In the comments to last Friday’s post about mobile computing, MaryAnn raised the inevitable point: How can you be sure that students will use the technology in appropriate ways? She also notes that a colleague busted a student looking at pornography in class, which suggests that not all uses of mobile computing are high-minded.* I can trump that story, however, as I know of an incident from several years back when a student took an upskirt photo of his professor while she was crouched awkwardly to troubleshoot the class’s balky multimedia station.
The ProfHacker writers are working on a collaborative post / series of posts around disciplinary issues of all sorts, technological and not, so I’ll save the list of “Top 5 withering comments to disruptive students” for later. Today’s post is really about thinking through an attitude, or even a policy, toward gadgets (mobile or smartphones / laptops / netbooks / iPods /whatevers). This too often gets framed as an issue of technophobia, or as old-school vs. these kids today, or in other unhelpful ways.
- Students are not the only abusers of mobile technology. Faculty/staff will frequently forget to silence their phones, or will take calls during meetings–sometimes even during class! Faculty/staff will keep their heads buried in their Blackberry or smartphone during meetings. Look to your own behavior so that you can model decent social norms, and, when you run meetings, set expectations around mobile technology. That way, you’re consistent: “I restrict cellphone use during all meetings, not just classes.”
- When thinking about this issue, there are really 3 different parties: the student with the cellphone; their classmates; and you. Each of them might have different issues at stake. The student with the cellphone is almost certainly distracting other students. My concern with cellphones isn’t disrespect as such, it’s that I’m easily distracted. Other people have different concerns.
- How you think about your classtime makes a difference. I talk about our classes as occasions to think together about a particular problem or text. We need to be able to engage with each other. And so it matters how you treat other people and how you focus.
- Being tech-friendly doesn’t mean “anything goes,” and it also doesn’t mean that you have an all-or-nothing policy. For example, I more or less never allow netbooks or laptops in class, because they’re profoundly distracting to other students, even if the person with it is on task. I also don’t allow mobile/smartphones or iPods during class discussions, although sometimes students are working with their phones. But: We almost always do a couple of different things during class, and I have no problem with students peeking at their device, or banging out a quick text, during a transition. The point is that it focuses the policy on making good use of time and being decent to those around you–that is, it cultivates better social norms. There’s always a minute or two of downtime in a class or meeting–take advantage of that, rather than flagrantly disrupt those around you.
- Finally, bad behavior is bad behavior, regardless of the medium. The student looking at porn in class might be subject to sexual harassment charges. (Certainly the student who took the upskirt photo was!) Mary Ann herself remembers reading Dracula instead of course material, and I can recall seeing several students reading magazines of various types during classtime when I was an undergraduate.** It’s true that the devices make some of this behavior easier, but cultivating students’ awareness of context seems more useful to me than absolute prohibitions or endorsements.
I almost said in comments on the absence policy thread, but will instead say here that most of my policies and such address myself as a 17-yr-old freshmen. I skipped a lot of class my first semester, precisely because there were no consequences for doing so until midterms. Similarly here: if I’d had a smartphone as a college student, the thing I would’ve needed was guidance in developing an adult relationship with it.
How do you deal with classroom gadgets?
Image by Flickr user alexik/ CC licensed
*Pace Byron: ” ‘Twas strange that one so young should thus concern / His brain about the action of the sky; / If you think ’twas philosophy that this did, / I can’t help thinking puberty assisted.”
** My favorite (G-rated!!!!!) story about college, porn, and the importance of context: I was on the debate team in college, and so we traveled a fair amount. I was nervous about flying, since I hadn’t done it much before. One week, my mother calls with a solution that she’d read about somewhere / seen on TV: “That’s why all the airport bookstores sell pornography. When you get to the airport, buy yourself a magazine, and read it during takeoff. You’ll be so distracted, you won’t be nervous at all!” Thus ingeniously putting me off both flying and pornography with one bit of advice!
