There are many annoying behaviours that occur in university classrooms and few are considered as annoying to lecturers as students who forget to turn off their mobile phones in class. While some lecturers, like Kevin Linch at the University of Leeds (Radnofsky 2007), explicitly encourage the use of mobile phone technology in their classes, most consider mobile phones to be a nuisance in the classroom, especially once their carefully crafted lecture is accompanied by the sounds of Beyonce, 50 Cent or the theme from the Pink Panther. For them messaging and checking calls during class is an act of rudeness that distracts others who want to learn, and students who are distracted cannot concentrate and work through complex ideas (Gilroy, 2004).

However, for most of us mobile phones were not commonplace when we went to university. With the increasingly pervasive use of mobile phones every classroom teacher will, sooner or later, need to decide whether fiddling with phones, checking text messages, answering important calls or playing games crosses the line of acceptable classroom behaviour. A survey of the advice on what to do about mobile phones in the classroom shows that lecturers adopt one of three tactics: ban all phones, shame repeat offenders or ignore the behaviour and move on.

Ban all phones. The initial reaction to the problem of mobile phones is to ban them from the classroom, or in the case of some universities in India, ban them from the entire campus. Mobile phones are already banned from a number of places in universities including libraries and examination halls and Marilyn Gilroy (2004) found that 85% of lecturers would support including US university classrooms in a ban on mobile phones. To ban mobile phones would require some written warning that phone use is unacceptable in class and spelling out the range of penalties that are enforceable in your classroom. For example, if someone brings a phone to class and keeps playing with it, take it off them until the end of the class when they can get it back. Mike Austin at Eastern Kentucky University suggests classroom participation marks ought to be negatively affected by mobile phones ringing in class, talking on mobile phones, messaging, or any other sort of disruptive class behaviour (http://insocrateswake.blogspot.com/2007/08/managing-classroom.html). Others on his web site suggest that student attendance can be marked as absent once a student is caught talking on their phone in class.

Shame repeat offenders. University teachers may be sympathetic to the idea of banning mobile phones but few want to police such a ban. Scott Campbell (2006) shows that that the most annoying aspect of mobile phone use is when phones ring in class. Students agree that the use of phones in the classroom is distracting but told James Katz  (2006) that if one student is allowed to use their phone in class then they are more likely to use their own phone. The most common advice about students bringing their phones into the classroom is that you can embarrass students into tuning their phones off.

Those who resort to public shaming to curb phone use might start with stopping talking and looking shocked at the student whose phone is ringing, then move to light-hearted remarks like “If that’s for me, tell them I busy giving a lecture” or dancing to the ring-tone to defuse the situation. Other suggestions on the “Metafilter” web site (http://ask.metafilter.com/58871/cell-phones-in-the-classroom) include demanding to answer the phone and explain that the student is currently unavailable and to call back after the lecture. One lecturer answers the phone and asks the caller what they can add to the class discussion. Others suggest using peer pressure is the best answer and recommends having the whole class stare and point at the offender.

Part of the problem appears to be that some ring tones are particularly noticeable. One lecturer suggests offenders with noticeable ring tones ought to be made to come to the front of the class and sing the ring tone tune. The New York Times recently reported the unusual lengths one lecturer went to, to drive home the message that he was fed up with being interrupted by mobile phones (Friedmann, 2007). When a student’s phone rang during one of Ali Nazemi’s lectures he confiscated the phone and proceeded to smash it with a hammer. The incident was staged but the students definitely knew where he stood on mobile phones in the classroom.

Just move on. Lecturers who believe in ignoring mobile phones treat the problem as if it were someone talking in class. They feel that making a big deal to shame a student is certain to distract everyone and most students are already embarrassed enough when their phone rings. In cases where students genuinely forget to turn off their mobile phone drawing attention to a ringing phone is likely to be far more disruptive than if you suggest that the phone should be turned off as soon as possible and move on with the rest of the class.  Students who are constantly messaging should simply be asked to stop and pay attention.

Resisting the invasion of mobile phones. Asking students to turn off their phones rarely works because younger people are much more tolerant of mobile phone use and they don’t want to be out of contact with their friends, or if working part-time, with their employers. Many have credible reasons for why they need to take important calls during class time and the majority of students look embarrassed when their phone ring and race to turn them off. James Katz (2006) found that most students who use their phones during class time are checking for calls or messages or looking for a distraction from a boring class. A third of students admit to playing games on their mobile phones during class but felt that it doesn’t interfere with their academic performance. A group of students so attached to their phones is far more likely to comply to a request to turn their phones to “silent” than to turn them off and you may need to accept that they’ll occasionally be playing with their phone or receiving a text.

While mobile phones have become a major source of irritation, misbehaviour and a source of cheating in exams, without a consensus on how to get students to turn off their phones it appears that the only fair policy is to have the students help define the boundaries of acceptable mobile phone use. What is acceptable is going to continue to be redefined by technology changes as students increasingly use their phones to tell the time, take notes, schedule their day and browse the Internet. Whatever approach finally adopt ensure that your own phone is off when you set the rules for mobile phone use in your class. Nothing undermines your position more comprehensively than when a phone rings just as you are making your carefully crafted point.

References
Campbell, S.W. (2006). ‘Perceptions of Mobile Phones in College Classrooms: Ringing, Cheating, and Classroom Policies’, Communication  Education, 55 (3), pp. 280 – 294
Freedman, S.G. (2007). New Class(room) War: Teacher vs. Technology, New York Times, 7 November, p. B.7
Gilroy, M. (2004). Invasion of the classroom cell phones. Education Digest, 69 (6) pp. 56-61
Katz, J.E. (2006). Magic in the Air: Mobile Communication And the Transformation of Social Life. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
Radnofsky, L. (2007). Lecturer taps into the text generation, Time Higher Education Supplement, 31 August.