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twinno
2010-01-17 07:43 pm UTC (link)

I realize he's paying for his own education, but so are many of the other students in the classroom. Texting can be distracting to others, who have the right to a productive learning environment. It can also be distracting to the instructor, who has to create and foster that environment for the students.

So yeah, you mess with that, and I'm taking your grade down a few points. Deal.

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beccastareyes
2010-01-17 08:13 pm UTC (link)

Plus, for that matter, there are plenty of services that one pays for that do not give carte blanche for all behaviors (or all legal behaviors). If I fly on an airplane, but show up drunk as a skunk and make an ass of myself at the gate*, the airlines can refuse to carry me and refuse a refund. In general, if one behaves in a disruptive manner**, one can be asked to quit it or leave, even if one is paying for a service.

* Or even buy a separate seat for my Giant Bag of Doom that violates carry-on rules, and insist I can just strap it in with the seat belt.

** And if the professor notices you doing something, then it's probably disruptive.

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	rimrunner 2010-01-18 03:36 am UTC (link)
	And we notice a LOT more than students realize. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	jat_sapphire 2010-01-18 10:15 pm UTC (link)
	Really. One class tempted me to haul them up to the front of the class one by one to demonstrate that the clever hiding behavior at the back of the class might as well have been at my desk. I wish I had done it, now. (Reply to this)(Parent)

snarkhunter
2010-01-20 01:37 am UTC (link)

God, no kidding. I never realized how *un*subtle students are until I was at the front of the classroom.

Of course, none of my students have ever topped my all-time favorite Stupid Classmate Trick. When I was a senior in college, there was a girl who slept through our English class every afternoon, with her head nestled into her own breasts. It was really fascinating, and my friends and I still talk about her to this day. I mean, how do you even get your boobs to DO that?

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aperture, 2010-01-20 01:57 am UTC

	snarkhunter 2010-01-20 01:35 am UTC (link)
	Or even buy a separate seat for my Giant Bag of Doom that violates carry-on rules, and insist I can just strap it in with the seat belt. Please tell me you've seen someone do that. It would make my day. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	beccastareyes 2010-01-20 02:18 am UTC (link)
	I have not. Though if people think that the price of a seat is worth it... (Reply to this)(Parent)

	ataralas 2010-01-23 10:52 pm UTC (link)
	My former roommate would do that for her cello. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	herongale 2010-01-17 08:52 pm UTC (link)
	How is texting all that distracting for students? I'm legitimately curious. I agree that it can be distracting for professors, which is reason enough to discourage it, but I don't see it as being that big a deal for other students so long as the texting is going on quietly. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	twinno 2010-01-17 09:04 pm UTC (link)
	It's been a while since I've been the student in the situation, but I've had students come up to me before and after class to complain about their classmates' texting. Usually on the first day of the course I let them set their own rules for classroom accord, and texting during class is one that comes up consistently. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	sequinedlizard 2010-01-17 09:06 pm UTC (link)
	From being in class - I know the -tickticktick- of texting is distracting, as is the fairly common stifled giggling, the light that I've caught out the corner of my eye and gone "WTF?," and the sound of vibrating all distract me, depending on the class. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	finchbird 2010-01-17 09:09 pm UTC (link)
	I can easily get distracted by people who are texting or are on their laptops not taking notes. (Reply to this)(Parent)

keri
2010-01-17 09:26 pm UTC (link)

For me it's the noise of the keys. Note-taking on a laptop is also a bit distracting, especially if the person is sitting in a desk to my right, left, or in the row ahead of me, because then the screen is RIGHT THERE and my eyes get drawn to the glow.

Just reading a text (so long as there's no vibrate or beep or ring or other kind of alert) isn't as bothersome.

But I also get irritated to no end when someone in the car with me is texting, even if I'm not driving. If I AM driving and it's someone in the passenger seat, it's distracting + irritating, like in class?, because my irritation keeps me from giving my full attention where it's needed.

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	sparkysrevenge 2010-01-18 01:28 am UTC (link)
	If I'm unmedicated, it's just one more distraction to see a cellphone pop out and hear the tickatap tickatap. Of course, I had to take tests in a special room due to noise, so I'm not the average person. I'm a very sensitive auditory learner who just so happens to have ADD. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

blue_penguin
2010-01-18 09:10 am UTC (link)

Yeah, it's more or less the same for me. I always hated being in classes where people were... doing stuff they shouldn't be doing (texting, goofing around on computers, talking to their friends, eating or chewing gum, listening to music with the volume high enough that I could hear it, and so on and so forth), not because I was some kind of super-goody-two-shoes, but because it made it that much harder for me to focus.

(And obviously I am a special snowflake and the world ought to cater to my needs, so!)

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lyssa
2010-01-19 03:24 am UTC (link)

I also have a lot of issues with tons of peripheral movement and slight sounds myself, though not the ADD. I find it really irritating and distracting unless I'm really, really into taking notes/testing or the person is out of my field of attention.

And yes, it's really, really obvious to me when someone is texting, or playing on their laptop, or one of the other "~silent~" things they do that isn't paying attention in class or daydreaming.

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	evilsqueakers 2010-01-18 01:35 am UTC (link)
	Because the person is usually NOT paying attention in class and thus the professor is focusing on the student and not the lesson the other students are paying to learn. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	librarianmouse 2010-01-18 02:36 am UTC (link)
	Also, most professors have their students sign the syllabus, which includes the classroom rules. When you sign said syllabus, you're agreeing to abide by those rules. You break the agreement, and the professor is well within his rights to take disciplinary measures. Period. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sarracenia 2010-01-18 03:57 am UTC (link)
	Huh, they never did that that I can recall at my college. Is that just for bigger schools? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	twinno 2010-01-18 04:42 am UTC (link)
	I never had to do it as a student, but I'm required to have my students do it. I think it has to do with program more than school - I was a liberal arts major, but now I'm teaching in a professional program. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	blue_penguin 2010-01-18 09:39 am UTC (link)
	I didn't have to do it at my tiny school, but my mother has to make her students do it at the community college, so maybe. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	rhrsoulmates 2010-01-18 05:50 pm UTC (link)
	I went to a very big university and never had to do it but then again, we're talking YEARS ago. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

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snarkhunter, 2010-01-20 01:38 am UTC

	lyssa 2010-01-19 03:45 am UTC (link)
	Varies per school and even per department, I believe. I've done it a few times, but never as a standard at any one school. (Reply to this)(Parent)

tangentialone
2010-01-19 06:51 am UTC (link)

Related: I had a class once where some asshole came in 15-30 minutes late every single class. So during every single lecture, there would be him peering in through the door and knocking, someone getting up to let him in (the door locked automatically when it closed), him going to his seat in the middle of the room, him getting his stuff out and shuffling his papers and books around, etc.

>:(

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	snarkhunter 2010-01-20 01:39 am UTC (link)
	My French professor locked a friend of mine out of the room once when she showed up late one to many times. We were forbidden to let her in--and even though she was my friend, I rather felt she deserved it. On a tiny residential campus like the one we were at, there was no excuse for chronic tardiness like hers. N. was never late again. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

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tangentialone, 2010-01-20 02:18 am UTC

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