Asking the students to stop using the devices during lectures

[Caracal]

I have a somewhat related question.

Previously, I TA'ed for a course with TA-led discussion sections. Every session started with a brief quiz on the assigned reading. I would visually scan the room to make sure laptops were closed and phones were not out so they couldn't look up answers.

Once, one of the students simply ignored me when I said, "Phones away, please."

I repeated the request three times, with my gaze fixed on the student (the only one who hadn't complied). Each time I repeated myself, I moved closer toward the student's seat. Each time, he glanced at me then went back to looking at his phone.

He finally put it away (rolling his eyes and sighing loudly) after I called him out by name and other students also started fixing their gazes on him, annoyed that he was holding things up.

I'm not sure what I would have/could have done if he continued to refuse. I might have told him he had to leave the classroom, but what if he refused to do that too?

Maybe I could have given the students the quiz anyway and simply given the student with the phone a zero? But there would still be the issue of distraction or him using the phone to display answers for students sitting next to or behind him.

I've never had a student just flat out refuse to do something I've directly asked. I'm sure it happens, but it's very rare.

[dr_evil]

I have a somewhat related question.

Previously, I TA'ed for a course with TA-led discussion sections. Every session started with a brief quiz on the assigned reading. I would visually scan the room to make sure laptops were closed and phones were not out so they couldn't look up answers.

Once, one of the students simply ignored me when I said, "Phones away, please."

I repeated the request three times, with my gaze fixed on the student (the only one who hadn't complied). Each time I repeated myself, I moved closer toward the student's seat. Each time, he glanced at me then went back to looking at his phone.

He finally put it away (rolling his eyes and sighing loudly) after I called him out by name and other students also started fixing their gazes on him, annoyed that he was holding things up.

I'm not sure what I would have/could have done if he continued to refuse. I might have told him he had to leave the classroom, but what if he refused to do that too?

Maybe I could have given the students the quiz anyway and simply given the student with the phone a zero? But there would still be the issue of distraction or him using the phone to display answers for students sitting next to or behind him.

Wow! That's bold. I've never had a student do that. However, sometimes the nice thing about being a TA is that you can pass some decisions on to the prof. in charge of the course - they might have experienced this before. You may want to let the prof. know about this anyway, just in case the student decides to say something about how "mean" you are. Sometimes it helps to give them a heads-up that an issue might be coming.

If the student were to refuse to leave the room or put up the phone, you have two options: 1) Don't give them the quiz and they can just sit there or 2) contact campus security to have them removed. I would probably only use that second option if they were seriously disruptive.

[Hegemony]

The "no laptops" is not a battle you can win.  Many students like to type their notes.  You can't say "no laptops without accommodations" since that singles them out.

Well, it's a battle I win. I refuse to have students on laptops unless they have accommodations. And it works fine.

[AvidReader]

I second the suggestion to walk around. If I pass a student on Facebook or whatever when I am lecturing, I just say, "Oh, you don't need your laptop yet. I'll tell you when it is time." If the student is legitimately taking notes, or using the resources usefully, I withhold comment, unless the notes themselves are helpful in gauging student comprehension, in which case I might clarify something.

If you have the luxury of a computer classroom, or if most students have laptops, could you punctuate lecture with computer-based activities? We are not in the same field, but I often lecture on a topic for a few minutes, then ask students to log on to the class page and post a response or question to the discussion board / take a 3-question quiz / run a quick internet search. A few years ago I had a class where phone usage was ramping up, so I would periodically ask them to look things up on the internet.

This sounds counter-intuitive, but in addition to allowing you a little more management over what they are doing on the devices, and sometimes sparking new and exciting ideas in class, it also gives you a place to say, "Great! Now that we've done X [or know about Y], will everyone please log off and put personal devices away? We're going to . . . ." Then everyone usually closes laptops or puts their phones away because the power of suggestion is strong.

AR.

[downer]

I'm surprised there are so many spacious classrooms. Walking between the students is hardly an option in the places I teach.

I also am basically tied to the podium because I need the computer for slides and material on the LMS.

When you are at the front of the room, you can face all the students. If you are in the middle, you have to be facing away from half the students. Isn't that a problem both in projecting your voice and also maintaining awareness of the whole class?

[the_geneticist]

I'm surprised there are so many spacious classrooms. Walking between the students is hardly an option in the places I teach.

I also am basically tied to the podium because I need the computer for slides and material on the LMS.

When you are at the front of the room, you can face all the students. If you are in the middle, you have to be facing away from half the students. Isn't that a problem both in projecting your voice and also maintaining awareness of the whole class?

You aren't lecturing when you're walking around.  You post something for the students to work on/talk about and walk around to listen in while they are working.

[downer]

I'm surprised there are so many spacious classrooms. Walking between the students is hardly an option in the places I teach.

I also am basically tied to the podium because I need the computer for slides and material on the LMS.

When you are at the front of the room, you can face all the students. If you are in the middle, you have to be facing away from half the students. Isn't that a problem both in projecting your voice and also maintaining awareness of the whole class?

You aren't lecturing when you're walking around.  You post something for the students to work on/talk about and walk around to listen in while they are working.

So it isn't a solution for lectures. It's a solution for the problem of students who are on their social media when they have been given other tasks to do. Especially appropriate for those who use an "inverted classroom."

How common is the inverted classroom approach? It is probably rather discipline dependent. I've never met anyone in real life who actually does that.

[Puget]

I'm surprised there are so many spacious classrooms. Walking between the students is hardly an option in the places I teach.

