Comments on: OMG GOT 2 GO

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 13:50:38 +0000

I agree that the prof’s job is to keep going, regardless of distraction, and walking out is over the top. But I disagree with “The students are the consumers of education. If they don’t think texting is rude in class, then it’s not. Plain and simple.” They don’t get to decide what’s rude — it’s the professor’s class. He/she is the boss of that classroom, and the students need to learn about that kind of relationship. It will serve them well when they get jobs.

Of course, the true physics response to this would be some conductive paint to turn the room into a Faraday cage. That’ll learn ‘em.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 01:54:05 +0000

@gd:
Wow, great to have someone here who’s actually taken a class from the guy!

I think it’s okay that he’s a showoff. All good teachers are in some way. To be good at teaching a professor needs to be able to captivate an audience. What he should not do, however, is whine and complain and act like a neglected child when one student dares to not pay attention in his class.

Continuously partial attention seems to be the new way of the world.

I love that phrase… “continuously partial attention”. It sums up so much in three words.

By: gd

gd — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:40:23 +0000

I actually had Thomas for a class at Syracuse. This fits his personality. He’s a bit of a show-off.

That said, I don’t think his students should be texting during class. But maybe I’m just getting old. Continuously partial attention seems to be the new way of the world.

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:52:49 +0000

@Annie:

I tell them that these behaviors are indicative of two behaviors: neither of which is appropriate for the classroom.

Ha! Brilliant! I LOLed at this. :-)

I completely approve of public humiliation to shape behavior. In fact, since students in high schools (and to a lesser extent, colleges) tend to be focused on the image they present to their peers, they’re especially cautious when doing something they know is wrong.

By: Annie

Annie — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:14:58 +0000

It bugs me when a student texts in class, but I generally don’t go ballistic. If it’s particularly bugging me that day, I’ll point it out in class, and the student usually puts the phone away. I’ll punish the student who is texting (it’s an individually identifiable behavior).

I do have a policy of communally penalizing students for a phone ringing in class. I used to only penalize the student whose phone rang, but then my students wised up that they could just ignore the phone until it went into voice mail. After one class of a student vehemently denying that his backpack was the one screaming “Yo! Motha F***a, answer your phone!”, I decided I needed to change my policy.

I think I’ll continue the policy, but flip around the framing in the future - rather than stating that students will lose X points when a phone rings in class, I’ll phrase it as students gain X points for every class that a phone does NOT ring. (Using a suggestion from this article on syllabus wording)

Oh, and I generally get students to avoid texting by the possibility of public humiliation. Because I teach Human Sexuality, I can get away with a few things most other professors probably couldn’t. I tell my students on the first day that it’s pretty obvious to me when they are texting (hands under desk, staring at lap for an extended period of time). I tell them that these behaviors are indicative of two behaviors: neither of which is appropriate for the classroom.