Luke Hartman and I presented in a session during the 2010 Heartland e-learning Conference. (See notes here by Mr. Wesley Fryer, author and learning consultant.) One of the topics we covered was to deal with technology distraction in the classroom. This is something that can be annoying to faculty, and some may be really serious about the issue, as this Youtube video has shown:
I am personally worried about this “banning” approach. I have given my reasons in a telephone interview (Interview Audio) with Dr. Maureen Wideman from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in their recent newsletter. I made some similar remarks about the issue in today’s presentation.
Also in our mobile learning survey, students voiced their dissatisfaction that they are not allowed to bring computers into the classroom. Some feel they are punished for those who do not behave responsibly in class. One student writes that he does not come to the university to be a “transcriptionist” to write notes on a piece of paper and then transcribe these to their computer. Maybe it is a time to make some change?
What do you think? Do you have any strategies to turn distraction into opportunities? Let us know so that we can help share your best practices.
I think you are 100% on target here. Unfortunately it is easier to ban things we don’t understand and may fear. As you all pointed out in your preso yesterday, that is rarely the best path forward.
I started the project “Unmasking the Digital Truth” awhile back to address some of these same issues we see in content filtering in K12 schools. http://unmaskdigitaltruth.pbworks.com/
What do you think are the best ways to help individual faculty members and departments/colleges as a whole get beyond the reflective “ban it” mentality?
Comment by Wesley Fryer — March 10, 2010 @ 3:46 pm
Mr. Fryer, I went to your blog composed during the presentation, and I think that is a perfect example of how “positive distraction” can help! I am pretty impressed you could take notes “at the speed of creativity” and when the presentation is over, the posts are there. This is exactly the kind of productivity tools students would benefit from if they learn to do it in similar ways.
Moving faculty beyond that reflective barrier is a long process. I hate to rush anyone through it, nor could we, as we play faculty support roles mainly. It is a higher ed environment for us here, and it is hard to impose a different mindset altogether in a short time. The best thing we can do is to find and showcase examples of alternative practices from their peers.
Comment by Berlin Fang — March 10, 2010 @ 4:14 pm
[...] tip to Berlin Fang for sharing this video. Berlin gave a great presentation yesterday at the Heartland eLearning Conference here in Oklahoma, [...]
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