Teacher doesn't like texting during lecture.

[Rex]

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/teachers-texting-policy/203hnkjy?videoId=a6959184-f3ee-4e92-a5fb-c4242060385c&from=sharepermalink&src=v5:share:sharepermalink:

I think this is a little overboard and he owes the student a cell phone. Texting in class...watch the mallet fly!

Swing that hammer teach!!!!

[Warpy]

1. While I understand the frustration perfectly

I think confiscating it until the parents show up to retrieve it is a much better policy.

Still, I doubt he's had much of a problem since the first hammer came down.

[ZombieHorde]

2. Why does the teacher owe the student a new cell phone?

Did you watch the whole video?

[frazzled]

5. Heh ... I think he got this idea from ...

a rather famous mathematics professor (who is mostly blind and sports 2 titanium prosthetic legs, from diabetes complications) who is supposedly legendary for having destroyed or thrown out the window a number of students' cell phones. Whether these stories are apocryphal or not (and they've been written about in a number of places), the stories are so legendary that no one would dare pull out a cell phone in his class, even though he can't see them texting, obviously!

Sometimes the threat is all that is needed to end this pernicious practice.

[MedicalAdmin]

6. Arturo Toscanini

One of the most famous conductors in history once allegedly pulled a gun in a rehearsal and threatened a player with death saying that if the player didn't get it "right" next time, that Arturo would kill him.

Snapping a cell phone seems mild to me.

[roguevalley]

8. I had a high school colleague who used as a bathroom pass a complete

toilet seat. No one ever borrowed it.

[frazzled]

12. Oooh, that hurts!

If you really, really, really have to go (ate bad lunchroom food and don't want to mess your pants in class) you are in big trouble!

[roguevalley]

14. how true that is :-D

[mike_c]

3. I'm a university prof who agrees that texting is a big problem in class....

Full disclaimer-- I've never smashed anyone's cell phone or even made an issue out of student inattention in class. On the one hand, I feel like they're adults, at least nominally-- not all behave like it, but that's not the point-- so it's up to them to decide what's appropriate conduct, up to the usual social responsibility points. But on the other hand, I do think it's incredibly rude to ask someone to invest time and effort preparing coursework for their benefit only to pointedly and obviously ignore the person speaking. It tells me, standing up there at the front of the room, that those distracted students don't value the work we do on their behalf.

I occasionally slip into the back of classrooms just to scan the desks from behind, rather than from the podium. I'm usually shocked by the number of students texting, watching video or listening to music on mobile devices or laptops, emailing, just generally surfing the web, etc. Again, those are their choices and I respect that, but it really makes me question why I stay up and work 14 hours a day perfecting lectures, providing feedback on assignments, etc. I know, in the end I do it because it matters to me, but still.

Recent studies conducted among university students suggest that their reliance upon mobile communication devices is extreme. Students report that going just 24 hours without texting or receiving texts is "torture" and "the worst day of my life."

[tblue37]

4. I also teach college and I am quite certain that for many young people,

texting is literally (not virtually, but literally) addictive. (Studies do suggest that texting is addictive.)

I call people out in class for texting or otherwise playing with their phones while I am teaching, and I warn them that I can actually throw them out of class if they continue, not to mention lowering their grade because of lost “class participation” points.

But I think that many of them text or read texts on autopilot—they are so accustomed to doing so, and so addicted to doing so, that they don’t even realize that they are doing so.

[Charlemagne]

7. They use them to cheat

or at least they have in my class.

[mike_c]

9. yeah, that's the context for our discussions about this in dept meetings, etc....

We're still trying to come up with a reasonable policy that we can actually enforce. I'm in the camp that favors some sort of cell phone jamming in lecture halls, but apparently the lawyers aren't sure it's legal and besides, the university has invested in a mass calling system to be used for emergency notifications on campus-- they came up with this idea after the Virginia Tech shootings-- so the administration is cool to the notion of blocking cell phone service.

I'd be willing to bet that if cell phone service was disrupted, attendance would decline even further.

During the time I've been on this faculty we've gone from it being a distinct oddity to hear someone conducting a phone conversation in public to it being odd when they don't. I still remember shaking my head in disbelief the first time I heard some guy arguing over the phone with his girlfriend while standing in line at the bookstore. Now I can hear half a dozen such conversations, and many more, just walking across campus. And the number of students with earbuds in during lectures, or laptops open to email, websites, etc, continues to amaze me. NONE of that happened even five or six years ago-- wireless coverage was only expanded to include most of campus about that time. Smart phones were not the norm among students, and iPods were still expensive rarities.

[Charlemagne]

10. Please let me know what ideas your department comes up with

I cant think of anything but trying to catch it by googling their answers (doesnt work if its math class or if they saved notes on the phone).

[msongs]

11. this behavior = a hindrance to other students - nothing to "respect" here, it tramples the rights

of students who wish to be in that class for educational reasons

[mike_c]

13. only if it really does impose on others somehow....

But most of the time, it's silent and unobtrusive. It's rude to the instructor-- I mean, if I've stayed up half the night polishing a lecture and started at 6:00 AM to review student comments about the material before class, I think it's damned rude for students to sit through class with earbuds in watching videos or texting their friends, but I doubt that they disrupt others much. I would insist that they stop anything that created a disturbance. But choosing to not pay attention? Beyond wondering why they got up early and went to class to read their email instead of staying home in their PJs to do it, I'm not sure it's really my choice to make for them.

[STOP_SOPA]

15. Hilarious!

If my teacher did that on my first day of class I don't think I'd have the urge to text in his class ever again.

[Stand and Fight]

16. I have to wonder... How many of the commenters above actually watched the whole video?

It seems to me the majority apparently did NOT finish the video. Lazy.

[amyrose2712]

17. Not many it seems. Although the lack of reaction from the student tipped me off

I would have be more than pissed.