Keep the Chatting out of the Classroom
Editorial Board
Issue date: 2/2/10 Section: Opinion
Click. Clack. Click. Increasingly more familiar, this sound is the soundtrack of the technology generation. Current college students are developing more skills that in no way relate to their coursework during class time. This new skill allows them to send email or text messages, check the latest news, gossip and game scores, update their Facebook and twitter pages, all while sitting in class and pretending to listen during lectures; pretty amazing, huh? Well, not everyone is thinking that way.
It seems like that this semester especially, instructors are cracking down on the usage of cell phones in the classroom. As much as it is not enjoyable to hear the tapping of fingernails on a phone keyboard, it can be even more distracting to witness the presence of a teacher circling the room like a hawk. What happened to the whole "this is college, you are an adult now" conversation?
Okay, maybe not a full-blown adult. We use words such as "yeah, right?" and "shut up" in our everyday language, after all.
But we should still be treated with more respect than many of our high school teachers gave us, right? We pay enough money to come to a University as prestigious as Benedictine. We should be allowed to use our cell phones whenever we please, especially during those lectures that drag on and on.
Are we listening to ourselves right now? We have every tool at our disposal while at college and the only thing we are worried about is talking to our friends and checking our Facebook pages during the 2-3 hours out of each day that professors are readily available to teach us.
Much of this is due to the new "Smartphones" everyone and their mom has been getting. Sure, they keep you connected and act as useful tools, but only when used properly.
According to the New York Times, it is reported that the average American college student is able to squeeze 31 hours of activity into a 24-hour day. This is due to the fact that most people are constantly performing two tasks at once. This might sound like a reason for students to peck away at their handheld devices all day, but until students can act like adults and not use the cell phone as a glorified "gigapet," instructors should be getting stricter.
It seems like that this semester especially, instructors are cracking down on the usage of cell phones in the classroom. As much as it is not enjoyable to hear the tapping of fingernails on a phone keyboard, it can be even more distracting to witness the presence of a teacher circling the room like a hawk. What happened to the whole "this is college, you are an adult now" conversation?
Okay, maybe not a full-blown adult. We use words such as "yeah, right?" and "shut up" in our everyday language, after all.
But we should still be treated with more respect than many of our high school teachers gave us, right? We pay enough money to come to a University as prestigious as Benedictine. We should be allowed to use our cell phones whenever we please, especially during those lectures that drag on and on.
Are we listening to ourselves right now? We have every tool at our disposal while at college and the only thing we are worried about is talking to our friends and checking our Facebook pages during the 2-3 hours out of each day that professors are readily available to teach us.
Much of this is due to the new "Smartphones" everyone and their mom has been getting. Sure, they keep you connected and act as useful tools, but only when used properly.
According to the New York Times, it is reported that the average American college student is able to squeeze 31 hours of activity into a 24-hour day. This is due to the fact that most people are constantly performing two tasks at once. This might sound like a reason for students to peck away at their handheld devices all day, but until students can act like adults and not use the cell phone as a glorified "gigapet," instructors should be getting stricter.
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