CREDIT: MATT SAYLES
If you're paying attention to your cellphone, instant messages and email while in class, you're not multi-tasking. You're being rude.

Alright, mature students, two weeks in and you've no doubt noticed school is wa-a-ay different from when you were last in class. No doubt you're amazed, dumbfounded and, quite frankly, shocked at the proliferation of devices your classmates are wielding, texting, keyboarding and Facebooking. During lectures. Right in the professor's face, as he or she is talking.

I've been sitting near the front of the class since I began my program last September. It's because I'm here to learn. It's because I'm mindful of paying over $2,000 for tuition and books, and forgoing a year's salary to begin a second career. It's also because I don't want to look at people's open laptops turned to their Facebook pages, reality TV shows and shopping channels. Thank god most of these students sit at the back. However, they're not doing their friends and classmates any favours by their boorish behaviour.

Let me be as plain as my kids' Grade 8 teacher, who announces every first day of school: "You're big kids now. Your hormones are going crazy. When you're all together in my class, you stink. If your parents haven't talked to you about this, listen up. I want you to get antiperspirant and use it every morning before class."

Hey, you guys don't stink. You're pretty and well-groomed, and you probably take more time putting on your makeup in the morning than I do getting dressed and out the door. But as meticulous and fastidious as you are about your appearance, I wish you'd take two minutes to absorb this: your open laptops and open cellphones during class are rude. There's no reason for your screens to be on except if you're actively taking notes. There's no reason at all for your cellphones to be on during a class.

Even if you have kids, rest assured they will survive at daycare and elementary school for an hour or two without you. In my three terms at Fanshawe, I've seen (and heard) laptops turned on to everything except FanshaweOnline during classes. I've heard all manners of ringtones go off during lectures, tests and even exams. What the hell! Go to the back and flunk out there!

Not even your parents find you cute when you tune out like this, and your professors and classmates find it even less cute. I'm saying please respect your education and mine by providing a good atmosphere for what we're here for: to learn. You've got plenty of time to check your messages at break or between classes.

Another thing. The avalanche of noise with slamming binders and scraping chairs just before the end of class is truly embarrassing. Trust me, your profs have a good eye on the clock and can bring their lectures to a close without you cutting them off.

You know who really wants to hear you talk? Your teachers! They would love it if you answered their questions and participated in class discussions, so save some socializing for them.