What do university professors think about phone use in class?

Answered by,

Sirdhart malhotra

I do care. Obviously, it annoys me personally. One would have to have especially thick skin to not care at all, and though my dermis has some layers, it doesn't have that many.

But I care even more because it is bound to be distracting to other students. I can't tell whether the OP means using the phone to talk or using the phone as a smart device, but both are distracting. The former, obviously. The latter because screens are flashy and apps are designed to attract the eye, so others next to and beside them are bound to eventually have their attention stolen from whatever it is they're trying to pay attention to. That's just basic behavioral science.

The other thing it does is reduce the overall quality of the classroom. People behave differently in groups than they do individually (as we know from mob behavior). Classes have moods, and these moods undergo phase changes. When enough people are visibly distracted, it makes others shift over to distraction, too. And that then wastes everybody's time.

Do I have a policy?

No, I've never had a formal policy. I would like to think my students are mature enough to comport themselves suitably in class. For this reason I don't have a “laptop policy” either. If you want to come to class and use a laptop to take notes, that's fine. If you want to come to class and use a laptop to play a game, well, I have no idea what you think you're achieving (other than having a misguided and mistaken sense of how great a multi-tasker you are), but I'd hope you at least have the basic decency to do it in the back of the class, not sit where others can see and be distracted by you.

I don't write a policy on purpose. First, because I think it treats students as not mature enough to think this through for themselves. Second, because there are people who like to figure out the corner cases of rules, and so I'd end up in an endless battle of trying to amend the rules to catch them. Third, I don't want to even bring up the issue.

I have in all my teaching career on two instances had to call out a student or two for their in-class “device” behavior. In one case, the student stopped coming to class. In the other case, of the two students, one reformed right away and the other never did (-:.

One related but unasked question: How do you handle it if a phone call goes off in class? You ignore it, of course. You assume that the student is sufficiently embarrassed that you don't need to pile on. (And you can tell by how they scramble to quiet it.) Now if they never did reach down to silence it, I might politely request that they do. And if they actually took the call? I'd like to assume that they have a really good reason (maybe there's a family emergency—a person in the hospital—or impending good news—like a child's birth—and they wanted to keep abreast). If they took the call quietly, then put away the phone, no harm, no foul. But if they started to have a conversation back while in class, well…I'd have a hard time resisting going over, taking over the phone, and joining in the conversation!

Finally: my overarching way of thinking about these issues is that it's the professor's responsibility to keep the class engaged. If a bunch of people are on laptops or on phones, I don't assume they're doing something wrong, I assume I am. Now this needs some disclaimers, because in our modern, device-filled lives, and our (incorrect) self-images as brilliant multi-taskers, behaviors change in ways that end up hurting students over the long term. So there's nothing wrong in nudging students away from bad behavior. But ultimately, if despite that their behavior persists, that's a useful signal to me about how my class is going, and I don't want to get rid of that signal. It's too valuable.

Answered by,

Millan Jill

Texting, or talking, or Facebooking, or playing games, or listening to music during class is aggressively offensive, like flipping a finger at the professor. If you didn't intend to offend, you should realize that it does. If you did intend to offend, perhaps because you don't like the course, you should find a constructive way to improve the situation, such as talking to the professor, or drop the course. If you find all your courses that boring, you are in the wrong school.

I taught in medical schools, where most of the students were actually trying to learn, so we didn't have much trouble with phones and there wasn't a formal policy. In a large lecture, if I saw a phone or a newspaper I might ignore it rather than interrupt the lecture -- it's the student's loss. In our small classroom settings I would have asked the person to put away the phone -- but I never did this because the situation didn't arise.

Answered by,

Student

I am not a professor, but I have recently listened to some lectures from Sherry Turkle who researches the disruptions of phone and device use.

She makes a case that the use of devices in class not only removes the person using the device from class, but has a wide distraction radius.

I don't yet have the book, but based on the research she quotes, professors have a case to ban phone use, with an explanation of why they are banning it. I don't think they can fully stop the use, but they should try.

I do recall when I was a student, back in the stone age, I sat in the back row of a pretty big class reading a newspaper. The professor stopped the class and called me out in front of everyone. He told me I could put away the paper or leave, telling me in no uncertain terms that I was disrespecting both him and my fellow students. I put away the paper and he did not have any further problem with me.

Unfortunately, you will have a problem with some students that legitimately use devices in constructive ways, such as taking notes, using assistive learning applications or to recording classes. The phone/PC may have legitimate use in class, so you will need to allow appropriate exceptions as a good professor. In fact, you may be required by law to do so if the device is used to assist with a disability.

Ideally, the environment of mutual respect is set up and people adopt the norms set early in the class.

Answered by,

Warren 

I'm not a professor, simply speaking my own thoughts as a student - To me, the single most useful tool a professor has in his/her arsenal regarding students not paying attention is to make lectures engaging and interesting.

Nobody wants to hear a dull professor mumble into a blackboard while 150 slides of 12-point text rush past. Every student in that class is either on their phone, or wishing that their phone hadn't run out in the previous lecture!

Though I say this - and the majority of lecturers at my University don't seem to care - or at least they don't make this visible. Often, they will call out people who are talking (i.e. disrupting the lecture for others), but generally their opinion seems to be that if a student is not going to pay attention, then it is their fault if they fail their exams.

Answered by,

Burger sip

A friend of mine was a biology instructor (large gen-ed bio class). He had on the occasion had a friend pretend to receive a call and answer it on the first day. My Friend would proceed to throw a pile of books at the individual's direction.

The class would be unaware that this was staged, but showed the point - "Don't be a tool".

The point was that it was distracting to other students and it showed how that your call was more important than the lecture. In the world of lecture halls, the individual talking in the front usually wants to be perceived as the king of the castle (room).

Personally I have taught a few courses, in the IT realm, and have only had one student actually answer a call during class. This blew my mind and I proceeded to change the topic of my lecture to the rudeness of answering phones during class. Two minutes later, the guy caught on and hung up the phone.

I have no issue with you answering a phone during class...but leave the room. If you leave the room,  I can assume that you felt it may have been important but you proceeded in a respectful fashion.

Aswered by,

Kijran kiran

True story, with enhancements. I believe in electricity. Phones were once tools run by electricity. Phones were a necessary evil for living in technology. One  field of electricity is electronics. Cell phones are electronic.  Cell phones are intrusive, invasive, parasitic, poisonous chunks of dirt and sand emitting unknown forces do unknown things.  I taught fundamental electricity, micro-computer theory, digital processing, assembly language. It was my life, my bread and butter. Cell phones new and available to the public. The university had a  no cell phone policy.  I had to make a decision. A phone rang, some one said hello, there was laughter. I was near the end of a sentence. I stopped. I closed my books. I walked to the door. I gave them an assignment. One question. Why am I walking out of this classroom? I left. I never had any trouble for the next 20 years. I hate cell phones. I was never drunk or on drugs in the classroom.  I only have a cellphone. I do not carry it. I do not use it. It is a tool. The devil is electricity. Satan is electronics and Lucifer is the cell phone. I am religious Christian. I hate them all. But I know they are there and use them just like a tool. By the way, a computer is only a tool.