Wednesday, April 2, 2008

If You Text in Class, This Prof Will Leave :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, and Views and Jobs

If You Text in Class, This Prof Will Leave :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, and Views and Jobs: "Some professors threaten to confiscate students’ cell phones if they go off during class. Laurence Thomas has his own approach to classroom distractions. If the philosopher at Syracuse University catches a student sending text messages or reading a newspaper in class, he’ll end the class on the spot and walk out. It doesn’t matter if there is but one texter in a large lecture of hundreds of students. If you text, he will leave."
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This prof may need to chill out a little. But I see his point. There is a big problem with civility these days, with students acting like they are in their living room. Talking with each other in class, coming in late, letting their cell phones ring, packing up their stuff noisily five minutes before class ends, and so forth, all are pretty irritating if you are trying to teach or learn. I actually had a student answer her cell phone and start a having a conversation during the class once. Maybe I should have thrown an eraser at her. The other students acted like they wanted to throw her out the window, but because it was BSB we didn't have a window.

3 comments:

samunition773 said...

Wow, I'm sorry. I'm guilty of this in your 354 class!

samunition773 said...

Wow, sorry. I'm guilty of this in your 354 class.

Evan McKenzie said...

Actually I think the students in my 101 and 354 classes this semester are among the most polite I have ever had. I was speaking in general terms. If I go back over the last decade or so I really see a decline in civility, and I hear the same thing from other professors. Maybe we should blame it on the cell phone!