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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