Last Friday I spoke for an hour about church communications to a class at the Huntington University Graduate School. Ray Seilhamer, the prof, invites me to do that about every two years.

A couple students had laptops open, and paid only partial attention to me. I doubt they were taking notes. Checking email? Surfing? Working on Sunday’s sermon? Is that what professors contend with in every class? Probably.

Merlin Mann, on the 43Folders.com blog, mentions the growing trend in business to hold “topless” meetings. Topless as in “laptop-less.” No laptops, Blackberrys, iPhones, or other personal devices allowed. The result is more eye contact, people connecting with each other rather than with their computer screens.

In a previous post, Mann gave “9 Tips for Running More Productive Meetings.” One was this:

No electronic grazing. Period. Laptops closed. Phones off. Blackberries left back in the cube. You’re either at the meeting or you’re not at the meeting, and few things are more distracting or disruptive than the guy who has to check his email every five minutes. Schedule breaks for people to fiddle with their toys, but fearlessly enforce a no grazing rule once the meeting’s back in session. Emergency call to take or make? They have to leave the room. No exceptions. If you’re too busy to be at the meeting everyone else has made firewalled time for, just leave.

I say “Bravo!” I rarely take my laptop to meetings anymore. Haven’t for years. If you’re going to be in a meeting, I contend, then be there.