Interesting post!
When I read this a few things came to mind in regard to technology vs. teaching strategy. It seems there is a large push to modernize academia via various contemporary teaching strategies in the classroom such as: integrating technology into the classroom, flipping the classroom, incorporating problem-based learning techniques, etc.
My teaching experiences so far have included a lab portion of a course. In the lab students get a “discussion portion” to refresh lecture concepts, a hands-on lab experience (usually some sort of metabolic testing), and then opportunities to work in groups on critical thinking questions surrounding the week’s concepts. Each week builds on the previous week, generally speaking. In this class, I’ve found it is helpful for students to have internet access as a resource to help understand the concepts or research on the topic, and the instructors and I made a class hashtag to help include social media participation in a productive manner. Given the class structure, we surprisingly haven’t had issues with students not being engaged or focused- at least in the 3hr. lab portion!
I think perhaps creating space for where technology can be integrated and appropriately used helps discourage abuse while maintaining engagement; however, I would be curious to hear other people’s thoughts and experiences!!
Thanks for sharing!

I really enjoyed your post! I’ve had several experiences with service learning requirements in courses; however, this semester I have a class in which our entire grade is based on a service learning experience (primarily field experience) and the quality of the final measurable outcomes. While I am not in engineering, I thought it was really interesting to learn about how other disciplines execute this concept in their curricula.

Thanks for sharing,
Cassie