Students Passing Notes In Class, Via Text Message

The age-old practice of slipping a handwritten note to a friend during class has gone high-tech. Now students use their cellphones, clicking out notes on the devices’ tiny keys. A blogger over at Blogging Pedagogy is already reporting seeing students using their cellphones to type messages to friends during class rather than paying attention. “I saw one of my students texting -- obviously texting -- during class yesterday,” the blogger writes. “What do you do in a case like this? Do you tell your student to stop texting? To be more surreptitious? Or do you ignore it?”

Many professors have complained about students using wireless laptops to type messages or surf the Web during class, but those machines are larger and so it’s probably easier to see if students are using them. Have you seen a student texting during class? --Jeffrey R. Young