Some people are going completely bonkers with this idea that students need to be policed to prevent them from using technology in the classroom. It has been suggested that we get the students to sign a contract (WTF?) at the beginning of the semester where they would promise not to turn on their cell phones and other devices and would agree to any penalties that will be given to them as a result of breaking this contract.
It has also been suggested that we make the students remove their cell phones and laptops and leave them at the front of the classroom.
What’s next, searching their pockets and personal belongings before letting them enter the classroom?
And then people wonder why students don’t respect them. You can’t earn respect by acting in such a desperate, pathetic way. You can only earn respect by respecting both the students and yourself.
I especially love it how often my colleagues complain about the students’ immaturity. How can we expect them to act maturely if we treat them like infants?
And you know what I find really confusing? If a person chooses for whatever reason to pay good money to hear your lectures yet decides that updating her Facebook or emailing his friends is more important than getting his or her money’s worth, why should you care? This last semester I had a student who knew she was failing the course from the start yet chose to spend the entire semester staring at her laptop screen. As a result, she failed the course. This was her choice and she is now living with its consequences, which is an important life lesson. Why should I have demeaned myself in front of the entire classroom and turned myself into a nursery teacher just in order to get between this woman and her choice to fail?
P.S. Now a colleague has joined the discussion with a complaint against faculty members who use cell phones during meetings and official ceremonies. I wish people realized that this desire to police the actions of others is nothing but a manifestation of repressed rage.
Clarissa's Blog 
Wow… Raise your voice and join the conversation among faculty with your convincing arguments.
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Convincing arguments have no place in a irrational discussion.
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I’m applying for tenure next summer, so I will be mute until then. 😦
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I don’t understand this either–I actually wish all my students had smartphones so we could do activities with them instead of just the ones who having them using them for class activities. Since they do this very well (looking up words, finding pictures of what they want to say, etc.) I want them to have these devices in class! There is a lot of research into mobile apps in particular and learning (including language learning) so it actually makes sense to encourage these uses in my opinion. I also have a colleague who says his students can surf Facebook, Twitter, text, etc as much as they want in his class, as long as they do it in Spanish (what he teaches). He calls them out on English use, and pretty quickly the students either switch their Facebooks to Spanish or stop using it, and his goal is accomplished either way.
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I recently taught students to use Google Images for words they don’t know, and they love it. This is just one of many great uses of technology in the classroom.
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That’s better than Google “translate”!
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Is this really an university? I thought that this is not a childcare center…
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In fact, I want them to use those information technologies because this is more easy to them to take notes in my lectures.
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If someone’s phone is ringing during class, or if they start having a conversation on the phone during class, that is disruptive in a way that someone sleeping or getting up to use the bathroom is not. Texting your heart out with the phone on silent, or surfing the internet or merely using a laptop is not. (Watching videos, imho — is.)
Really, you shouldn’t disrupt other people’s experiences with your use of technology. Other than that, I don’t see how it’s the professor’s problem beyond his/her ego — since they’re all presumably adults.
If people do this because they can’t focus on one thing at a time — there’s nothing anyone can really do about that. When I had laptops, I’d surf and take notes at the same time, and when I just used notebooks I’d doodle fantastic drawings and in the margins of my notes. It’s not like I made any effort to look engaged while my mind was elsewhere so I’m not sure what bugs people about technology use per se.
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I agree that this is incredibly bonkers. I would never do that to my students. I’m not a jailor and I refuse to impose measures that turn me in to one. I Like you, I also don’t have an attendance policy and I never ask students to provide me with excuses when they are absent. But, as a corollary, I do think that when they are in class, they should behave with a reasonable amount of decorum. And, I personally think that students who text or surf the net during class are incredibly rude. At my institution, students are (almost painfully) polite and texting/surfing behavior is actually not much of an issue in any of my classes. But there have been occasions where I have spoken with students after class and told them that if they felt compelled to use the internet or to text during class, perhaps it would be better for them not to come to class at all. Generally, the students would apologize and the behavior never happened again. 🙂
And I want to emphasize that I’m not extreme about it. If we are pausing between activities or if a student finishes something early, I have no problem with a quick text. But when I’m speaking, or (more importantly) when their classmates are speaking, I firmly expect everyone to be respectful and listen. As a side note, students have commented to me that they find it distracting when their fellow students internet surf or use their phone during class.
Again, I think that your colleagues are proposing draconian measures that are worse than the problem itself. But I do think that “technology abuse” can be disruptive and can occur even in the classrooms of exciting and amazing teachers.
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If everybody could agree to address the issue in any way they feel like, I would be happy. But people seem set on blacking out the Internet for everybody.
I constantly use Dropbox in class. Students uses Prezis and Blackboard. What are we supposed to do without all this? Go back to flash drives?
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I agree. I coudn’t run my class without the internet. I too use Dropbox daily. And there are plenty of times when students legitimately use the internet. Blocking it out is a crazy idea.
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Yes, although I have found it incredibly distracting for me and others to have some looking at their phones for messages, taking up space but utterly disengaged. I don’t mind a discreet/quick look, but I’d echo Evelina, above.
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I would have loved to be able to have my laptop in class and take notes that way. Arthritis makes it hard for me to write, but I can type with much less pain.
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