Etiquette in the Wireless Classroom

asteriskea · January 27, 2007, 6:39am

Another sign of our wired times back in the news in the Chronicle of Higher Ed - Google syndrome and the need to spell out stricter guidelines governing the proper and improper use of high tech devices in the classroom:

When Kevin and Mollie Cooney recently visited their daughter’s psychology class at the College of William and Mary, they noted how attentive students seemed to be in the large lecture hall.

The Cooneys, who are both news anchors of the CBS affiliate in Des Moines, Iowa, who sit on the advisory council of the journalism school I head at Iowa State University, were intrigued by the tapping of the laptop keys as students appeared to be taking copious notes. “As we looked over their shoulders from our back-row seats,” says Mollie Cooney, “we found instead they were on Facebook, Dave Matthews Band Web sites, instant messaging friends, and e-mailing fellow classmates.”

“Granted,” she adds, “these students were in the minority, and our daughter swears she never takes her laptop to class for that reason. It’s just too tempting to surf. But as parents who pay hard-earned money to send kids to school with better computers than we will ever own, it’s a bit disconcerting as to how they are actually being used!”…

That scenario is happening across the country. Cynthia M. Frisby, associate professor of strategic communication at the University of Missouri, has noticed students on MySpace and eBay during her lectures. She has also noticed more failing grades. The final straw, she says, came in an e-mail from a student “complimenting my outfit, failing to realize that the time stamp was on the e-mail, further suggesting that he was not paying attention to my lecture.”

Now she bans laptops in her large lecture courses and has a clause in her syllabus about the inappropriate use of technology. The result? “Huge increases in attention and better performance on exams,” she says. “Students have even mentioned that they feel like they are doing better without the laptop.”

Syllabus clauses warning against the misuse of technology are increasingly common. In my own school of journalism, about 20 percent of syllabi contain such warnings. Some examples:

<pre><code> “Anyone who engages in rude, thoughtless, selfish behavior, such as use of a cellphone for instant messages, games, etc., will have his or her cell phone confiscated until the next class session and will be excused from the class. The cell phone will be returned after the student apologizes to the class at the next class session.”

“If your cellular phone is heard by the class you are responsible for completing one of two options: 1. Before the end of the class period you will sing a verse and chorus of any song of your choice or, 2. You will lead the next class period through a 10-minute discussion on a topic to be determined by the end of the class. (To the extent that there are multiple individuals in violation, duets will be accepted).”
</code></pre>

As more and more classrooms go wireless, technology warnings on syllabi soon will be as standard as the ones about cheating (which laptops also facilitate). In 2004, only about a third of classrooms provided wireless Internet access, according to the annual Campus Computing Survey. Wireless networks now cover more than half (51.2 percent) of college classrooms…
Shutting off the Wireless

You can’t. In a few short years universities have moved from dial-up, to wired Ethernet, to controlled Ethernet (which could be switched off), to wireless.

Dennis Adams, chairman of the information-sciences department at the University of Houston, wrote about shutting off wireless networks in the September 2006 issue of Communications of the ACM, the flagship journal of the Association for Computing Machinery. “While classroom access to the Internet may be a wonderful teaching tool,” he wrote, “it can also be a barrier to learning.”

Adams admitted in an interview that turning off wireless is nearly impossible. But you can see why he is tempted. In “The Laptop Backlash,” an article published in the October 14, 2006 issue of The Wall Street Journal, a reporter who sat in on Adams’ “Management of Information Systems” course observed: “While Prof. Adams lectures, five students use an online chat room to post comments on his lecture. … Another student spends nearly two-thirds of the three-hour class playing computer chess, instant messaging and viewing photos of a fraternity party posted on the Web.” The reporter also saw another student buying shoes on eBay.

In his Communications essay, Adams cites a 1972 work by Eda LeShan on “The Sesame Street Syndrome.” She argued that, by overemphasizing the idea of right and wrong answers, the show taught children that thinking and questions are irrelevant because adults do the asking and answering. Nowadays, the syndrome “has come to describe students who expect to be entertained as they learn,” Adams wrote, adding: “If the entertainment doesn’t come from the front of the wireless classroom, it comes from the Internet.”

Theodore Roszak, whose books include The Making of a Counter Culture and The Cult of Information, has sounded that warning for decades. When cell phones started ring-toning in his classroom at California State University’s East Bay campus, the professor of history retired.

