During boring classes, texting is the new doodlingBy Michael Rubinkam, AP, LA Daily News
11/26/2010
Tom Markley, 21, of Lehighton, Pa., a senior at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., poses with his phone in a Wilkes classroom. A recent survey by two Wilkes psychology professors found that more than 90 percent of students at the university admit to sending text messages during class.
…It's no surprise that high school and college students are obsessive texters. What alarms Wilkes psychology professors Deborah Tindell and Robert Bohlander is how rampant the practice has become during class: Their recent study shows that texting at the school has surpassed doodling, daydreaming and note–passing to become the top classroom distraction. The anonymous survey of 269 Wilkes students found that nine in 10 admit to sending text messages during class – and nearly half say it's easy to do so undetected. Even more troubling, 10 percent say that they have sent or received texts during exams, and that 3 percent admit to using their phones to cheat.
…Almost all the students surveyed by Tindell and Bohlander said they should be allowed to have their phones in class. And a clear majority – 62 percent – said they should be allowed to text in class as long as they're not disturbing those around them. About one in four said texting creates a distraction.
…Tindell instituted a no–texting policy as a result of the study, which has been presented at a pair of academic conferences. She tells students that if she even sees a cell phone during a test, its owner gets an automatic zero. One Syracuse University professor has taken an even harsher stand. Laurence Thomas, a popular philosophy professor whose courses have waiting lists, walked out on his class of nearly 400 students last week when he caught a couple of students fiddling with their phones instead of paying attention to him.
…While Thomas keeps his eyes peeled for illicit texters, Tindell said most professors are likely as clueless as she used to be about the ubiquity of in–class cell phone use. Many of the surveyed students said their professors would be shocked if they knew about their texting habits.
…Tindell and Bohlander advise professors to have clear, written policies on texting, to circulate around the classroom and make frequent eye contact, and to avoid focusing all their attention on their lecture notes or PowerPoint presentations. Tindell does allow students to text before class starts – and almost all of them do. "If they are going to go through withdrawal," she quipped, "they might as well get their fix."
Full story at http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_16717821
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