Should College Professors Give 'Tech Breaks' In Class?
In his new novel Origin, Dan Brown (most famous for The Da Vinci Code), describes his protagonist Robert Langdon's approach to the conundrum of students' devotion to personal tech devices in the classroom.
Langdon is, Brown writes, "one of several Harvard professors who now used portable cell-jamming technology to render their lecture halls 'dead zones' and keep students off their devices during class."
In real life, jamming technology is illegal in this country. But it's no fiction that college professors may go to great lengths in response to students using cellphones and other computer devices inappropriately in class. Writing for The Huffington Post last year, Robert Shuter described some professors' "extreme measures to manage students' digital devices." These include, he writes:
"public humiliation, personal reprimands, and disabling wireless access. For example, one instructor disclosed to
