Put Your Policy On Texting, Emailing, Or Surfing During Class On Your Syllabus

Professor Cara Finnegan (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) shares her policy on texting or using computers to email or surf during class as well as her reasons for this.

Comments

[Barbara Nixon]

Thanks for sharing Cara's policy. I contacted her and asked for permission to re-post her policy on my site . . . she agreed. Turns out she and I teach similar classes at different universities. Small world!

[billso]

I like her use of the term "divided attention". Her explanation is a bit long, so I'll work on a condensed version, based on her last section: "If you aren’t using it to perform a task specifically related to what we are doing in class at that very moment, put it away."

[Delaney Kirk]

Bill, Condensed would be better as our students have a short attention span! Would you be willing to share your version?

[Delaney Kirk]

Barbara, I have found out that academia is a very small world!

[billso]

I'll post my condensed version to my blog at http://billso.com this week... I agree that shorter is better. That gives students less opportunity to negotiate or waffle.