Being sure of his proficiency with a slide-rule, Doxsee’s instructor challenged the class to a test — the class smoked him using his calculator.
As technology has changed, so has the climate of banning those innovations in the classroom. Being forced to sit in the front of the room or next to the GTF is a hassle, but do professors actually hold the authority to enforce these rules?
“The short answer, is a lot. We trust our faculty with establishing a learning environment in their classroom that they feel best suits the material and the style and the content that they hope to provide to their students,” Doxsee said, who is the associate vice provost for academic affairs and a professor for the department of chemistry.
Regardless of whether a student feels that they deserve the right to use Facebook in class because they pay tuition, the professor remains in charge of his or her classroom.
MORE.
It says something that they had to go to an associate vice provost for academic affairs to confirm that the instructor is in charge of the classroom.
ReplyDeleteHey, at least the guy supports the faculty. We don't hear that too often around here.
DeleteI was enjoying the read until I got to this part:
Delete"Doxsee agreed... but that professors should attempt to embrace technology."
I'm so tired of administrators assuming that if professors limit technology in any way, it's done so out of ignorance rather than as a considered decision.
All too often, they refuse to support the faculty but INSIST they are in charge.
DeleteThis semester's experiment: the "technology zone": only in the first two rows can students use anything with an off switch - laptop, tablet, cell, recorder (only with special permission), calculator.
ReplyDeleteLast semester, students NOT in the first two rows who used technology were generally surfing, face-booking and texting - often distracting other students.
THIS semester, though, I've had some interesting results of the experiment so far ...
I HAVEN'T had more students move to the front so they could use their precious screens and keyboards(!); those not in the first two rows, are just TURNING THEM OFF.
The ones in the back who used to spend their time surfing are PAYING ATTENTION (and I ain't a more engaging teacher this semester than last semester!).
The tech users in the front are still using them to enhance their learning - taking notes, doing quick searches for supplementary/complementary information, and sharing it with the class.
Maybe I'm lucky, maybe I have a class of litttle angels, but dammit, it worked, for ONCE my classroom management idea actually worked.
Brilliant idea. I too always thought that laptop users should go in the back row so as not to distract other people, but this makes perfect sense. Who really wants to look at porn or embarrassing fan fiction when any of their classmates could see what they're doing? And since dedicated students are the ones who sit in the front row, and bad students avoid it like the plague ... yeah.
DeleteSending laptop users to the back is almost like giving your benediction to the assholes.
Really? I banish laptops to the back row, so nobody has to look at whatever it is they are doing. I don't care if they surf or whatever, but I do care about people having to look at their Facebook pages, their porn, etc.
ReplyDeleteI figured the genie was out of the bottle on this issue, but I like the idea of the tech-free zone. Could I make it out in the hallway?
ReplyDeleteI've made the entire floor of my building a cell phone free zone. It took a couple of quarters of all of us being trolls about it, but what a difference! Students leave the damn things off and go outside to place calls.
DeleteI bring a WiFi jammer to class. Works wonders.
ReplyDeleteHow much does one of those cost?
DeleteFor the past four years I've included a full electronics ban in my syllabi: no cell phones, smart phones, laptops or anything else. I just tell them it disturbs my concentration; it never occurred to me (or them) that I might not have the "right" to declare such a policy.
ReplyDeleteAs for compliance: my classes are small, and no one has yet dared to crack a laptop open. Occasionally a cell phone goes off, or I catch somebody texting, and I give the culprit a long "you're toast" stare until it stops. More recently I've instituted a point deduction (from the HW grade) for each event, and there haven't been any "events" yet. I even joked that if *my* cell goes off, everybody gets a point.
Yep, and they'll reprimand you for NOT enforcing it and then tell you that you DON'T have the right to do so!
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