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11 Responses to Five Tips for Dealing with Gadgets in the Classroom
Nels - October 22, 2009 at 1:41 pm
My biggest concern about not allowing laptops in class is what to do for students who need them for a documented disability. I have a student who takes a few classes with me. His specialists say that a laptop is the best device for him to use in class, and that does seem to be the case. I used to not allow laptops in class, but this started to concern me. By allowing him and no one else to use a laptop, I am basically telling everyone in class that he has a disability. I don’t like that.
As for pornography, that, too, depends on context! In some of my classes, we’re all looking at porn online. And students would get in trouble for not surfing porn sites in class!
Heather Whitney - October 22, 2009 at 10:20 am
I’m pretty tough: no use of electronic devices at all unless cleared with the instructor. The penalty is losing all of your participation grade for the entire semester.
Aaron P - October 22, 2009 at 11:09 am
Good post,
Dealing with tech-trouble kids is a difficult topic, especially given that I run the New Media research lab (academically acceptable terminology for Video Game lab). Our work produces educational games for developmentally disabled children, but our research produces what is often seen as a university sponsored arcade.
We teach a class called Video Game Rhetoric, is a a strong discussion class, and one in which elimination of computers, devices, etc almost completely goes against the grain of what we’re doing. So far we’ve tried to make sure that any devices are used during the 5 to 10minute game demo period (then we discuss it’s message, meaning, etc). The class is intentionally held in an amphitheater style room, no computers, the temptation of getting the answers from gameology, or IGN seems to be too much.
To prevent student technical abuse, we allow txting so long as you still pay attention- with the understanding that if you’re txting, I will be calling on you more. We also allow computers, but only during group times, not discussion or lecture times. As for phone calls- if your phone rings in my class, I get to answer it. Not rudely of course, but I do try to remind the caller of the students course schedule ;)
At the end of the day, the best tool I’ve found for preventing technical abuse, is to allow technology to be used, but to be aware of what it’s being used for. I’m in a unique area, wherein I have tech, am an I.T. person myself, and run a lab dedicated to games. I find students treat my classroom with respect when they see me as a technical authority. Being able to talk about the coolest new app, video game, or website helps the classroom decorum, provides a connection to the students, and most importantly, prevents them from thinking they can as easily pull one over on me.
~ Aaron
aaron@dighumanities.org
Billie - October 22, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Aaron– I taught a series of classes for a few years and most of the students in those classes were male student-athletes. I had the same rule about a phone ringing: if it rang, I answered it. At first, the callers were men (coaches, trainers, agents, scouts…. more than I wanted to know), and at least the callers were embarrassed enough to politely apologize for having disrupted class. Then suddenly EVERY. SINGLE. MALE. STUDENT. ATHLETE. had their girlfriends call . . . at 11:30, or whatever time it was. About 10 phones went off at the same time. The students held them out to me to answer. We all had a good laugh about how they “got me.” But they did put the phones away after that.
Jason B. Jones - October 22, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Yeah, that’s a concern, because certainly I comply with ADA rules, including guidelines on privacy. Hasn’t been insurmountable, yet–in part because (in case that’s not obvious already) there’s precious little about the policy that’s not negotiable.
joanna howard - October 22, 2009 at 3:22 pm
I teach in a networked classroom, and have tried, this semester, an experiment in allowing my students to determine whether or not they should/could be surfing the net or texting while I teach. My caveat was that they could not, in return, expect me to reteach the class, and that they were responsible for their learning. The first month was teethclenchingly hard, and one class has handled the freedom better than the other. Also, I should add that these are basic writing classes, and “getting focussed” is the first concept I cover, so we are always awash in discussion of the ways that phones and computers help and hinder learning.
I’ve become less rigid over the years based on how I’ve observed students spontaneously using their phones to help them learn. For instance, last year, a student phoned a publisher’s customer service line during a class in which the website was creating all kinds of problems. I pounced on him, but pulled back when he patiently showed me what he was doing. Since then, I’ve been less prone to have an “all or nothing” approach to phones in class, and deal with the issue on the basis of whether it supports learning or not. Jason’s comments on how one approaches or views class time relate to my perspective as well as whether one’s actions distract oneself or others.
