Zack Zakhem

I find it interesting how some of my best students actually manage to perform well in their class while texting periodically during class. There is a fine line to walk between completely "banning" texting during class time and simply allowing it to occur here and there. The question then becomes, do the "benefits" of allowing students to text periodically during class outweigh the drawbacks of eliminating it completely?

I find it infringing on instructors' privacy to hand out personal phone numbers to students for many reasons. I would suggest using a service such as Viber and Whatsap to call and text students back and forth without giving out personal information. In today's world, students may not like the instructor for whatever reason and this can cause some issues with harassment and or badgering of the instructor in the future. Viber and Whatsap on the other hand do not give out personal information but yet can still be useful tools to keep in contact with students at all times.

I find this method quite useful as my students seem to be responding to it quite favorably. What I started doing was using YouTube in between each topic being discussed to show the class a visual of the subject that we just covered. This typically takes anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes. The brain does need some time to "recoup" to enhance retention. Younger students today use social media daily and incorporating it into the classroom seems to have positive effects on retention.

I was wondering if there was specific research that was conducted on various ethnic groups to see what "colors", "music", "seating arrangements", etc. would work on which group. I am pretty sure that race/ethnic backgrounds would vary when it comes to learning by using different props.