honestly at least in my experience there was hardly anything worth taking notes on in discussion. No one wanted to be there and no one wanted to participate, so the only worth while things came from the GSI anyway.
But.
In lectures or regular classes profs need to get over the whole laptop thing. I'm sorry, but they're a way of life now. Why would I stress myself out to scribble down some incomprehensible gibberish when I can get down fully formed thoughts by typing them. And again, I'm paying for the class. I suppose it's a little different for GSIs and TAs, but at a big university like Michigan or USC the professor could give a crap less if you pass or not. It really doesn't effect them one way or the other. In fact in some classes there are only a certain number of each grade they can give out anyway.
So yeah. Basically I get why TAs and GSIs have an issue with goofing off on laptops. But for profs there is no reason to care.
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ocean kinda grew on me like a flesh eating ...fungus. -BIGPUN9999