“What kids need to learn,” he says, “and what teachers must commit themselves fiercely to defending is the fact that the mind isn’t any sort of machine, that thinking with your own naked wits is a pure animal joy that cannot be programmed, and that great culture begins with an imagination on fire. We should remind our children at every turn that more great literature and more great science were accomplished with the quill pen than by the fastest microchip that will ever be invented.”

Roszak’s greatest fear is that technology "will reduce the mind to the level of the machine.

The Google Syndrome

If Sesame Street taught generations that there are right and wrong answers, Google reinforces that lesson but makes no claim to the accuracy of the answers…

To combat technology distractions, some universities are relying on educational campaigns to make students more sensitive to classroom etiquette. The University of Wisconsin at Madison provides information via links to Web pages that faculty members can note in their syllabi. One link encourages students to stay on task and not distract others or themselves. Another provides ground rules for wireless use and classroom laptop etiquette.

Jane Drews, information technology security officer for the University of Iowa, believes that a solution to wireless distractions is etiquette education. “From the person who endlessly chats on a phone while in a restaurant, to someone’s pager or cell going off in the middle of a presentation or lecture, we are creating a society of very rude technology users. We have an online class offered to freshmen that includes a ‘Responsible Computing’ module, with a section on ‘netiquette.’ I’ve suggested it be expanded to include classroom etiquette, too.”

<a href=“http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2007/01/2007012601c/careers.html[/url]”>http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2007/01/2007012601c/careers.html</a>

interesteddad · January 27, 2007, 9:35am

Maybe they should ban large lecture classes.

Surfing the net is probably better than falling asleep and drooling on your arm while listening to a professor drone on from the front of an auditorium.

Let me get this straight. They punish the kids by actually having them do something that is part of good teaching (#2)? I take it they view active student participation as a negative?

dufay · January 27, 2007, 9:37am

Of course, not having computers and wireless in the classroom does not necessarily equal attention. I became an ace NY Times Sunday crossword puzzler in med school lectures. Have students lost the fine art of doodling? of course, neither of these things disturb others (unless you ask them for help on your puzzle), use potentially important parts of the brain, and it is possible to look attentive while thinking of the answer for a Fred Astaire movie, 6 letters.

mootmom · January 27, 2007, 12:12pm

“Top Hat”? (2 words, though.)

Laptops are required equipment in our HS. Each teacher will set a policy on their use in the classroom; some prohibit them, some tolerate or encourage them, some require them. Teachers spell out their policy about laptop use and cellphones at the start of the class; my S’s English teacher this semester (a class in Shakespeare’s comedies) has prohibited laptops and will confiscate any cellphone that rings (or vibrates, if he hears it!) during class and will only return it at the end of the school day. Not unreasonable at all, I think. And for a smaller-sized class in a HS, it works fine.

I think I agree with interesteddad on this one; if you’re going to hold large lecture classes in college, you shouldn’t get controlling about what students do to stay awake. My tactic was always to write in my journal, since it would then actually look as if I were taking notes. Either that, or sit far enough in the back that I could slump down in my seat and nap when the droning got too sleep-inducing. I am not so silly as to think my children should be any more fascinated with lectures than I was.

mominva · January 27, 2007, 1:52pm

My kids are at schools with under 5,000 kids. From their reports there are few student laptops being used in the classrooms unless students are doing presentations.

marite · January 27, 2007, 2:45pm

My S takes his laptop to class every day.

I recall reading the newspaper; doing crossword puzzles; doodling; falling asleep. All that well before laptops or the internet were invented. so what’s new under the sun?

epiphany · January 27, 2007, 4:34pm

Depending on the touch of the “typist” and the style of keyboard, typing in a small classroom can make it difficult to impossible for the other students to hear the lecturer/instructor. This happened to me in grad school. Student asked instructor if it was o.k., but was unconcerned whether the other students found it o.k. Quite annoying, quite rude, when a lecture is not microphone-aided. The typist or typists should be seated not near other students, in that case. (And the student in question did not have a compelling reason to need the laptop, she admitted, other than convenience; no disability was involved.)

lspf72 · January 27, 2007, 7:25pm

Which do most students use? S. assumed that most people in college use a laptop, and was excited about using one.
epiphany had a good point re: the sound of whacking away on keyboards. Our library, of all places, just outfitted their desktops with the noisiest keyboards I’ve ever heard. They make a loud “KLACK!” sound with every touch. It’s maddening. Hope laptops are quieter.

juba2jive · January 27, 2007, 9:05pm

Usually, if the professor has a powerpoint to go with the lecture that is posted before lecture, I’ll print it out and bring it to class to take notes on. However, two of my professors post powerpoints AFTER lecture which drives me nuts - I don’t want to waste paper to take notes when I’m just going to print out the powerpoints later to study anyway, so I’m sort of forced to take my laptop to class and take notes in Word.

