In every lecture hall on campus, as the professor stands in front of the room to share their knowledge with young students, the students are rapidly typing on their laptops.  But they are not taking notes, they are surfing the web or instant messaging a friend through Facebook or some other social networking website. Some students are brazen enough to have a back-and-forth text conversation with their cell phone buzzing and ringing during the entire lecture.

It should be the responsibility of each professor to enforce policies that restricts students’ usage of these technological devices. But in a lecture hall filled with over one hundred students, that just is not feasible.  Additionally, if a professor confronts those who have their laptops out, students often keep a Word Document application opened in the background that can quickly be displayed on the screen to “prove” that they are merely taking notes.

Nothing is more distracting than a ringing phone, or two students trying to muffle their laughter as they look at Facebook pictures from a party they attended last weekend.  And aside from the disrespect it demonstrates towards their classmates who are actually paying attention in class, this behavior completely undermines the professors’ authority and ultimately, the very reason for devoting their lives to education. They did not become scholars to stand in front of classrooms filled with inattentive students who put their social lives before their education.

Unfortunately, there will always be students with backwards priorities and students who simply cannot follow the rules.   Therefore, cell-phone signals and wireless internet access should be unavailable in all Drexel classrooms and lecture halls.  This can be done by applying a special paint that blocks the signal which allows phones and computers to communicate with the outside world.  The paint contains an aluminum-iron oxide which resonates at the same frequency as wi-fi and cell phone signals to block all airborne data. By coating an entire room, wi-fi signals can’t get in and cell phone messages can’t get out.

This might seem like a drastic measure in a tech-savvy society that is dependent upon cell phones and computers.  It might be hard for some people to imagine, but before the beginning of the 21^st century, students somehow managed to attend lectures by taking notes with a notebook and pencil.  Students would return to their dorm rooms and check their missed calls on an answering machine after sitting through an entire day of classes. Now they can’t go five minutes without checking a comment someone added to their hackneyed “Ugh, is it Friday yet?” status update on Facebook.

Drexel’s purpose is to educate and develop students to become productive, career-oriented individuals. Limiting distractions in the classroom will enable the professors to administer a more effective education. By implementing the frequency-blocking paint, students normally surfing the net would have no choice but to pay attention during class. And fellow students would no longer be disrupted by buzzing phones, clattering keyboards, and flashing computer screens. Drexel would see an increase in test scores and grade point averages, making the university more appealing to up-and-coming high school students looking for a quality education.

The cost of higher learning is expensive, and luckily each student has the ability to control the quality of their college experience.  As the number of classes with inattentive web surfers and ringing cell phones continues to increase, the level of education decreases proportionally. Students seeking a quality education and that have an understanding of how much money is invested in them, are at the mercy of technology’s over-users.

Being disconnected from the outside for a few hours a day might be too much for some students to handle.  A lot would complain and threaten to transfer to a more wi-fi friendly school. But if they are that dependent on their phones and computers, their education will suffer no matter where they go.  And hopefully they do go somewhere else so the rest of us can receive the education that we deserve.