On the first day of classes, I make sure that everyone knows that
cell phone use during class is NOT going to be allowed. Not a text,
not a tune, nothing.On day two, I backtrack just a bit and introduce them to the
county’s disaster alert program that residents and students can sign up
for with their cell phones.On Friday, we were using Re:Writing Plus! and logged in for the
first time. Except that not everyone was successful. As I walked
around helping out the students, one of my students pulled out his cell
phone and dialed the 1-800 number for help. At first I was amazed, but
then I shrugged and thought that it was an efficient way to deal with
the problem.Today, two of my deaf students were arranging to have other students
take notes for them. Instead of relying on the interpreter, they (deaf
and hearing) decided to text each other later. During class, one of
the students texts the person sitting next to him if he needs something. — Joanna Howard
I was once teaching a class in a computer lab, and when I heard typing in the middle of my lecture, I politely asked whoever it was to pay attention. A voice from the back of the room, sounding somewhat hurt, said, “I was taking notes.” A few years later, I was attending a faculty workshop, and I was typing while the leader was talking. What she was saying was inspiring — I wanted to get it all down. “Could the typing please stop?” she asked. I knew just how my student felt.
So I’m more likely to give students the benefit of the doubt.
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As an educator I agree with you, but the massive machinery behind the education system will be very slow to change. Unfortunately, in my classroom I must mimic the conditions of Provincially administered Diploma Examinations, which see such technology as a threat to the security of examinations. However, as long as every student had equal access to such resources, I'd love to open up "the skylight of thought" one day, setting only a time limit on the final product. This may be more in keeping with our current business model.
Thanks for your comment. Part of me wonders whether any test in which a student can get an unfair advantage from a cell phone is really rigorous enough to matter.... wouldn't it be better to give the students access to a dictionary, Wikipedia, a calculator, formulae, whatever, but just ratchet up our expectations so that we expect to do more now that they're not required to put so much brain power into memorizing?
I used this particular posting and comment as fodder for an examination with my Grade 11 English class this morning. We began our unit with a piece by McLuhan and then considered his relevancy to the current internet/cellphone/texting/MSN world. This posting touches on the same issues many students brought up in post reading discussions. I'm curious to see if they will touch upon the immediacy issue that technology has created. This was posted March 4, commented upon March 4, and used for an examination by March 6.
McLuhan's comment, "...we're beginning to realize that the new media aren't just mechanical gimmicks for creating worlds of illusion, but new languages with new & unique powers of expression," seems most relevant to the cell phone issue. While I continue to expect students to keep phones off in my class, and to turn them in before any exam, I am aware that I may be using these same devices as instructional aids in the not-to-distant future. Like film, audio, etc before, these new media of communication also need to be mastered if they are to be effective.
Good reminder of the practical value of cell phones in the classroom. The other day the DVD player didn't work in my large lecture class, and a student (who's also on staff) used her cell to call the media services office for assistance. I appreciated that.
It's really all about civility, when it comes down to it. I heard someone on TV talking about how informal rules of courtesy can be enforced without fascist policies: the person on the tube said something like "No one smokes at church." And it all clicked for me. The classroom is like church. Everyone needs to be reverent about learning. The text is the word. The teacher -- or whoever is testifying at any given time -- is the focal point, the channel to the higher power of education.
I stand by my policy: "class in the foreground." Students will use cell phones to multitask the class activities into the background, and for that, I do not forgive them for they know very well what they do.