To think that peoplecould abstain from using their iphones and blackberries during lectures?

[hoovercraft]

Bloody facebooking though the whole thing....so rude!

In that case do the whole "If you don't want to learn and would prefer to play with your phone I will ask you to leave the lecture" at the beginning of the lecture. And then enforce it.

They're not children but neither are they all possessed with much emotional intelligence. It's your lecture so take control.

Yup. On iPhone, blackberry etc.

I have my phone on silent and have checked it in seminars and lectures, but only for important stuff, such as when DD was ill, or when I was waiting for a hospital appt. (I also tell tutors why my phone's on as we're normally expected to switch them off completely. The phone, not the tutor.)

I have:
uni powerpoint presentations on my phone, (it is slightly more basic, the colour schemes arent as fancy but the content and diagrams the same)

textbook extracts saved on my phone

podcasts from lecturers

In I only got a 'smartphone' after starting this course, I was happy with a mobile phone that just called and texted before

TBH Everything, what difference would it have made if you had turned your phone off and found out that news after the tutorial? Or, if you were really unable to work, give apologies for it? The constant movement and button pressing, even without any sound at all, is distracting for other students. I think you deserved the bollocking tbh.

I have had students texting during seminars for the first time this year. I was so very gobsmacked by it, I had no idea what to say or do. Your suggestions please.

I shall be more prepared next time. The idea would never have occurred to me that they might do this.

The lecturers need to grow a pair and do something about it.

When i was at uni a lecturer threw a student out of a packed lecture theatre when he caught her reading a magazine. He said if you don't want to listen, get out. Rightly so.

I would complain to someone and ask them to ban it in classes.

Willf, I think email the class beforehand that although it had never occurred to you that you would have to formally express your expectations about this to adult students, nonetheless you would like to make it clear that you expect students to play a full part during seminars and that you require their phones to be off (not on silent) with no exceptions. Any student with caring responsibilities should ensure that an alternative emergency contact/appropriate care is arranged so that they can safely turn their phones off for an hour.

(Otherwise you will get all the mums insisting that they must have their phones on at all times - and I say this as a parent/student. If the person you have left in charge of your children/parents can't hold the fort and make a few decisions/get them to the doctors on their own account, they are not an appropriate carer).

More power to your elbow, I wish all lecturers would make it clear that this is unacceptable.

You are not allowed to have a mobile phone switched on in any of my university's lectures or seminars. If you do have one on, you would be asked to leave.

In labs, you are not allowed to have them on your person' they have to be handed in and locked away before the lab begins.

Just say right at the start, I don't mind phones being out in the break (I am assuming you have one) but could you please put them away while we are working

And then if you have a lively, interesting session planned people will comply ime

Yes. BURN BAN THEM, I shall.

I wouldnt turn my phone off if I got the email makerel suggested btw, i would nod and smile then put it on silent and check it in the break

It takes me just under an hour on the tube to get to dds school/ds nursery/home and prob longer to get to MIL if she had another stroke so I wouldnt want to add another hour of 'phone off' time to the journey time

But if you just dont want people texting then that work for you anyway

Do your students use laptops in your lectures?

ban them.

If you're going to check it in the break, littleducks, why have it on otherwise?

a1 we would be in serious trouble if we did that...students are so litigious these days and our courses are compulaory attendance and/or high fee paying masters so chucking them out would be "head on the block" for me.

littledeucks the masters students do use laptops sometimes. I find these less offensive as these students are usually the ones in the front row (iykwim)n anyway.

Willf

I have a colleague who prints in his module handbook 'please turn your mobile phone off during all sessions' in 40-point font.

Me, I normally say at the start of each session, 'Please can you turn your phones off now?' I don't actually mind if someone's phone's on silent if they are only having it there in case of emergency. I do mind the woman who tried to leave my class to take a call last week.

Mostly making a point in front of the class cures them, I find.

I agree it is very rude, but the problem is that it's difficult to know how people are using them - i have a lot of international students who use their phones for the bilingual dictionary

If its on silent I get 'missed calls' and text messages (and emails) which I can check quickly and easily in the break

If its off then I dont get any of those, can only pick up voicemail messages which could take longer than the break as i cant skip to ones from important people iyswim and isnt free to check

But I'm fairly conscientious and sit with the clearly listening and asking sensible relevant questions group so if hovercraft was teaching hopefully I would be alright

At the start of each term, I'm very clear with my students about expectations: mobile phones are to be on silent, no texting, no FB, no twitter. I do provide handouts with space for notes and I do expect them to come with pens or pencils and take notes.

If a phone goes in class, I tell them "Turn that off now."

I also make clear the expectations for work and standards at university, that this is an academic course that will require reading, research and the writing of academic papers and that if anyone was expecting to just do mostly practical work, then this is not the course for them and I can help them to find a vocational training course as appropriate. I don't see the value in pushing students who are not academically inclined to complete an academic course.

Students are like everyone else: if you lay down clear boundaries, they will respect them.

i am training to be a mental health nurse and there is one girl in our class who is so ignorant she is always on her blackberry sending and receiving texts. this is constant, she has been told off loads of times, we all call her blackberry behind her back as she is such a pain in the ass. her phone buzzing every few mins through out the day is enough to drive you bonkers. yet she has the biggest god that if anything annoys her she will make no bones about telling you.