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Students... please... Go kill your iphones.

For me this is a simple, the iPhone is just a tool. It can be used a variety of ways from effectively to ineffectively, but banning it completely is wrong.

The more pressing question here is: Why is it wrong to expect to take notes the most effective way, for you, if you are not disrupting the class in general? You are paying tuition to attend the school which means you have paid to be there. You have the right to get the best education possible for your money.

Short and sweet: Professors provide a paid service as an employee of a University which is in this case a business. They are providing a service, education, for a free, tuition. I do not see it as disrespectful or wrong to question a professor any more than I would an employee at a fortune 500 company I was paying for services.

Alternate thought: Bank of America is multinational banking corporation employing engineers in multiple countries to build sophisticated banking access systems using the latest technology. Their system did not support Firefox or Safari in the past and instead demanded the use of Internet Explorer unless the useragent was spoofed. Taking this example, is it wrong to demand support for your preferred devices/access methods from a business you are paying to provide services? No.

Why is a university any different?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Take notes how you want, but if you are on the web or texting a friend get out of class so you are not a disruption.
 
8767092 said:
Why is a university any different?
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Objectively, it's not.
However, as you probably know, there exists a subset of professors who believe they are special, different, etc, and there are aspects of academia that foster that approach and attitude. I can't make it make sense and don't subscribe to that approach at all.
But still, you would handle the Bank of America situation you described in an appropriately polite manner, right? Of course! And the overwhelming majority of professors would respond to that in a positive way- assuming there was no pedagogical reason for them not to. Those who wouldn't are jerks. That's all I'm saying.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming,
 
I could see how the iphone could be disruptive to some people but it would be more of a personal problem I think.

I could see how it would be hard to tell if a student was taking notes vs. texting some one or pretty much slacking off/ignoring the professor. I could see for some professors (and maybe fellow students), perceiving that some one is not taking hte class seriously could be hard to ignore/be annoying/disruptive.

I also understand though that one could be taking notes and it is unfair to tell them they can't do it in the form they like best (shoot, I wish I had a laptop to take notes in class, I hate writing and much prefer typing. Though to be fair I have also realized the computer is a huge distraction for me that I have a hard time ignoring. If I have a computer in front of me, chances are I'm paying more attention to it than anything else around me. so I may have had a hard time actually paying attention in class if I had one in front of me, heh).

Some one could be slacking off on the computer as well but it doesn't look so much like that since it's more usual that some one would be taking notes on it. Back when I went to college you didn't see this as much cause laptops were pretty expensive and out of the range of most college students or really a lot of people in general. Shoot, they were just starting to consider that maybe students should have a computer mandatory when I went into college (just a desktop or some sort of computer). Back then it probably had the same disruption factor to have some one on a computer in class.

So, I guess for me the best answer is for the person who is getting disrupted just by the fact some one has a cellphone out to get over it and realize they might actually be using it to be productive and not just trying to sneak slacking off (and if they are sneaking slacking off, let it be their problem when they fail the tests).
 
I honestly don't see why anyone would care. They're taking notes, they can do it however they want to. I don't think I'd use my iPhone to take notes, but it must be okay for some people. What's next.. you're gonna ask them not to use iPads either? lol
 
VulchR said:
How clever you must feel.

Presuming this is a real story and not some sophomoric attempt at humor...

I have a different viewpoint as a lecturer. Paying to be a student (or having the taxpayer or mummy and daddy pay for you) gives you no right to be disrespectful and rude to any member of your university's staff (telling a professor 'to scr*w himself'). You are lucky your weren't in one of my lectures. I would have had you escorted from the lecture hall by security and then expelled from the institution altogether.

On the other hand, as long as a given phone makes no sound that disturbs others (e.g., keyboard clicks on the iPhone are turned off), and provided notetaking in general doesn't interfere with the aims of the session, I see no problem with students using iPhones or any other form of technology to take notes.
Click to expand...


Lol good luck expelling a student for saying "screw you"
 
Nrwrit3r said:
Lol good luck expelling a student for saying "screw you"
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really its not that difficult

put the kid on probation, watch over him like a hawk, notice he drinks/posts illicit pictures online, get in trouble for file sharing, etc = easy expulsion

Be wary kids, if you piss off the wrong people in life, with real disrespect ( not accidental) they will try to ruin you.

Don't underestimate the power of connections.
 
macsrcool1234 said:
I'm surprised you made it into college with a childish attitude like that. If I was the professor I would have thrown you out of my class.
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I think universities need the concept of at will employment reinstated to cover all employees. Defending your classroom against disruption is one thing, but denying a paying customer access to services is entirely another. At the same time I respect educators because of what they do, but that doesn't mean I'm going to put them on a pedestal where they can be luddites in the face of new technology. Keep in mind that professional authors have been known to write entire novels on mobile phones in Japan due to the unique way the language is structured. Is it any wonder that people who type thousands or tens of thousands of text messages might be unusually fast at typing on mobile phones to the point where they can take better notes typing than writing?

Tenure was a grand experiment, but I can see now that it has miserably failed.
 
I always found that if you are repectful and were making good grades, the teacher would let you get away with more.

