massage and bodywork professionals
a community of practitioners
Cell Phones in the classroom
To be or not to be.....how do you handle the use of cell phones in the classroom? Do you use them as a tool for learning, or discourage them as much as possible? This has been a hot topic at almost every instructor workshop, so I'm wondering what you all have to say.
Views: 313
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Jody C. Hutchinson on
-
The school that I teach A&P at has had problems with students using their phones during class. A sign is now posted outside the classroom that states that there is zero tolerance for cell phone use during class time and students will be asked to leave.
It has worked well, the current class has been very compliant and there are no problems. I have had one student use her phone for note taking. So, it has not been an issue.
Cheers
jh
-
Permalink Reply by Jimswife on
-
When I was in school a few years cell phones could be used to take a picture of the notes on the board but that was it. I honestly don't see any other purpose for cell phone use while in class. There was plenty of time during breaks to text or look up stuff if necessary. Yes, there are apps that can be suggested to help with studying but those should also be used outside the classroom.
-
Permalink Reply by Therese Schwartz on
-
I read (I think in Readers Digest but don't hold me to that!) that people who hand-write notes remember significantly more than people who type notes (I should have written down where I read it!). So even if students use phones or tablets for notes, they aren't getting as much benefit as good old written notes. Different areas of the brain are stimulated for hand writing vs. typing, and writing also helps people develop creative centers in the brain.
I just took a 4-day CE class and we had a guy who was using his phone a LOT during class. It was distracting for more than just him!
I still remember sitting next to one of my massage school classmates who was texting. It was really annoying! The tap-tap-tap of the keys was so distracting!
It would be a good thing for people to learn to live without their phones for a while during class; they will have to while they are working on people!
-
-
I agree with you Therese about the hand written notes. You do retain more information that way. In high school I discovered that when I would re-write the notes I took in class it helped me to understand the material. It really helped me to memorize things. In massage school we would take pictures of the power points when there where was too much to jot down before moving on or pictures. And then we could focus on writing notes on the lecture and then add it to the notes from the picture. So I would still write down what I took a picture of and add in notes from the lecture. My study group would also make copies of notes taken in class and share with the rest. I loved reading things from a different perspective.
-
-
You are SO much more organized than I am!! I never had the discipline to re-write notes! Fortunately I'm a good student otherwise my laziness would have been a real problem! :-)
-
Permalink Reply by Gary W Addis, LMT on
-
In another life I drove a semi for 25+ years (2 million + miles w/o a chargeable accident). If I asked someone for directions, and relied on memory, I'd nod knowingly to every turn mentioned, but while returning to my rig, I always went blank. But if I wrote the directions down as they were relayed to me, I could throw the notes away and remember them perfectly.
I'm visually, not orally, oriented. I think this photographic memorization, for me, stemmed from grade school spelling textbooks in the late fifties, which taught us to look at the word, spell it, then close our eyes, and spell it as we saw it with our mind's eye. I was spelling bee champion of my school district, lost at the state level due to nervous stuttering while onstage.
In college, i took notes, not from teacher's spoken words, but from textbook, and rewrote them once more on a daily basis and maybe twice more just before a big exam. I graduated GPA 4.0 (98.4 actual %). Not bragging-- I worked my glutes to the bone for those grades. In the years since graduation, I've retained most of it-- when I need to remember something, I close my eyes for a moment and try to bring up an image of my handwritten notes.
Jimswife said:I agree with you Therese about the hand written notes. You do retain more information that way. In high school I discovered that when I would re-write the notes I took in class it helped me to understand the material. It really helped me to memorize things. In massage school we would take pictures of the power points when there where was too much to jot down before moving on or pictures. And then we could focus on writing notes on the lecture and then add it to the notes from the picture. So I would still write down what I took a picture of and add in notes from the lecture. My study group would also make copies of notes taken in class and share with the rest. I loved reading things from a different perspective.
-
-
back when I was in my massage program cellfones had only just recently switched to digital so no internet tools yet... if someone had their cellfone out, they were disrespecting the whole class by texting or answering calls(maybe not the mothers in the class though, if 'their' fone rang it was important)... you paid attention to the lecturer in class and took notes by shorthand. anything more than that was disrespectful. nowadays, my droid is an invaluable tool that serves as my dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia and a multilingual translator(though I still take shorthand notes)... I probably would have understood a few topics much sooner and maybe had exelled quicker, being able to engage the speaker a bit more intelligently were I able to look up a few words or topics right then on the spot. I imagine a lot of kids nowadays might be taking advantage of that concept though and instead of giving their full attention and making engaged eye contact in class, they're texting and playing candy crush in the back of the room...
CJ
-
Permalink Reply by Neal Lyons on
-
We have some volunteers who are instructors. From what I have heard this depends on the nature of the class, the material covered and the amount of note taking that is necessary. Many allow mobile devices like iPads to reference books/notes etc. as well as to write notes. Universities all allow laptops now days. If your class is more hands on, then you can likely do away with it and have a no mobile device policy.
© 2024 Created by ABMP.
Powered by
