Aside from the fact that in Canada, at least, university students barely pay for their school's floor wax with their tuition this kind of argument doesn't get much sympathy from me. The argument is not without merit but it makes the mistake of ignoring a few salient points: 1) some things are hard no matter how you dress them up 2) things that are hard are often seen as 'boring' at first blush 3) college students are hardly the most earnest and committed bunch you'll ever meet. There's also the whole issue of judging a post-secondary education on an investment-to-return ratio scale, but that's another story...Profs who bore their students and blame laptops don't get a lot of sympathy from me -- if you can't convince a room full of young people who've committed to a lifetime of debt in order to cram their heads with useful knowledge and skills to pay attention, it's time to re-evaluate your material and methods.