This last weekend, I went to visit a friend at Cornell.  I sat in on a bunch of classes and noticed that Middlebury and Cornell have some differences and similarities in media use while in class.  I found that at a bigger school like Cornell, where most of the classes that I went to were over 200 kids, there was a lot more digital media use in distracted ways.  Middlebury students definitely use laptops and phones in class, but they definitely aren’t as distracted by their technology as Cornell kids were.   I believe this has to do with the class size and how it can be much harder for the professor at Cornell to maintain attention in such a large size class room.  I believe the class size at Middlebury is more conducive to learning than at Cornell, but still digital media can be a major distraction everywhere.  Sitting in on a big lecture was an interesting experience because I was able to observe that there were some kids that were paying attention and some kids that weren’t.  It goes to show that you can definitely learn something if you want to learn something.  I saw kids playing games on their computers, which was interesting because if you go to a big lecture like that where the teacher doesn’t know or care if you show up, than why do you even show up at all.  At Middlebury it is more important to go to class and get involved because not all the professors post their notes online and many of them take attendance and care to if people don’t show up or not. It would be nice to have some sort of balance between the two types of schools.