Personal Electronics
Michael Taber
St. Mary’s College of Maryland
This seminar requires a free-flowing exchange of ideas,
between you and the authors, as well as among us. The presence of electronic
devices, replete with their glowing notifications, creates a barrier to this
flow. Therefore, the use of electronics is allowed in class only in order to access the readings online or by those with
documented needs of which I’ve been notified by official channels.
Cell phones should be STOWED AWAY in any case, and not simply on the table—even
if turned upside down—even if powered completely off. “Why,” you ask? Well,
recent studies indicate the distracting effect of even a cell phone not
one’s own, laying on a nearby table. In fact, of even a
drawing or a thought of a cell phone.
So I hereby prohibit you during
class even to think of a cell phone!
(I’ll keep mine away, too.)
(If a phone is the only way you have of accessing
the readings in class, fine…just give me a heads-up so I know not to bark at
you.)
As for note-taking, consult this
study, which found superior recall in students who
took notes by hand compared to those who took them by typing, and this
recent article sums up some of the research findings.
Send me mail: mstaber at smcm dot edu
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