Prior to the start of one of my classes this morning, I looked around the room at the students who had arrived early.
At this point there were about 10-15 students, about half the class.
I then noticed every one of them had something in common.
No, they weren’t all wearing Villanova Basketball t-shirts.
No, they weren’t getting ready to settle in for a nice nap once class got started. Well, at least not all of them.
And no, they’re weren’t actively discussing what we had covered the previous class.
I can tell you they were all doing something I would have never dreamed of doing when I was in college 45 years ago.
So what was it they were doing?
Every one of them was using their smartphone. (And as a I vaguely recall every single one of those smartphones was an iPhone).
Now I am not making any judgment here. I certainly use my phone quite often, and in the same exact way that these students did. When I’ve got a few spare moments, odds are quite high I’ll check my phone.
It just got me thinking about what I was doing when I was sitting in a classroom, ready for the class to begin.
I’m not positive, but my guess I was drawing stars all over my notebook.
If given the choice, I would have gone with the smartphone as well…
I guessed that the students were all on their phones. I hope they put them away when class started. It seems many folks prefer virtual contact to personal contact.
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Every once in a while I will see a student on their phone during class, but I take it as a sign I need to make my class more interesting…
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Or maybe they should just turn off the damn phone. I think that would be easier than making accounting lectures interesting.😄
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That would be much easier, at least for me… 🙂
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Wouldn’t it be nicer if the phones brought smart students to class?
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And upon arrival, even better if they found a teacher who didn’t put them to sleep…
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Tell them puns. That will keep them awake.
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And groaning…
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Telling the students puns would make them smack their heads in desperation for the class to end!
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And all that head smacking would keep them awake.
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Oops! I just left the same comment, and then I came across yours!
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I guess you can’t help being at the same level of genius as me.
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I did feel good coming up with the same comment as you…
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If we stick together, maybe we can outsmart the world.
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You with your puns, and me with my ability to put people to sleep…
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We can conquer the world.
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Yeah, thats how I stay awake through the day! I have plenty of help from certain people!
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So coffee no longer does the trick, eh?
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Yes, it still works, but the …smacks.. just add extra help!
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Wow; two days in a row. I just left the same comment. I need to stop using the WP reader to leave comments and use the actual blog site!
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Maybe we’re twin geniuses.
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Brothers from a different mother…
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The coffee isn’t enough?
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Haha! Tippy asked that already!
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that’s two days in a row I left nearly the same comment as Tippy!
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This is getting scary! LOL!
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🙂
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Maybe you should pass out notebooks next class.
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They would probably go unused…
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I would have been quickly writing a note to my friend when I was waiting for class to start. 🙂
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Now they just send texts to each other; same idea, different technology…
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Yes, but I did like the note era! 🙂
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It was a popular form of communication…
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I was checking out what girls were in class and kind of wondering what was wrong with the kid drawing stars all over his notebook.
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🤣
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I was checking out the girls as well, and drawing stars was my way of avoiding actually talking to them. So yea, the kid drawing the stars had a few issues…
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Talking to girls? I did not know you could actually talk to them at that age! That was a little too scary for me. I would just throw snowballs at them.
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Yea, girls had cooties…
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If I bothered to attend a lecture, I would have been talking to someone for sure.
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I would have been keeping to myself…
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I definitely would have been drawing hearts with my name and what ever boy I liked at the time lol
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I wonder if kids still do that today… 🙂
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Don’t be too hard on them Jim. They were likely checking their WP stats…
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I have to admit, I often check my stats during the 10 minute break between classes 🙂
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And here I thought you read my posts on the 10 minute breaks. LOL!
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On my longer breaks I do 🙂
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☺I feel honored!
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they were searching for your blog!
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And finding just a bunch of blather…
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and confirming why they are in school )
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Exactly… 🙂
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They were all looking at the WSJ website, to see who’d win this week’s bet on which of its articles you’d take as a prompt for a blog post. Just as long as they weren’t all hacking in and checking YOUR blog stats…
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I start off each class sharing the relevant stories from that day’s WSJ. And as you know, there is a good chance one of them could become a blog post!
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Once upon a time they were probably having conversations.
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That would be the hope…
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I was definitely drawing stars on my notebook. I got a far better education from it than I would have gotten staring at a phone.
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Drawing stars made made me realize a career as an artist was not in my future; better to learn that sooner rather than later.
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I was very good at drawing stars, consequently my delusion lasted longer.
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I kept trying to draw the perfect star, but I never succeeded…
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It’s possible that some of them were drawing stars on their smartphone 🙂
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Hadn’t thought of that; just a more modern way of doing the same thing 🙂
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but not interacting with each other which makes me sad. We’ve seen a huge shift in how we interact with one another. It will take decades to fully understand how this will affect society, but the change has already happened. It’s a giant sociological experiment. I’m not judging either. I’d much rather check my blog stats than talk with someone.
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For some of my classes I have trouble getting class started because they are so busy chatting with each other. A couple of hours later, another class might be dead quiet, looking at their phones..
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I would have been holding forth, Jim, or, as its commonly know, talking my head off. One of my school teachers wrote on my report that “generally speaking, Robbie is generally speaking.” I can remember this teacher and his comment very well.
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I’m the exact opposite; I prefer to stay quiet…
It’s funny what we remember!
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Before phones I used to avoid human interactions by reading so in my opinion not much has changed for the introverts lol 😂
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A good book always comes in handy!
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Doodling gave time for creativity to flourish though. I’m not sure about smartphones.
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Doodling did allow the mind to wander…
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🙂
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A sign of the times, Jim. You know what shouted out loud and clear from this post? Half of your class arrived early. Wow! A gold star for you.
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thanks, Jennie. but my guess is that they had a prior class close by, and nowhere else to go!
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Don’t sell yourself short!
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Bravo Professor! You’ve discovered the modern-day key to teaching. How can my lesson persuade students to put down their devices for at least a minute or two?
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that’s why I show short videos, to at least get their attention for part of the class!
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