Although I try to pay as much attention as possible, it is easy to let your mind drift from lecture when the Internet/email is only a quick click away. I know for sure that I focus better when I don’t have the distraction of my laptop, though.

BlahDeBlah · January 27, 2007, 9:58pm

If I had a dollar for every time I saw some person checking Facebook, shopping online and instant messaging all at the same time while I was behind them, busy trying to actually take notes and pay attention over the clack-clack-clack of their keyboard, I wouldn’t need any loans. I think that instead of trying to restrict laptops they ought to do away with mandatory attendance, so the people who so clearly would rather be at home surfing the net can stay home and do so. It’s especially bad in classes where the projector is in use and the lights are all out except for the scattered glowing screens.

There is one class that I might start taking my laptop to now that I’ve located the electrical outlets in the room, but I’d take it so I can type faster and not have to decipher my messy handwriting later, not to have online chats.

I also sort of wish colleges would adopt my high school’s policy of, “if we hear or see your cell phone at any point in time within the building, we get to take it and keep it all day”. It won’t kill you to stop chatting with your friends for a whole long terrible three hours, I promise.

lspf72 · January 27, 2007, 10:06pm

Maybe they should divide the class seating into note takers and laptop users. It does sound distracting.

ejr1 · January 27, 2007, 10:10pm

Ah, so now kids are using technology for the notes they wrote in class, or the doodles they did, or the book they read behind the textbook, etc. As to boring lectureres, I find that it depends on the person - what one finds boring another finds fascinating. This has been going on for centuries. I expect Socrates had a few who daydreamed. This will never change, but disrupting the whole class is wrong. I remember having to learn (at home) what proper etiquette is. I don’t see much of that anymore, and most of my students feel that anything goes. (I remember a few years ago when my father told an adult to remove his hat in church, and the numbers of men who wear their caps at dinner is incredible!) I can’t believe how many times I have to tell the girls to put the makeup away! And I am NOT talking about just lipstick - mascara, foundation, etc. A little Emily Post would go a long way in solving this situation.

Princedog · January 27, 2007, 10:46pm

My high school’s policy on cell phones is that if they see it. they take it until your parents come to pick it up. But when I look around class, half the class will be texting with the phone inside their desk. And I’m sure their parents don’t know and assume their kid follows the cell phone policy. I think it’s a maturity thing or something. There’s no reason you need to text anyone in class in HS…sometimes they’re texting people IN the same class, and even if they weren’t, you can see anyone at the end of class in the halls. It’s almost like they just want to get away with using their phone when the rules are supposed to be all strict. It’s amazing how far a little listening goes though. Teachers (at least in a HS class which is going to be less than 30) can tell who’s paying attention. They might not know it’s a phone someone is messing with, but they know who is paying attention, participating. When it came tme for letters of recommendation, I had more than three teachers OFFER to write me one…yeah, you can get an A in some classes by messing around and people know that. But it’s not respectful to the teacher and it’s not respectful to those in the class who don’t have it so easy but are trying nonetheless. It’s really annoying when I get in a group of people and have to explain everything because they weren’t listening to the directions and didn’t do the homework that was assigned as prep work for the day’s activity.

pearlygate · January 27, 2007, 11:44pm

funny how they treated us like elementary school student. I mean these students are responsible adult already, they’re mature enough to be responsible for their own study. If they surf the internet during lecture, it doesn’t mean that they’re lazy. It could be that the prof is boring, or they’ve already mastered the subject, or they’re plain lazy. In any case, surfing the web is certainly more productive than falling asleep in boring lecture class.

