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[scolar]

I am from the old school which means I don't believe students should text, talk on the cellphone, email, or use electronic devices inside the classroom during instruction and class time...It is distracting and disrespectful. But students students still tend to sneak and use them any way which means I am continually asking them to turn it off! I mention that electronic devices should be turnoff as soon as they enter the classroom; however, since this is a new day and age where technology bombards the way students communicate, they are very compelled to use them...What do you think? How do you handle this in your classroom?

[ecotoxdrs]

I received a report of a student using a Blackberry to cheat on an exam. For the second exam, I watched him like a hawk and was pretty sure he cheating again, but I couldn't see the device and I wasn't sure how to catch him. The device was in his sweat pants pocket and he was against a wall in the classroom (pretty clever, actually). He also arrived to class early, presumably to scope out choice cheating seats. I assumed he would arrive early for the final and when I arrived, he was indeed in his cheating seat. I asked him to get up and help me to rearrange the room so that he couldn't be near the wall (he looked puzzled, but didn't say anything), allowed him to sit, distributed the exam to the class and moved my desk so that I was directly in front of him. I watched him for virtually the entire exam period and he didn't reach for anything in his pocket. He failed the final miserably and flunked the class.

I start a summer class next week and will announce that if I see a device at any time during the session, I will take that student's participation points for the semester.

[ecotoxdrs]

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[ecotoxdrs]

=sorry for extra posts; need to learn to click modify and not quote...

[polly_mer]

I have a line in my syllabus about the fact that students using electronic devices in a distracting way for non-class purposes will lose 5% on their final exams.

Generally, I only have to give a couple of public reminders of "what is the penalty for using electronic devices for non-class purposes?" and the texting goes far enough underground that I can turn a blind eye.  Wanna check your texts in the five minutes while we wait for the rest of the class to turn in the quiz that you've already turned in?  Be discreet and go for it.  I would prefer that you be reviewing the other material coming up in the class in ten minutes, but you can use those couple of minutes to be a slave to technology if you wish.

[categorical]

I have had a no electronics policy in my seminars for a few terms and it has been great.  I had semesters before the ban where there was a lot of distraction with students on their laptops doing who knows what.  I should say that I don't enforce a complete ban.  There are times when we have group work where laptops are allowed; in these cases they are a clear asset.

[moodymoodie]

Our department has instituted a blanket ban on cell phones and laptops that can be repealed at the instructor's discretion. I still have texters, but I can ask them to put it away or leave- them's the rules.

[seniorscholar]

Absolutely. I require all cell phones (and their relatives) to be in pocket or backpack, and all other web devices stowed away. (Happily, the classrooms for my department are on upper floors of tall buildings, and our campus wi-fi only reaches up to the sixth floor, so other web devices are fairly useless unless things for exam use have been downloaded to be available.)

Any visible electronic device gets confiscated and kept on the front desk until the end of the class. In large lectures, the TAs prowl providing this service; in smaller classes I can look around during a discussion or by asking a question (the people who don't look up when a question is asked are likely suspects). For the final exams in the lecture classes, the TAs ask for cell phones when students enter the room, label them, and return them at the end of the exam. Anyone caught texting during the exam is required to turn in the work done so far and leave the room - - - meaning the grade will depend only on the questions answered so far.

This is, as far as I can see, simply a continuation of the rules usual when I was an undergraduate in the dark ages: all books and papers go under the desk before an exam begins, and any note that's visibly being passed during class is confiscated and read aloud.

[changinggears]

I just have to share this story about electronic gizmos, as it has given me some food for thought on this issue.

In my intro. to lit. course this past semester, we were workshopping a poem.  I was trying to model a step-by-step analysis of the poem by having students answer a set of questions about the poem.  One set of questions had to do with symbolism and the connotative meaning of words in the poem.  The students had really missed some really significant symbolism going on in the poem, such as the use of certain colors and some references to Christ.  It was obvious they weren't looking beyond the surface denotative meanings of the words and/or had never been taught that colors carry symbolic meanings.  So, I ask everyone to pick a word from the poem, get out their cell phones, and look it up to find out if it had symolic significance.

