How much texting is going on in the classroom?

2 professors from Wilkes University surveyed students to find out how much texting is going on in the classroom. Their findings are not unexpected, though the students' perspective might be--from the press release: "In fact, students frequently commented on the survey that their professors would be 'shocked' if they knew how much texting went on in class."

Link includes recommendations on how to curtail texting in the class. Or it might be time to start exploring how to incorporate this ubiquitous technology into the class--engaging through the technology instead of banning it.

Educause Study on Students and Technology

Educause Center for Applied Research has release this 2010 study based on qualitative data from students at both 4-year and 2-year institutions on how undergraduate student use information technology. The study is 120 pages, but, for a shorter synopsis, you can peruse their key findings which provides information of student use of desktops versus laptops, mobile devices, learning management systems, and social networking.

Aftermath of Cheating

I received this video from Caveon Test Security Newsletter. Caveon is a company that consults and provides services related to maintaining the integrity of tests. The video shows the lecture given to students by their instructor about how he found out about the cheating, and what would happen because of the cheating.

It's a nice peak into a major cheating scandal, and how one instructor worked with his colleagues to address the issue and give students a chance to correct the problem.

Professor Speech About Cheating from Knight News on Vimeo.

Gamifying Classes

Sarah over at Harper College passed this to me: an article about gamifying classes from the Chronicle of Higher Ed, or how to use game mechanics to create incentives for students to engage course content.

The comments have some really nice ideas (language learning and literacy). The thing I thought of was to create achievements for using specific vocabulary in posts in Stats class...getting students to use the language of the course.

Trend Toward Self-Paced Online Classes

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently featured the article "Will Technology Kill the Academic Calendar?" which discusses the trend of some community colleges to offer classes that allow students to start and complete the course at any time and that consists of assignments without deadlines. The discussion includes whether this module is primarily financially driven and whether students' needs can really be met without a cohort and the structure of a traditional semester.