“Thousands of college students in the United States are being bribed to ignore their phones during class with free food and store discounts. Students at colleges including Penn State, and California State University, Chico, have downloaded an app called Pocket Points that tracks how long a smartphone is kept locked and gives out points accordingly. The app — first developed by a student at the Chico university — encourages students to earn points by ignoring their mobile devices, rewarding them with treats for paying attention to the classes they pay thousands of dollars for.” …
Just when you think you’ve seen it all.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/4/7975781/us-colleges-use-pocket-points-app-ignore-phones
Please send the complete list. It looks like I’ll have some last-minute applications to send in.
Given that you can check Facebook on your computer and that many students bring their computers (and iPads) to class…I don’t see how this proves anything.
@juillet
Why are you questioning free food? Free food is love. Free food is life.
I’d love this. I never go on my phone in class - I actually intentionally sit right in the front so I’m not tempted to, so the app would work wonders for me. I’d be able to generate free food without much effort.
What’s next? Free ice cream if they do their homework?
Couldn’t you just keep it locked all night and then get free food for nothing?
@jimmyboy23
You could, but you’d have to live in the classroom. The app uses GPS technology to make sure you’re actually within a defined region where classrooms are.
Couldn’t you buy a cheap Android-enabled no-contract cell, never actually use it, but load this app and leave it somewhere secure in a classroom? 
hypothetically of course
@GMTplus7 - That’d be good too!
I would think that the non-dischargable debt so many students are taking on would be incentive enough to actually make something out of your education but I guess it isn’t.
I find it sad that something like this even needs to exist. I very rarely even touch my phone in class. I’ll occasionally slip it out of my pocket to check the time, but that’s about it. People are too attached to their devices. I’m pretty sure we’re all capable of going a whole hour and a half without checking Facebook…lol
All this being said, I don’t see why it’s a problem if you use your smartphone wisely.
In my classes I’ll often use it to look something up for a professor or translate something in French class, and if something important is happening in my life, I’ll have it out so I can reply to texts when necessary. I don’t think this kind of usage is inappropriate at all and I think I should have perfectly liberty to do so without feeling bad about it.
So, I guess what I’m saying is that I wouldn’t like to trade this kind of freedom for free food.
As someone else already pointed out, a work around to this app would be super easy. Very half-baked idea to begin with…
A more effective solution (if this really is that much of a problem) would be to put some EMF absorbing paint in the rooms. http://www.lessemf.com/paint.html
When I went to college some 25 years ago, the expectation was that you were an adult and could make your own decisions. Most professors didn’t take attendance, and expected you to read the syllabus and do what it said. If you needed to leave a class, go to the drinking fountain or whatever, no one cared. Now, at my D’s college, all the classes have specific cell phone policies, attendance policies, etc. I thought the point was to sink or swim? Since when did it turn into glorified high school?