The looks on the students' faces were priceless.  Many of them froze and stared at me incredulously.  One or two actually reached into their laps or pulled their phones out from under their textbooks, signed off with whatever they had been doing on them up until that moment, and started googling the words.  As soon as the first student located their word and read out the symolic meaning, everyone else began digging out their phones and frantically searching for their word.

Once the students had located the symbolic meanings of the words, everyone put their phones to the side (even those who had been texting earlier), and we then worked together to figure out how it all fit.

What I learned from this is that electronic gagdets do not have to be our or the students' enemy.  Students are going to use them.  Why not teach them how to use them to improve their learning and utlize the resources that are out there to help them succeed in learning?

By no means will I ever allow cell phones to be in use during exams.  But I might just start showing students how they can use them during other aspects of class to help them understand the content better and maybe they'll even begin to use them outside of class for something other than shooting the breeze or checking facebook.

[polly_mer]

What I learned from this is that electronic gagdets do not have to be our or the students' enemy.  Students are going to use them.  Why not teach them how to use them to improve their learning and utlize the resources that are out there to help them succeed in learning?

That's why my policy reads as it does with the qualifier of non-educational purposes.  Pulling out a cell phone to check on something related to the discussion at hand, as some of my students have done, is wonderful.  Using the computers in the classroom to look up some information to help design the lab is great.  Texting away in the corner to be physically present, but mentally absent?  No.  5% of the final exam.  Be mentally present or physically absent.

[educator1]

Excellent example, changinggears!
My use of laptops in class is much more straightforward. We can't reasonably solve many of the problems in my class without computer based solution and many computer applets and other graphics have great pedagogical potential for me. If students wish to follow along on their laptops, this making teaching the applications all that much easier.
I treat mis-use of these devices (disruptions, cheating, etc.) as a behavioral issue, not an academic evaluation issue. I can't see docking points for causing a disruption. That changes the meaning of grades IMHO. If a student misbehaves in any way (and it is very rare), we have a little private talk after class. I have never had to go further than this.

[hulkhogan]

Laptops would depend on the situation for me. My handwriting is horrid, and when I took my doctoral coursework, I brought my laptop to take notes, which allowed me to format them right away, too. In addition, sometimes questions came up that no one could answer, and I was able to look them up quickly. Then again, this was doctoral coursework, and I was a serious student.

[soporific]

They're all adults.  As long as my students aren't distracting anyone else, my policy is that they can do whatever they want.

It does bother me sometimes though.  The worst thing is when people read newspapers in my large lecture courses.  I can understand that Facebook drama is more interesting than cellular respiration, but 20th century media?  That's just a slap in the face.

[anisogamy]

It bothers me when my students text or use Facebook in classes that I adjunct--and I routinely ask them to stop when I encounter such activities.  But I've found myself leaving my phone in sight but generally untouched in my classes for the current degree I'm seeking because I have a baby at home and want to be reachable if needed.  This is partially new-parent paranoia:  we're not waiting for an organ donation and anispouse is a competent caregiver, but I still struggle with knowing that my child is away from me and wanting to be able to respond if necessary.  It's mattered twice--once when giving advice after he choked and once when the separation anxiety was so bad that I had to leave school and head home.  The degree to which I feel self-conscious about my own very limited use of my phone has left me feeling even more irritated when my colleagues surf the internet all through class--and yet more inclined to presumptively cut parents or other caregivers a little slack in regard to very minimal texting the next time I'm teaching.

[clean]

[As long as my students aren't distracting anyone else,/quote]

It is distracting to ME and that means that the entire class is derailed.

Someone else somewhere in these forums said that when they text in their lap it looks like they are playing with themselves.  I tell them that.

I have on my syllabus and on the first page on every exam that ANY use of a cellphone instantly ends their exam.  Even if the phone is on vibrate and they receive a call.  That is it.

I have banned individual laptops.  I have noticed email sorts of activity (vigorous typing when there was no call for it) or even game playing... When four students in the next tier/row are watching the laptop and the student and the students on their immediate left and right are watching the computer, they are clearly distracting.  I have informed them that their computer is no longer allowed.

IF there is a good way to ban cell phones, Id be interested in hearing it!