For me, I usually read the book/lecture material ahead of time. Most of my professor sucks, they just explain the whole material and they are not good lecturer anyway. Most of their lectures are repeated material from the textbook. Often, I just attend the class to make sure I won’t “miss” something important (which hardly happened). In this case, I’ll open up my laptop, surf the web, check email. It’s a better time spend than hearing boring lecture for something that I’ve already known.

asteriskea · January 29, 2007, 6:17am

In his Communications essay, Adams cites a 1972 work by Eda LeShan on “The Sesame Street Syndrome.” She argued that, by overemphasizing the idea of right and wrong answers, the show taught children that thinking and questions are irrelevant because adults do the asking and answering. Nowadays, the syndrome “has come to describe students who expect to be entertained as they learn,” Adams wrote, adding: “If the entertainment doesn’t come from the front of the wireless classroom, it comes from the Internet.”

Theodore Roszak, whose books include The Making of a Counter Culture and The Cult of Information, has sounded that warning for decades. When cell phones started ring-toning in his classroom at California State University’s East Bay campus, the professor of history retired.

“What kids need to learn,” he says, “and what teachers must commit themselves fiercely to defending is the fact that the mind isn’t any sort of machine, that thinking with your own naked wits is a pure animal joy that cannot be programmed, and that great culture begins with an imagination on fire. We should remind our children at every turn that more great literature and more great science were accomplished with the quill pen than by the fastest microchip that will ever be invented.”

Roszak’s greatest fear is that technology "will reduce the mind to the level of the machine.

This is all great stuff for all those cultural anthropologists out there.

Pearlygate - actually I thought the idea of having to sing a solo or duet in front of a class more proper to kindergarten level but, hey, if the shoe fits. I do want to say thanks for your honest post - it really goes a long way to explain what might be going on in the wired classroom. It also goes a long way to support Princedog’s post - ennui, lack of personal engagement with the material or lecture, or even the high-handed assumption that time spent in the lecture hall or classroom is a waste of time is no excuse for rudeness. I do think that this type of behavior is not typical of most college students who do try to sign up for challenging courses and attend classes with the attitude that the exchange of information going on there is central rather than peripheral to their educational experience.

Obviously, there is nothing new about students getting distracted or even falling asleep in class - and that is not necessarily distracting to other unless the person in question snores. Just the other day, one of our hs teachers caught a student doing homework for another class during a presentation given by classmates. This goes on all the time, but this particular time the teacher (a young and very dynamic newbie) was in the back of the class and finally caught a student in flagrante delicto and was indignant. A general warning was issued to the effect that further behavior of this sort would not be tolerated and would lead to the use of a demerit system (there is already a ban on cell phones in place and confiscated phones are not returned) - reason given: because this type of behavior is rude and disrespectful not only to the teacher but to their peers. What is so interesting is just how few students actually understood just why this was considered to be immature, rude, and disrespectful behavior. I agree with ejr that a little bit of Emily Post or Miss Manners would go a long way. On the college level, the temptation to click on Facebook is real and not at all surprising, and it ought not be much of a surprise that it can be highly distracting to those students seated nearby - the limited battery power of laptops might lead classroom designers to have fewer electrical outlets available, none at all, or to cluster them in such a way as to create an informally designated computer friendly area.

bethievt · January 29, 2007, 6:36am

I just “shadowed” my HS senior for 2 days. Though he’s a great student and “well-behaved” in general, I was upset by how often I saw him whispering to his best friend while a teacher or student was speaking. When we talked about it later, he said he already knew the material so it was ok. I said it was rude and distracting so it was NOT ok.

asteriskea · January 29, 2007, 6:44am

I just came across this engaging article that focuses on UCSD computer science students:

Beth Simon bounds up the aisles of her cavernous classroom at the University of California San Diego, doing her best to keep the attention of 140 computer science students.

She has a lot to compete with. 

About a third of the class listens while playing video games, writing e-mail and watching YouTube videos on their laptops. Some students check their cell phones for text messages. One sleeps in the back row.

But Simon battles back with her own high-tech arsenal and teaching strategy. She constantly quizzes students’ understanding of concepts using software she created to connect with their laptops and Web browsers. She keeps lectures short and asks lots of questions.

Simon’s class highlights how college is changing with the arrival of the Millennial Generation. 

Sometimes called “Generation Y” or “Echo Boomers,” these young people are described by researchers who study them as individuals whose lives have been shaped by the Internet and the constant introduction of new electronic devices.

They are quick to integrate the latest technologies into the way they work, relax and socialize. Millennials relish the speed and mobility of text messaging. E-mail, they say, is “for old people.”

Professors find teaching this generation, born in the 1980s and early ‘90s, frustrating and exhilarating. It’s a challenge, they say, to adjust their teaching styles to meet students’ high expectations for multimedia components. But it’s rewarding to connect with more of them through technology.