I usually got along with my teachers as they were more interesting than the drooling idiots I sat next to (who would beg for my notes).
 
College is college. Since you're paying (or someone is paying) for you to be there, you should be able to "learn" in whatever way suits you provided you aren't a nuisance to your surrounding classmates. I see no need for any professor to mandate things like these from being used in class as it's not really their business how you learn. If you're there to learn, you'll learn. If not, then you'll find out things the hard way.

The days of pen & paper note taking are on the decline with the advent of smart phones, laptops and netbooks. In my day it was pen/paper with the occasional tape recorder :D Had I an iPad or something along those lines in college, I would've certainly used that instead of lugging around books and notepads to class.

Personally, I don't see how someone taking notes on an iPhone is anymore disruptive than someone taking notes on a laptop. At least with the iPhone, you can turn off the clicking noises and not have to hear Gomer next to you hitting the backspace button rapid fire every 5 seconds.

If someone's preference is to use their smart phone in class for educational purposes, then let them. I believe that is one of the purposes for having a smart phone if I'm not mistaken. If they're playing Angry Birds on it then that's a whole 'nother issue.
 
uneek1 said:
I had a professor tell me to stop using my phone in class. I told him to go screw himself, I pay for this class, I can take notes however I like; and that was the end of that conversation.

I did however get a D of the first test and had to drop the course :p
Click to expand...

A sign of things to come.
 
The one problem Professors see when a student is taking notes via a Laptop or smartphone is how easily distracting it is.

We all know...and have all done it.

We get our phone out to take some notes and end up checking Facebook or twitter in the process.

I can see what they mean. Also writing something down on paper is a great way of remembering things. You have then at least read it once


ML
:apple:
 
We're probably in a transitional period/time. Most profs see people heads down on a phone and they probably think the person is texting. Even if you show them your notes, your probably still going to irritate them if you continue. Their reaction might be unwarranted but you can't change the way they feel. Even though you're paying, you should still consider them your boss and adhere to their wishes. Over time and maybe in just 5-10 years the behavior will be common and probably won't get the ire of many. In the mean time I'd suggest you try to take the attitude of "Don't piss off my boss".

If you have to be a rebel then go paint your nails black or something.
 
actionvaughn said:
As long as it's on silent and the keyboard clicks are off, I don't see the problem at all.
Click to expand...

Bingo. As long as it's silent. If it is not, I will probably lift you by your collar and remove you from the room/lecture hall myself.

This reminds me of my freshman year in college. A fellow student's phone went off in class and all the professor said was, "GET OUT," and she burst into tears. LOL.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

At my University, I take notes on my laptop for most of my classes, and I've considered trying to take some with my iPhone for some classes, though I haven't tried it, because I assumed that the professor would think I would be texting, and I wouldn't want to give him/her the wrong impression.

I've had a couple of professors who have asked us to turn off our cell phones before class. I even have a professor right now who told us on the first day of class that he wasn't going to allow laptops in class to take notes unless a student had paperwork saying he/she needed one for a disability, because he thought they were too distracting. So for that class I just have to take notes with a pen and paper, and I don't even know what would happen if I demanded him to let me take notes on it because I pay tuition.
 
I guess the issue is that when taking notes on an iPhone, it is hard from a glance to see that is what you are doing. You could be texting, surfing, playing a game. Writing notes on a paper, at least, appears proper and not a cause for a distraction.
 
uneek1 said:
I had a professor tell me to stop using my phone in class. I told him to go screw himself, I pay for this class, I can take notes however I like; and that was the end of that conversation.

I did however get a D of the first test and had to drop the course :p
Click to expand...

So, it seems your professor was correct when he advised you to stop using your iPhone in class. Too bad you had to learn the hard way rather than listening to your professor.
 
8767092 said:
I think universities need the concept of at will employment reinstated to cover all employees. Defending your classroom against disruption is one thing, but denying a paying customer access to services is entirely another.
Click to expand...

College is not Burger King. Regardless of whether your stance is right or wrong, you cannot "have it your way" and say "screw you" to the person teaching you. There are more constructive and respectful ways to disagree in a way that's productive to you, the lecturer, and everyone else in class, who aren't paying to put up with your beef.

If you do not respect the person teaching you, then you will probably not learn anything from them. It's better for both teacher and student in that case for the student to leave, and be taught what they want to be taught by someone more agreeable to them.

You're paying to learn. If you instead want to troll, well, you shouldn't waste your money... you can do that online for free.


Tenure was a grand experiment, but I can see now that it has miserably failed.
Click to expand...

If that's how you feel, there are plenty of for-profit colleges that rely on part-time, non-tenured lecturers. Their graduation rates tend to be quite low, and the marketability of their degrees is sometimes an issue, but I'm certain that won't bother a strapping person like you who bemoans the "failure" of the traditional route. I suggest you take advantage of their services.
 
Every professor is different. Some really want their students to learn and pay attention, and others just does their lectures and go home. I've had classes where half the class, people were sleeping, and yet he continued his lecture. While other classes, one person sleeps and the professor is onto him like a hunter. I think college students are mature enough to know whether this education is important to them, and professor shouldn't do too much to make sure they are listening during lectures...
 
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