I have a very love/hate relationship with technology, especially in the classroom. On one hand, I think it’s useful, can be cool, and that usefulness/coolness may prompt a student to complete a task or challenge or objective that student may otherwise not do. On the other it’s one big, connected distraction filled with easily accessible, completely irrelevant … stuff (I can’t even call it “information” … when class participation is replaced with overt cellphone candy crush it’s kind of hard to). I want to disallow irrelevant tech, or limit tech to class or course-related activities, but at this point that’s pretty unrealistic. I suppose it’s adapt or die.

I really like your post and I do agree that given the appropriate circumstances I am able to ignore my phone/gadgets (i.e. in class or while driving or when out for dinner with friends and even putting my phone on "do not disturb" when going to bed). But I will be honest I have not always been like that. Over time I have learned what the proper etiquette is with technology use. A few years ago I was one of those people who used to do the opposite of what I listed (similar to a lot of our undergraduates). On another note, I do believe that students/ young adults are not too be blamed entirely for being too connected as most of their classes now require them to use various technologies to tweet, or blog, or simply type papers, take notes in class and read online etc. So I think as long as we as teachers require typed papers (not hand written), ask them to tweet for classes, read articles online...this situation will not change, what we can do however, (which we have talked about briefly in this class) is to create expectations and start to create an awareness (plant the seeds early) around the use of technology and time management with our students. (Btw i might the Internet Sabbath for a weekend and see how it goes:)

I agree with you that we think we are good at multitasking (when using various gadgets) but really thats not always the case. I think at the graduate level we are a lot more aware of this (as we don’t have a choice-haha) but honestly, almost weekly I hear from some of my undergraduate students who state that it is so much easier to procrastinate when trying to get stuff accomplished due to all the distractions (phone, social media- and primarily the ease at which they can access them). Most people learn it the hard way that not being self disciplined and what they think is multitasking is hurting them. So one of the things that I intentionally ask my students is to monitor how many hours a day they are on their gadgets, if it is more than the number of hours they sleep for (each day)…Thats a problem and it’s time to start thinking about what needs to change.

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Yangxiao, I completely agree with you that we should not make a decision for our students to use electronic devices in classrooms. I usually am guided by the following two factors for not enforcing any social media or electronic device policy that bans their use in my classes. First, my classes, most of the times, require students to use computers. And hence, it is very difficult for me to monitor the tabs they have opened when they are on their computers. Second, I personally do not want to decide for them whether or not they should be using electronic devices. They are young adults (well, most of them are) and hence, they should be able to make smart decisions for themselves. And to add to that, sometimes, people (including myself) need to zone themselves out for a few minutes to engage with social media or any other “distraction” to bring their focus back to the classroom.

Answering the question in the first bullet, I think having emails coming to us on our phones makes our lives complicated in some ways. I am personally tempted to look at emails as soon as they come on my phone. And sometimes, I am also tempted to respond to them. This means, if its a work-related email, by checking it, I doing work at times when I should be enjoying with friends and family. While there are many benefits of smartphones, I personally think smartphones keep us to work all day, and sometimes all night too.

I couldn’t help laughing when reading that you have 291 tabs open in your web browser. I have exactly the same struggle. Unfortunately, my safari browser stops working every once in a while, and all the opened tabs would disappear. That’s when I have the most frustration.

I totally agree with you that there are way more positive benefits from our internet connections, and the side effects are just some personal problems. Just like the invention and prevailing use of transportation technology. Some people might be unlucky enough to be killed while using this technology, but are we to say that we need to abandon this form of transportation??

I agree that disconnection is more of an inconvenience than a frustrating thing for a well self disciplined adult. But for younger kids, is being connected the right life style? Kids are easily manipulated, and I think the internet can easily alter their mental habits.

Hi, Ashish, Thanks for your reply. You really have a lot of back up plans But here is one problem I find with direct response in class: some students may be too sky (or it takes more time for them) to come up the answer on the spot. So generally they may get discouraged by that. But I think, it also depends on the class size. We can pay special attention to them if its a small size. I am curious how it works in large class size, like 50+ students.

I find it fun to see how we are connected but also how we choose to feel connected.

For example, my father always talks about Facebook as an interesting concept and I share this opinion with him. I have been able to stay in touch with high school friends as much as a want to. For him it is more of re-discovering people he no longer knows. This is just one example about how a social life revolves around a technology.

I personally thank google video for keeping long-distance relationship intact. Being able to see a person without being with them is fantastic.

What I mean from this is the chaos that falling off the grid would give to others. Even if you could do it and not need to be reached for work or play, being connected gives you more opportunities. Even if you have to deal with the occasional group text that “blows up” your phone.