Academics say it’s too early to know whether students are learning more through the varied formats of video, podcasts and the Internet. Students certainly are communicating more with professors, both in class and out, mostly online.

But that progress may be undercut by students’ compulsive multitasking.

Multitasking all the time

It’s midafternoon on a weekday and UCSD freshman Anjali Nigam sits in her dorm room talking on the phone with her grandmother, who lives in Las Vegas.

“Hi, Mum, yeah, what are you doing?” she asks as she organizes papers on her desk. “Mommy said you had a party yesterday. What games did you play?” 

Still listening, Nigam pulls out her laptop, logs in and opens Facebook, a popular social networking Web site.

“The Price Is Right?” she says, giggling. “Was it at your house?” Nigam scrolls through Facebook and selects a friend’s profile. She scans some posted comments and types a response.

In a 20-minute conversation, Nigam, a cognitive science major, keeps up a steady banter while visiting her MySpace page, her school e-mail account and an online photo gallery.

Nigam constantly multitasks, text messaging friends on her cell phone and using it to talk to family on the way to class or lunch. She stops talking – but doesn’t hang up – when she’s driving and has to merge onto a freeway. The key, she says, is to adjust to the situation.

Though she nearly always listens to music while studying, she turns it off when writing papers because she likes to read aloud. Nigam also limits her online chatting during class.

Many students are making more friends and keeping in touch with them through social networking sites and instant message programs, researchers say. Shy teens are able to interact through the sites, says Jean Twenge, a SDSU professor and author of “Generation Me,” the moniker she has given Millennials. Outgoing students use the sites to set up get-togethers with friends.

Consider Chris Letrong, an affable UCSD freshman who joined more than three student organizations within weeks of arriving on campus.

One weeknight, Letrong studied in his dorm while sending an occasional text message. When his sister asked for pictures of his room, he sent them with a few clicks of his mouse. About 90 of his 320 friends were logged on to the instant-messaging program that night.

“Definitely, seeing someone in person is best,” Letrong said. “But my cell phone and instant messaging have made me more social. Without them, I probably would have lost contact with lots of my friends.”

Letrong’s instant-messaging habit often overflows into the classroom. In the course of a 50-minute lecture, for which he took meticulous notes, the bioengineering major clicked through different windows on his laptop whenever the professor paused to ask or field a question. Letrong fired off a few instant messages to friends and transferred three movies from his laptop to a spare hard drive he had just bought.

For Letrong, it’s distracting not to multitask.

Brain experts, however, say constantly switching attention is not advantageous. Decades of data show that people – including Millennials – make more errors and complete tasks more slowly when trying to do several things at once, said Jordan Grafman, a cognitive neuroscientist with the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

While practice improves a person’s ability to multitask, he said, it’s impossible to deliberate while doing many things at once.

“What you’re really looking at is quantity over quality,” Grafman said. “Find me a job in the world that sees that as positive.”

Bells, whistles in class

With so many potential distractions, it’s tougher than it has ever been for professors to make an impression in the classroom. But they’re gaining ground, thanks to the Web and ever-improving software.

Want to boost student input? Create a course Web site with a discussion forum. 

Want to help students prepare for class? Post lecture notes and slides on the course Web site.

Nearly half of all college courses use Web sites or similar tools that allow students to view grades, take quizzes and participate in Web conferences online, according to a recent survey by the Campus Computing Project. The organization is run by Kenneth C. Green, a visiting scholar at Claremont Graduate University who studies technology issues at universities.

At UCSD, about 31 percent of all courses use online management systems or have their own Web sites. It’s about 66 percent at San Diego State University and about 40 percent at the University of San Diego.

One device that’s growing increasingly common in college classrooms is the clicker.

In a recent chemistry class at UCSD, lecturer Christina Johnson used them to quiz students on the difference between hydrogen and other elements’ energy levels.

To respond, students selected a button on bright clickers and pointed them at palm-sized receivers on the walls. Infared rays transmitted the data, much like a TV remote control. With the push of a button, Johnson displayed the results on a screen: 58 percent of the class had answered correctly.

Johnson has been using the “remote answering devices” for two years.

“This allows me to step back from lecture mode and get them thinking instead of taking notes frantically,” she said.

Some professors have used technology to stretch the borders of their classrooms. An MIT engineer created software that allows students on campus and around the world to run experiments online through their Web browsers.

