Diskussionen om mobiltelefoner lär fortsätta.

An example: I spoke with a colleague earlier today about student decorum and what faculty can or should do when problems arise. She expressed surprise and dismay at the most common in-class problem: cell-phone use. Students usually don’t talk on their smartphones in class, of course, but they certainly text one another and check email or Facebook with relative abandon. Recently, during the first day of class, she reviewed cellphone etiquette as articulated in the course syllabus (“phones should be on silent and out of sight”) and then observed a first year student in the first row with his eyes glued to his cell phone. She let it pass because it was the first class meeting. When the second class rolled around, he sat two rows back and spent much of his time (albeit in failed attempt at being surreptitious) again staring at his phone and texting away. Slightly exasperated, after class she asked him to visit her during office hours. He did. She had to do a one on one session explaining the facts of classroom etiquette life. He expressed real embarrassment and apologized, which led to a broader talk on college life and appropriate behavior in and out of the classroom. My colleague wondered—not inappropriately—why so much effort has to be exerted for what should be a straightforward, even obvious, example of delaying gratification (i.e., put the phone away until class ends).

Det känns lite gammalt. Om jag vill att studenter ska kommunicera digitalt blir det ologiskt att förbjuda smartphones i klassrummet.

Här finns utrymme för förhandlingar.