Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Swampfox10mm]

First time I've ever had to take a phone away from a university student.

For years, I've always been able to warn students, and they've pretty much listened. Not anymore. This Kakao Talk program, and smart phones in general, are just too addictive for many university students.

How do you handle them in your classroom? I made a rule that I would start deducting points, but even that has proven not to be enough. I had to hold 4 students after class and threaten them with an "F" the next time I see them using it. That alone is going to make my evaluations drop.

I suppose the only good news is that if the students receive an "F", their ratings of my class don't count toward what the administration decides to do with my contract. I'm about to perform a public mass flunking, I'm so darn sick of it.

When I worked at the high school level, we collected students' phones in a box before class. Dare I do this?

[CtotheB]

What's Kakao Talk?

[Swampfox10mm]

http://www.kakao.com/talk/en

It's a free text message program which uses their internet signal to bypass text message costs. So they sit and dink on the damned thing all day long at no cost (except their grade).

They can even do group chats and talk about you in class while you teach.

[CtotheB]

I guess my general take on it would be that if they're not distracting anyone then they aren't a problem, but if they ask questions or come to you for office hours to go over something you talked about while they were texting (or some other similar situation) then you have every right to say "well if you weren't texting in class you would know this".

Having taught some Korean adults in the states, it seems they all agree that face-losing and shame is a good way to dissuade them. Outting them in class as fools in front of everyone would work most of the time. Taking away the phone seems a little murky, because I'm not sure how I feel about one adult taking away another "adult"s property, even though they go there voluntarily. I feel no special impetus to get them to try in class if they're not going to try themselves.

[BigBuds]

I have a simple rule that works well.

I have a small basket at my desk. All phones go into the basket, switched off, when you enter my class. If a phone doesn't go into the basket and I see or hear it, I keep it for two days.

Same applies for MP3 players. I don't make them put them into the basket but if I see them or hear them, I keep them for two days.

[Swampfox10mm]

Buds, do you teach university students or younger? We did that when I taught high school. Am thinking of that policy, but am disgusted because I shouldn't have to with "adults."

As to it being a distraction, yes, it is. Kakao is more advanced than normal phone texting in that they can do group conversations. I didn't know about the group chats until I turned around after writing on the board and a group of students, who were all glued to their phone screens, burst out in laughter. That's when I grabbed a phone, asked what was so funny, and saw it. So yes, it's distracting because of this reason.

I have a collegue who makes them remove their phone batteries and place them on the desk next to the phone during tests. I wonder if I will have to do the same during regular class (or collect phones).

[Mr. Peabody]

If I see a student texting during class, I ask them in a loud, but friendly voice, "Who are you texting? Your boyfriend...girlfriend...your mother? It must be really important!"

The class laughs, the student is embarassed and the problem rarely happens again.

[postfundie]

Unbelievable... I actually encourage them to have smart phones and to make recordings. They have to give detailed answers about what messages they've send. We type out a story and then I record it for them. Why not try using the phones or Kakao talk instead of fighting the phenomenon? I know it's a university format, but Geez...listening to a lecture on grammar isn't going to do jack for people...

[BigBuds]

[Mr. Peabody]

[postfundie]

[Chet Wautlands]

I plan on teaching university for the first time next spring and find this discussion pretty interesting. I hope it continues!

[Scouse Mouse]

Give them YOUR number.

10% of the grade for each semester comes from answering questions first in class.

All answers must be submitted via Kakao talk.

Only the person who answers first will get the point (1% per answer - must be first to answer 10 questions per semester).

This will ensure that students all have Kakoa talk ready and loaded for talking to YOU, and that their keyboards are set to English. Messaging other students just got a lot harder

[legrande]

At the uni I'm in now, I just tell the offending student to stop texting, and it's a done deal 99.9%.

For the other .1% I just publicly dock them ridiculous points in front of everyone.

Sounds like your school (or the students you have) has a problem addressing classroom behavior, reminds me of the technical college I used to be at. So for those classes that just couldn't/wouldn't get it together, I had to be tough from the get go, and we had some battles, but in the end that's the only way you're going to get the respect of those type of students.

Weaving the Kakao texting into the lesson sounds feasible if there are only a few text-happy students, but could open the door to everyone getting into a texting frenzy with a problem class. I know that at my technical college it would have great potential to backfire in spectacular fashion, sorta like, "You may be able to take Jinsuk down for now, but now that your hands are tied, you ain't laying a finger on Haeri, Wooseok, and Jihae!"

[Konglishman]