Siobhan Curious answers the question of how to get students to put away their cell phones.
She gives her students the following speech at the beginning of the semester/term.
College policy states that you need to turn your phone off and put it away, out of sight, and that's what I'd like you to do. However, here's how I approach this policy. If your phone is out on your desk and it is silent - you're not touching it, it's not ringing or vibrating - I'm not going to give you a hard time about it. I'll be irritated by it. I won't LIKE you as much as all the other nice, polite students who put their phones away because I ask them to. But I'm not going to make a big deal about it, as long as we're not doing a test and you're leaving the phone alone. However, if I see you playing with your phone at any time, I'm going to ask you to put it away where you can't see it, and if I have to talk to you repeatedly about your phone, I'm going to ask you to leave the class.
As she notes, "this approach was surprisingly effective." You can read more about her advice on cell phones here.
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