Texting in class
Ed. Tech. April 2nd, 2008
Interesting story from Inside HigherEd about one professor’s approach to “punishing” students caught text messaging during class time. This debate won’t go away for a while, and I hope it actually leads to productive discussions on the topic.
My first reaction was that if the students are not “fully” paying attention, the professor is not fostering active learning. But, then I read some of the finer print…THERE ARE 400 STUDENTS IN THE CLASS! No wonder the students are disengaged. Sheesh.
Originally posted on Flickr by Monroviabill
Tags: class, policy, text message
I’ve always texted during class. Never been caught, it’s pretty hard to catch someone. Especially anyone who can ‘pocket text’ (text without taking their phone out of their pocket).
I thought the professor sounded silly in the article, then I read the overwhelmingly supportive comments.
Group shame through group punishment is unprofessional. Can anyone justify intentionally creating conflict in that way, when there are other solutions available?
Is the student actually disrupting class, or did the professor see a student not taking notes and get upset? Different students learn in different ways and at different rates — a truly professional teacher would recognize this and not take it as personal disrespect if some students don’t click perfectly with learning from lectures.
If there’s an actual disturbance, then address the student respectfully and privately. That is, address the student how you would like them to address you if you felt like there were a problem.
Say the table was turned and the professor momentarily stopped in the middle of class to write a note to himself. Say that a student was bothered by this; would it have been appropriate for the student to walk out of the class? And then send an email to everyone who was in the room, and various supervisory people? And discuss something like the race, religion, or physical abilities of the professor? What would happen to that student.
Do we still need tenure?