At the University of Virginia, a historian created a Web site similar to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. Students are compiling an online history textbook of sorts, building on each other’s entries.

Not all professors embrace the changing dynamic of college instruction.

Gordon Clanton, a sociology professor at SDSU since 1974, believes shifting focus from lectures to multimedia and digital presentations can dumb down courses.

“I don’t believe replacing readings and lectures with entertaining videos is engaging students,” said Clanton, who uses PowerPoint and overhead projectors in large lecture halls. “I teach about the founders of sociology. I can’t make that as entertaining as a TV show.”

Diana Oblinger, a vice president at Educause, a nonprofit association promoting the use of technology in higher education, says there is a big difference between entertaining students and engaging them. Technology in the classroom is only successful if it engages, she said. And professors are slowly embracing it.

“I don’t see a radical change, but I see relentless incremental change,” she said.

The Internet is also transforming how students and professors interact. Traditional office hours haven’t disappeared, but there are more electronic exchanges. About one-third of students report e-mailing a professor once every two weeks, according to a 2002 Pew Internet and American Life Project report.

“I probably have fewer numbers coming in person, but I have more contact with students than ever,” said Steve Jones, a communications professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Pew Internet project fellow…

<a href=“http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/education/20070128-9999-lz1n28newways.html[/url]”>http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/education/20070128-9999-lz1n28newways.html</a>

This is all even more interesting when read in conjunction with the following article about research on multitasking and the brain:

<a href=“Why our brains suffer a log-jam | Daily Mail Online”>Why our brains suffer a log-jam | Daily Mail Online;

jbusc · January 29, 2007, 7:07am

On one hand, I can see where these concerns come from. It’s very annoying and disrespectful to be talking to someone (even one in a group of people) and have them not paying attention/doing something else.

At my school, tuition averages out to $1.25 per minute of lecture. That’s more than an international phone call most places! Would you dial Thailand on your cell phone, put it down, and browse facebook for an hour before hanging up?

On the other hand, there are also times when it’s disrespectful to students to expect them to be at the ready all the time. Occasionally I stay up late working on a huge project or studying for a midterm or such. In classes with required attendance, I still have to get up in the morning and trudge into class (even if I know the lecture is on something I know I can miss and make up) and try to not fall asleep. Clearly I don’t gain anything from the lecture and I disrespect the professor by not paying attention. Ditto if I’m sick or something, in which case I really disrespect everyone by interrupting class with coughing/sneezing/etc as well as getting everyone else sick.

So if a class requires attendance, there are always going to be a few people not paying attention (for good reasons or no). In a class that doesn’t, then the professor has my sympathies - if you’re not paying attention, go home! But if you treat college students like kids, expect them to behave that way.

binx · January 29, 2007, 8:00am

This is an interesting discussion, and I can see the validity of many of the points. My kids don’t take laptops to class because they don’t want to have to haul it around and keep track of it. I personally engage better with a pencil or pen than with something technical. Uses a different side of my brain! But I am definitely a multitasker, and learn better when I am doing something with my hands. My kids can tell when I’ve been on the phone because every piece of scrap paper within reach has flowers on it. They also know that if I’m going to sit still and watch a movie (which I do maybe twice a year), then I am going to have a Sudoku or a book or computer solitaire going at the same time.

Back in the dark ages when I was in school, I took a math class that was not engaging. I learned the material on my own, sat in the front row, and wrote letters home. The professor would often call on me to do problems on the board. I would do them (correctly) then return to my letters. Other students would ask me to tutor them. I’m glad the professor didn’t feel obligated to punish me. His attitude was, if I was learning the material, why would he attempt to control how I learned it? The problem the OP posted was that the students were NOT learning the material, so I don’t fault the professor’s attempt to change the situation; I see it as her job to do so.

I also thought her consequences were creative, albeit more of a deterrent for some than for others.

I also agree that noisey keyboards would be a huge distraction to me.

soccerguy315 · January 29, 2007, 11:29pm

as has been mentioned, there are always kids in a large lecture class that don’t pay attention. Just because there are computers now doesn’t make it a new thing. I don’t take my laptop to class, because I would probably do the same thing.

I did read a book in one of my classes today. Read some International Law in computer “science class”. It’s in quotes because today in lab, we learned how to edit a word file. Don’t blame me, it’s a mandatory class (fulfills my “major computing requirement”)

Etiquette in the Wireless Classroom

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