Lance, best approach is to work with your instructional designers to ensure the course materials take into consideration "free time" students may have. You could establish a series of extra credit assignments for the faster students so their time is more productive while you work with the slower students. There are also applications available that can be used by your technology staff to give you the ability to "shut off" Internet access if you find students not following your classroom rules. You could then use this tactic to bring attention to the issues of inappropriate use of the Internet during class time. This by the way can be a great life lesson for students as some institutions are not deducting pay from employees for time spent on social sites not related to work. The real focus is how you use your classroom time to keep students working on the learning objectives. Using team assignments can lesson the use of none approved use of Internet as the groups are focused on completing the assignments versus surfing the net. Hope these give you some workable ideas. Let me know how things go and if I can assist you any further.
James Jackson
Terrell, several discussions exist in the higher education community about this common topic. First you need to make sure you know the policies of your institution. Does the ability to make policy on technology in the classroom begin and end with the instructor or is there an institutional policy to consider. That being said, if you have already done your homework as you appear to have done and determined that your presentation style is not influencing your student's decision to focus on their phones versus your materials then you may want to alter your approach to what you do during the first day of class. Set the expectation from day one that cell phones are not allowed during class time. Another approach if you cannot prohibit phones in the classroom they you may want to include them in various in-class assignments. Setup some questions or polls where students can send answers to a text address. Have a scavenger hunt where students use their phones to research information. You can use teams for those that do not have smart phones. If you decide to prohibit the use of the phones, discuss reasonable corrective actions with your students as part of your first class orientation to set the right expectations. Students know from day one the consequences of breaking your rules and they are already agreed to the corrective actions. Hope some of this information is helpful.
James Jackson
I do believe that a general announcement that cell phones should not be used during class and if a student needs to use it because they are expecting a call of if there's an emergency I will explain that it's my ecpectation that they leave the class when doing so. This includes texting. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think it's convenient for a student to use their phone for taking notes so I will assume it'sjust texting and for that they must leave the room. Both instances require the student to leave the room which takes them away from classroom time and encourages them to limit cell phone use.
I have also cut cell phones from my classroom, but I have found this is not the only outlet students will use to what I will call "multitask" anymore. I require the use of a laptop in my class and notice lots of social networking is happening as I move around the classroom. It is hard to tell students not to use these websites as they are useful tools regarding the curriculum.
What would you suggest when it comes to this type of issue?
I have a few thoughts on cell phones. The first is that my students are adults and if they NEED to be on their phone, they can do it not in the classroom. Second, my college has a very strong policy against no cell phones in the classroom. EVEN on break. This helps a LOT. Third, I tell students of the first day that using their phones in class is my one and only pet peeve and just do not do it. I then tell them they they are adults and professionals and that they are paying a lot of money to be here, if they want to be on their phones drop the program and save themselves thousands of dollars.
Making a strong stances against them right away helps a LOT. If, for some reason, students are still using their phones I make a general announcement that they need to stop or I will send them home. This policy is support by my admin :) I will then do a one-on-one before I send someone home, but if they get sent home, they are getting written up and its put in their file.
I hope some of these ideas help.
