Grudging upvote. One of the most depressing sights I see these days is lecture halls full of students on Facebook. I guess a lot of students don't care about red black trees or strongly connected components, despite ostensibly seeking a CS degree.
But there's more to it than that. Lectures suck as a means of learning about red-black trees. Unless the lecturer is literally world-class, I can better spend my time by watching the world-class version of the lecture on iTunes U. Or by reading the best book on the subject -- books move faster than lectures, except when you need to slow down and think, in which case they obligingly slow down for you.
Of course, while lectures are a fairly low-efficiency way to learn many subjects, it is necessary to give them at least a little attention in order to learn about what will be on the specific test that the professor will give you at the end of the term. And, of course, some lecturers are world-class. If you find one, put Facebook away, for god's sake!
Molecular and Cell Biology 140: General Genetics - Fall 2007 Audio
Fyodor Urnov, G. Garriga, R. Brem
Note: These people speak very fast.
That's a really good insight.
There needs to be a site where I can go to to watch the best possible explanation for any concept. Something like a Wikipedia for videos.
P.S. I don't mean to suggest people blowing off their classes to use Facebook is the way to go, but I think that to suggest it can't have value is somewhat silly.
I Facebook in a few of my classes. Sometimes it's because we're going over something I learned when I was younger. (I know how to use Final Cut, for instance, even if I'm completely clueless about sound/lighting setups on a movie set, so despite one class's being productive there're interludes where I don't need to focus as much.
I have other classes, however, where a good part of the focus seems to be on socializing. My entire major is devoted to entrepreneurialism; a huge part of the major is meeting other people and getting ideas going. So classes often have a relaxed environment in which people are encouraged to talk to one another. Facebook's useful there, also. I personally find it much easier to judge people and their ideas online; in person everybody seems beautiful and brilliant.
A huge part of what you get when you pay for college is access to all those people. Classes are valuable on one level specifically because they put you in a defined context with a slew of other people. I'm a people person, but I hate randomly going up to people, and I don't like talking to people without there being a reason for us to talk. Classes connect me to people, which is just as valuable service as the things I learn.
I'll also add that in the group I'm working with right now to launch things, all the communication's handled entirely over Facebook. We tried Backpack and Skype and Google Wave, and none of them could handle the conversation as well as informally talking to one another on Facebook did.
Ettercap, there's a plugin for that.
I think the point would be to direct them at their school's library page or, at the very least, wikipedia.
(Not that I ever did this).
Class time should be productive time. Work on something important instead of the low-bandwidth information exchange that is the lecture.