I tend to agree with you Kathy. I would love to have students use their cell phones for different educational purposes, but then you open the door to them texting and going on Facebook. I also find that if you use it for educational purposes once, students view it as acceptable to text and facebook in future classes. Its difficult to close the flood gates once you have opened them.
Stephen,
this is a great point. I realize that many are addicted to their devices, but if many are distracted in our classes, I think we have to ask ourselves what we are doing to contribute to this problem?
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Indeed, it's my opinion that teachers should take command of their classroom, set classroom guidelines to mitigate possible distractions, stick to those guidelines, and re-inforce to their students that it's a privilege to learn.
I use it to my advantage,rather than spend class time asking the student to put the cell phone away,I embrace it and have them use them for class.
I see this outside of the classroom regularly. It is a daily distraction while in a meeting, casual conversation, while checking out at the grocery store. Not just in the classroom.
I find this interesting because we also do not allow cell phones in the classroom because they are a distraction and often the student is checking their social networks instead of listening and then does poorly on an exam. I'd like to incorporate them into the classroom, but feel a lot of time would be spent on following up on the rules for their usage, and discipline and distracting from the class itself. I always feel that they get a break every 50 minutes, can't their people wait? For use in a group assignment is different.
It is very hard to keep cell phones out of the classroom. Our school does not allow the use of cell phones during class or lab due to safety. We are constantly working around machines/vehicles and the student must stay very focused.The instructor has a responsibility to help keep his students safe. Our students are graded in three areas being class, lab and professionalism. The student can be docked points in professionalism if they are caught using their phone in class or lab. The students are so attached to their phones and they get very upset when they are down graded and tend to ignore these rules even though it is a safety precaution to help protect them from harm.
selinza,
this is a great point! Too often we complain about the students but don't do due diligence to keep them focused & on track.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Faculty members must pay more attention to what is going on in their class room, so on both sides of the desk it the increase of an expectation of accountability.
I think letting them use the iphones is okay in class as long as limits are set from the beginning to not be communicating with friends etc.
