Attention Markets in the Classroom

You have seen it increasingly of late. People in a meeting with laptops open, typing away. Well, are they fully participating in the meeting or not? Old-school, I try to be polite and lower my screen to at least half-mast. This has become a big issue in higher ed. In fact at the U of Pa I talked to a person involved with Wharton's new room designs who said initially their classrooms were designed specifically to not include wireless capability, to prevent distraction, but he admitted they were reconsidering the approach. Here is a rather heavy-handed response, called Synchroneyes, in a higher ed blog. Is attention at work or school just a market?