[Hopeful_Bubbles]

Speaking from the TA perspective, I think some kinds of participation points (in big classes we use clickers- ugh) just encourage people who probably wouldn't come to class and distract others to come. They use their clicker and spend the rest of class texting, answering calls (I've seen this happen on more than one occasion), surfing the net, chatting with friends (most annoying of all), reading the paper so high that it completely obscures their face, and sleeping. As a student I find it distracting, and as a TA and lab instructor I find it disrespectful, especially if the instructor has a policy about keeping cell phones and pda's and whatnot away during class. I was continually surprised at the way I got literally chewed out, argued with, and ignored by the students I asked politely to put their cell phones away or get off the internet when it was a class policy discussed on the first day.