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October 2010

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Teaching Breakfast List <[log in to unmask]>
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Sat, 30 Oct 2010 09:10:10 -0400
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Dear Friends,
Although I am no longer faced with this problem in the classroom, I have thought about it quite a bit.  I think that there is a reasonable position between ban and no ban.  It is possible to have distinct periods during which they and not just allowed but required for an educational purpose and other times when their use is not allowed.  This might even help to teach the valuable lesson that there are appropriate and inappropriate uses for technology, although I won't pretend that one class will undo the attitudes that students have learned in their entire previous careers.  

The idea of having clearly designated tech/notech periods requires that there be some activity that can be done during the tech times.  Some faculty are using clickers in their classes; there are programs available that allow the use of cell phones as clickers.  Going a little further, smartphones allow the user to surf the internet.  It should be possible to structure the class so that from time to time there is material that must be looked up.  If not all students have smartphones, then I would form ad hoc groups by asking the students to form groups of two or three which include at least one person with a smartphone.  Then have a group exercise in which the students work cooperatively in their groups to solve some problem based on information that is obtained from the WWW.  I did this sort of thing in my class of about 100 students for more than 20 years before cell phones came into use, so I am sure it is possible.  

If you are really brave, you might try a back channel discussion during the lecture, but there are some potential problems here that must be carefully thought through before going this route.  Unless it is carefully controlled, it can become a disaster very easily.

The latter activities are just a short step from the use of clickers, but seem to me to be even more educationally productive than clickers.  I'm sure that there is more than enough creativity on this list to think of other ways that the cell phones can contribute to active learning rther than passive listening.  Once the use of the device in the class is defined, it should be somewhat easier to justify requiring that the tool be turned off when the use of the device is no longer appropriate. 

If you can't like 'em, join 'em.

Cordially,
Harry Pence

P.S. Does everyone know that with the older cells many students can text in their pockets without looking at the keys? 

    
Harry E. Pence
SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus
SUNY Oneonta
________________________________________
From: Teaching Breakfast List [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Koeddermann, Achim   ([log in to unmask])
Sent: Friday, October 29, 2010 12:28 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Living in parallel worlds

Dare all to live in multiple worlds?

JAnet, you are off course right, but I am not able to switch to the new world as easily: I understand that blocking all use of such devices is not only unpopular, but also impossible, as increasingly, such devices can convey knowledge better than the professor could:
Texting could, if used right, enhance the teaching, and be a assett. Ethics would be the ideal answer - but I see that popular culture is endorsing the use of such devices at all times: if most do it, it must be right.... We do not accept the new norm in plagiarism, and should not rely on ethics alone.
However, as I sometimes walk by an "intelligent" classroom on campus and see virtually all student screens turned on Facebook, and the instructor is teaching content (foreign language) - I wonder if we would not better replace ethics with (some) control:  can we block at least for some classes some surf" able" places?

Best

Achim


________________________________________
From: Teaching Breakfast List [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gilbert, Steven ([log in to unmask])
Sent: Friday, October 29, 2010 11:47 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Next TB and Agenda?

Last night I attended a talk at SUNY-Binghamton given by a world-renown author.  The talk lasted about 50 minutes (with a Q&A afterwards).  In the row in front of me -- and in direct eye-shot of the speaker -- was a student who spent about a third of the lecture scrolling through facebook pictures on her iphone, and texting her friends.  The old norm was "hope that a lecture is fascinating, engaging, and full of stimulating media, but if it isn't, then try to find interest and meaning in it anyway, and if you can't, at least try to avoid behavior that overtly communicates your lack of engagement, disappointment, and wish to be doing something else."

What is the new norm, and what is the role of new technology (e.g., cell phones) in creating and maintaining it?

Steve.
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Steven J. Gilbert, Ph.D.
   Professor of Psychology
      State University of New York, College at Oneonta
      [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
      Phone: 607-436-2557     Office: FITZ 416
      Home Page: http://employees.oneonta.edu/gilbersj/stevepage.htm
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________________________________
From: Teaching Breakfast List [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Greenberg, James ([log in to unmask])
Sent: Friday, October 29, 2010 8:34 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Next TB and Agenda?

TBers,

Just a reminder that our next Teaching Breakfast meeting will be Nov. 4, Thursday in Starbucks at 8am.  The topic (unless someone wants to talk about something more burning) is “Lifting the Ban on Cell Technology in the Classroom”.   I’d like to talk about your reasons for allowing or not allowing students to use cell phones during class.   There is a growing voice in Higher Ed. advocating lifting this ban and I’d like to hear what you think.


Mr. James B. Greenberg
Director Teaching, Learning and Technology Center
Milne Library
SUNY College at Oneonta
Oneonta, New York 13820

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