Lastly, I’ve been encouraging my students to use their cell phones in order to photograph white boards or email their notes to themselves or set up audio recordings of lectures. But, as in all things, there is time to do any and all of these tasks, and that time is usually when a lecture or discussion is not going on.
The problem I find is that some students may have trouble perceiving these technological tools as being pedagogically valid–that school to them still means books and paper, and getting in trouble is what happens if you use the net or your phone.
Rana - October 22, 2009 at 7:55 pm
I’m pretty lax, I think, compared to other faculty. I don’t mind if a student gets a call in the middle of class and immediately steps outside to take it – a lot of our students are parents or caretakers for sick or elderly relatives, so they need that access. They appreciate my forbearance, and I’ve never had anyone abuse this so far. (I think maybe two people have gotten calls this semester?)
Laptops are trickier. As someone who can type far faster than I can write long-hand, I can see the appeal. It’s also rather neat when I’m lecturing about something, and a student asks about someone I didn’t anticipate being of interest to the class, and another student googles up a photograph of the person in question to share. And there are the disability access issues. On the other hand, you do get the Facebookers, and solitaire players, and the surfers.
My basic position is that if it’s quiet, and if no other students are bothered by it, I don’t care. If the surfing student’s grades suffer because he or she isn’t paying attention, that’s not my concern. I’ve actually told the class, point-blank, that if they’re going to surf in class that they’d better mute the speakers and sit with their backs to the wall, and if they have questions about the discussion that day, they’re out of luck. If they want to waste their time sitting in uncomfortable chairs surfing while the rest of the class talks about the course material, instead of at a nice internet café, that’s their business.
But then, I’m jaded enough at this point that I don’t feel too upset by students ignoring me. It’s their problem, not mine, so long as they’re quiet and discrete about it, and don’t get in my way, or that of their classmates.
Aaron P - October 26, 2009 at 6:48 pm
ha, I’ll give them credit for getting a laugh out of it, but I’m glad they complied with the rules after that.
I haven’t had students that creative yet- although I have had some very serious, loud (read: borderline inappropriate), and stubborn objectors in the past.
Often times asking them to leave, or adding homework etc has proved to give me the upper hand, but I wonder what the next level is? There’s only so many points I can take off for disruption and poor classroom behavior, and kicking them out will eventually cause a failing grade as they will miss enough material.
Aaron P - October 26, 2009 at 6:58 pm
I agree with the step outside policy. I usually have a few people here (mostly Air Force in Wyoming) who need to have phones on in case they get called to duty, or are on active duty- I did have one girl with a dying father. In those instances I make note of the student who (hopefully) let me know in advance.
As for the FaceBook, again I’m lucky in this, but our lab has it’s own wifi access point, so block some sites has crossed my mind. I hate to restrict access for all, because of the irresponsibility of the few, but it’s crossed my mind more than once.
As for ADA, I haven’t had to work with that yet, but my teaching experience is fairly limited at this point. I would like to think that I could accommodate without singling out, as Nels said, I would hate to draw attention to the disability of a student. I do often post my own notes for people to find, in a class I was part of, not teaching, there was a student for whom a laptop was mandatory but the teacher clearly disliked it. I found that it was easy, and entirely comfortable for him, to send him scanned copies of my notes after class. Of course, ADA (and morality) wouldn’t allow me to make that a policy, but perhaps offering complete and easily accessible notes (or pod casts of a class- shameless plug: that’s why we are building http://dighumanities.org) is a good option?
Thoughts?
Thomas - October 31, 2009 at 6:47 pm
The next step is dropping or failing the abuser. I’m there now, finally. I’ve been throwing kids out right and left this semester for texting during class. It’s not a big enough stick.
Allison - December 25, 2009 at 11:40 pm
I’m a little late to this discussion, but I’ve noticed that people with laptops who want to do something other than a class-related activity tend to sit in the last row where their activity is less likely to be viewed by others. I’ve pondered making laptop users sit in the front row!