I also am basically tied to the podium because I need the computer for slides and material on the LMS.

When you are at the front of the room, you can face all the students. If you are in the middle, you have to be facing away from half the students. Isn't that a problem both in projecting your voice and also maintaining awareness of the whole class?

You aren't lecturing when you're walking around.  You post something for the students to work on/talk about and walk around to listen in while they are working.

So it isn't a solution for lectures. It's a solution for the problem of students who are on their social media when they have been given other tasks to do. Especially appropriate for those who use an "inverted classroom."

How common is the inverted classroom approach? It is probably rather discipline dependent. I've never met anyone in real life who actually does that.

I think you mean a flipped classroom?

Yes, I do that in real life. So do a lot of folks.

In my big class there is stadium seating so I'm up front, but I still walk around the front while I talk. In my seminar I walk around a lot.

There are these handy things called remotes so you don't have to be in front of your computer to advance the slides.

[marshwiggle]

I'm surprised there are so many spacious classrooms. Walking between the students is hardly an option in the places I teach.

I also am basically tied to the podium because I need the computer for slides and material on the LMS.

When you are at the front of the room, you can face all the students. If you are in the middle, you have to be facing away from half the students. Isn't that a problem both in projecting your voice and also maintaining awareness of the whole class?

You aren't lecturing when you're walking around.  You post something for the students to work on/talk about and walk around to listen in while they are working.

So it isn't a solution for lectures. It's a solution for the problem of students who are on their social media when they have been given other tasks to do. Especially appropriate for those who use an "inverted classroom."

How common is the inverted classroom approach? It is probably rather discipline dependent. I've never met anyone in real life who actually does that.

I think you mean a flipped classroom?

Yes, I do that in real life. So do a lot of folks.

What I do, which I would imagine many others do, is some lecture and some work (quizzes, group exercises, etc.) so part of the time I'm talking and part of the time students are working. "Flipped" doesn't have to be all-or-nothing. (So for the poster above, you may not know anyone doing it completely flipped, but I'd guess you could find some who are doing some elements of it.)

[downer]

Yeah, flipped is the more common term. I guess it heads off jokes about inverts.

I could ask IT to supply a remote. They don't.  They do supply a wireless microphone to use, but I've never been about to get one to work. Generally the batteries seem to be dead. Maybe I should invest in my own remote. Then I could lecture from the back of the room.

[Puget]

Yeah, flipped is the more common term. I guess it heads off jokes about inverts.

I could ask IT to supply a remote. They don't.  They do supply a wireless microphone to use, but I've never been about to get one to work. Generally the batteries seem to be dead. Maybe I should invest in my own remote. Then I could lecture from the back of the room.

Remotes are cheap-- I just got my own. It also has a laser pointer.
In seminar the student presenting gets handed the remote, and we call it the "pointer of power".

[AvidReader]

I also am basically tied to the podium because I need the computer for slides and material on the LMS.

When you are at the front of the room, you can face all the students. If you are in the middle, you have to be facing away from half the students. Isn't that a problem both in projecting your voice and also maintaining awareness of the whole class?

I bought an inexpensive wireless mouse with a scroll wheel with a range of about 30' and keep it in my jacket pocket. When I want to advance a slide, I can either pull it out and click or just roll the wheel one stop down. I tried a pointer/clicker combo, but the mouse is actually easier. I lecture from all over the room unless I need to write on the board. Sometimes I stand in the back of the room. Often I stand in the middle. Students have not previously had trouble hearing me, but I also stopped moving around classrooms as much during COVID, so I've not tried this with a face mask.

I have taught with a flipped classroom approach; it works better when one gives quizzes on the pre-class material. Mostly I align with other faculty on this thread, alternating a few minutes of lecture/instruction with other more interactive activities.

AR.

[marshwiggle]

I also am basically tied to the podium because I need the computer for slides and material on the LMS.

When you are at the front of the room, you can face all the students. If you are in the middle, you have to be facing away from half the students. Isn't that a problem both in projecting your voice and also maintaining awareness of the whole class?

I bought an inexpensive wireless mouse with a scroll wheel with a range of about 30' and keep it in my jacket pocket. When I want to advance a slide, I can either pull it out and click or just roll the wheel one stop down. I tried a pointer/clicker combo, but the mouse is actually easier. I lecture from all over the room unless I need to write on the board. Sometimes I stand in the back of the room. Often I stand in the middle. Students have not previously had trouble hearing me, but I also stopped moving around classrooms as much during COVID, so I've not tried this with a face mask.

I have taught with a flipped classroom approach; it works better when one gives quizzes on the pre-class material. Mostly I align with other faculty on this thread, alternating a few minutes of lecture/instruction with other more interactive activities.

AR.

The quizzes I do in class are collaborative; students do it individually, hand it in, and then do it again in a group of 3 or 4, and their grade is 80% individual, 20% group. The discussion they have when they collaborate is really animated and much reduces my need to go over the "right" answer, since many of the groups already got there, and the others are usually close.

[Anon1787]

I'm surprised there are so many spacious classrooms. Walking between the students is hardly an option in the places I teach.

Same here. It's hazardous as well since students put their belongings in the narrow aisles.

[Parasaurolophus]

It's not worth my time and energy to police it, so I don't. Besides which, allowing it for students with disabilities and nobody else automatically outs those students, which I think is wrong.

It doesn't happen often, but I basically agree with marshwiggle: if you allow it for some things and not others, you're setting yourself up to fail. There's only so much control you can actually exert over other people, and you need to tailor your expectations to that level.