My new laptop policy

We professors in the 21st century have a dilemma: we want our students to use laptops and the internet in class, but we don't want them getting sucked into a digital vortex and missing out on class conversations.

My solution from here on in is to set up a Twitter backchannel, and require that all connected students participate. Then I'll use my iPad to search for the class-specific hashtag, and integrate online student comments into the in-person discussion. Here's the exact wording from my syllabus:

This class has a strict LAPTOP POLICY: If you have your laptop open, you must contribute to the class discussion via the online backchannel as well as verbally. Specifically, you must tweet at least three comments about our readings/discussion per class session. The hashtag for our class will be #[redacted]. If you don’t know how to use Twitter, either figure it out or refrain from bringing your laptop to class.

Let's hope it works. I'll update this post at the end of the semester, and let you know.

Comments

[Joseph Tate]

You should try Convore. It would let you set up a topic for each lecture, no artificial character limit, twitter like, direct replies, and everyone can participate. We used it at PyCon '11 to great success.