OMG GOT 2 GO
Inside Higher Ed has a piece today on one professor’s rebellion to students texting in his class: he just walks out.
Professor Laurence Thomas of Syracuse University will end class immediately and retire to his office if he sees even one student send a text message during class.
For current college students, text messaging is like breathing — you don’t think twice. While texting may be disrespectful to the instructor, it is specifically not disrespectful to the other students.
What if a message really does need to be sent? Is banging out a quick text better or worse than making a ten-second phone call from one’s seat? What about the commotion of excusing oneself to talk on the phone outside the lecture hall?
Professor Thomas, sir? Get over yourself. Yes, texting is disrespectful. So is doodling, daydreaming, whispering during class, chewing gum in public, and wearing white after Labor Day. The idea of respect is relative, defined by the social and cultural norms of the environment. While it is the professor’s right to ask disrespectful students to leave his class, it is also his job to provide the services his students are paying for.
The students are the consumers of education. If they don’t think texting is rude in class, then it’s not. Plain and simple. Texting doesn’t take away from other students’ experiences, and so if a student wishes to divert her attention to another task for a few seconds it is her prerogative.
As a teacher in a private high school, I have more power than some of my public-school peers to deal with discipline problems on the spot. At my school, cell phones are to be stored in lockers and powered off during the day — if a teacher sees or hears a phone at any time, it is confiscated until a parent can pick it up.
In a high school, this makes sense — students need practice in giving their full attention to their instructor. Besides, they’re required to go to class anyway (as much for legal reasons as educational) so they might as well attend mentally as well as physically.
In a university environment, students can sleep late if they wish and miss class entirely. If a student chooses to be 97% present, isn’t that also their right?
Tags: education
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Why do students need to practice giving their full attention to their high school teacher if it’s okay to not do so in college?
I think this guy went overboard and is indeed doing a disservice to his students by not giving them what they paid for, but I also don’t think the students get to be the sole deciders on whether texting in class is rude or not.
Texting may not directly affect other students, but it sure as hell distracts me, and my getting distracted results in suboptimal performance, which affects the whole class. It’s not as bad as taking a phone call, but if what you need to deal with is so important, why are you in class in the first place?
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:52 pm
When did we become so self-important that we need to be reachable 24/7? I agree with Marc, what could possibly be so important that it can’t wait until class is over or until a break. I don’t agree with the professor walking out, but I wouldn’t have a problem with him asking that student to leave.
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:50 pm
I think that professors have the right to dictate standards of behavior in their classrooms. (I think communal punishment is the wrong way to enforce it, but that’s another post.) If you are told texting is unacceptable on day one and don’t drop the class, then you’re agreeing to abide by that rule.
As you said, they don’t have to show up at all- if they have things to do that are more important than class, then don’t go in and disrespect the teacher.
(I had one required statistics class in college that was way below my level. Attendance was mandatory so I read during class. The prof suggested I only trouble to show up for tests; a mutually agreeable solution to all. Most classes though required engagement in class discussion, which texting would have distracted from- maybe liberal arts classes are just completely different from what you took?)
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:52 pm
@Marc, @NC, @Sarah
I’m not disagreeing with you… the professor does have the right to maintain order in his class. If students talk during lecture, the professor should ask them to be quiet or to leave.
However, I believe it’s the professor’s responsibility to keep the class going regardless of distraction. Deal with distractions, sure, but don’t end the class unless a riot breaks out.
One student texting is not sufficient to end class, policy or not. Yes, it’s very rude to text. But prematurely ending the class is effectively depriving the majority of that which they’re paying for.
What’s next? Canceling the next class if a student falls asleep? Starts doodling?
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:54 pm
@Marc:
I agree with you with regards to in-class texting being distracting to my focus as an instructor. En masse it is, anyway.
I guess I was imagining one student out of hundreds texting and Thomas having the reaction he did. If it was 27 out of 30, okay, yeah, then his reaction is justified.
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:14 pm
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.
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:52 pm
@Annie:
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.
April 3rd, 2008 at 7:40 pm
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.
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:54 pm
@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.
I love that phrase… “continuously partial attention”. It sums up so much in three words.
April 5th, 2008 at 8:50 am
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.