Professor has solution to texting in class

In a recent article of the Guidon about texting in class being an issue, teachers complained that students do not pay attention. That is not the problem for one professor who has encouraged his students to text for a different reason according to a graduate school professor.

"I will start by asking my students to give me their answer to an online poll by cell phone. Online polling is a wonderful way of getting an audience involved it could be a class or for any presentation," said John Orlando, program director of the masters science and business continuity management and masters of Science and information assurance programs.

Orlando primarily is a medical ethics professor working out of the graduate studies building in Depot Square.

His response to the article on texting in class takes a different look at the reality behind what students plan on doing after college.

"I can see the point about it being distracting. However, my position is if you think about it, if you don't allow cell phones and laptops the alternative is pencil and paper. It almost sounds like you're going back 20 years. If you go out in the business world go to any meeting people have cell phones and laptops that's what they do nowadays," said Orlando.

"So if we are telling students that they have to use a pencil and paper we are preparing them for a world that no longer exists, and that's quite literally not the world they are going to walk into. I think it's a little disingenuous to tell them they can't do something that they are going to have to learn to do right away when they get there," said Orlando.

Orlando understands that some students might use their cell phones or laptops for other reasons but he knows how to keep them honest.

"I tell students that they can bring their laptop or cell phone to class but one rule I have is that you might be asked to do research on the spot," said Orlando.

Orlando's students are also used to a polling system where they can use their phones to text in responses.

 "I have used online polling in a variety of presentations. The system I use is called polleverywhere.com it's a completely free system. This system allows you to make up a poll about any type of question," said Orlando.

According to the Poll Everywhere website, "Poll Everywhere is a simple text message voting application that works well for live audiences. People vote by sending text messages (or using Twitter) to options displayed on-screen. The poll that is embedded within the presentation or web page will update in real time. Advanced uses include texting comments to a presentation, texting questions to a presenter, web voting, and SMS interactivity in print, radio, and TV."

"For example, I asked the class to imagine they worked for a company that had a rule that said when you hear a fire alarm that everyone should take their laptop with them out the door, is this rule justified business continuity practice or an unjustified danger to the employee safety. What they do is they will send a text message to a certain number on the screen, and if it yes they will type out the number coded for yes and if no the numbered coded for no. you can have as many different number of responses as you want," said Orlando.

Poll Everywhere is free for up to 30 people responding, after that they have certain rates for payment for larger audiences.

"You can actually download it to a power point and embed it into a slide if you want or you can use the internet to get live updates on peoples answers, so you can watch people answer the question in class and see the response come up on the screen. It's a good way to start off a class to get people to start thinking about things that we will discuss in class," said Orlando.