Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Digital Etiquette policies in the classroom

You've all run into problems I'm guessing with students inappropriately using technology in the classroom so I thought you might be interested in this short discussion and sample policy in today's "Chronicle."  I especially liked this suggestion from the "Comments" that followed the article,
"After hearing a few students walking across campus engaged in a bitter analysis of a professor who banned laptops, I now ask my students, each semester, to devise their own policy on classroom etiquette (including: cell phones, laptops, eating, talking while others are talking, responding to those with whom they disagree, lateness--mine or theirs). This works much better than imposing rules, for students discover that other students are in the majority very disapproving of classroom incivilities. For example, students dislike the smell and crackling of food, the spilling of drinks, the distractions of laptop screens tuned to non-class materials, and the rude, distracting behavior of students and teachers who arrive late for class. Peer consensus is always far more powerful and persuasive than a teacher's impositions and, to my surprise, students are always more conservative than I would be."


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