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Use portable technologies responsibly or not at all.
I explain to students what responsible use means. It doesn’t mean using such technologies for class purposes only. It also means that if you have a call you need to take, you step outside the classroom to take it. I don’t assume my class is more important than their lives, but I do think they need to learn a certain set of “adult skills” or general social skills that will serve them later in life. If they can step out of my class to take a call, then some day they’ll know to step out of that meeting at work to take a call, too. Of course, I still have students texting or on Facebook on their laptops. That’s okay. I’ve come to believe that the writing classroom is a self-punishing system. I don’t have to penalize them for using that technology; the fact that they’re not engaged in the work of the class will be reflected in what they hand in and this will be reflected in their grades. I will say, though, that my assistant Mike has taken this a step further. He actually uses Twitter (brilliantly) in his class. But I think that deserves a whole separate post.You must be a registered user to add a comment. If you've already registered, sign in. Otherwise, register and sign in.