Don't touch that cell phone

It's in the syllabus - no cell phone use in class.

But that doesn't mean students don't use their cell phones in class, as one Syracuse University history professor has found.

For Albrecht Diem, mobile text messaging is the bigger issue.

"It does not make noise," Diem said. "It's just insulting."

It is worse than students sleeping during class, he said.

"Sleeping is annoying, but unintentional," Diem said. "Why did I prepare this class for this person if they have more important things to do?"

Professors across SU's campus are finding that advanced technology is making it increasingly difficult to keep the attention of their students. Instead of class lectures, students turn to their cell phones and laptops.

And professors are not happy.

With the advent of cell phones that can simultaneously access the Internet and send text messages, students are left to choose between listening to a professor - which costs students more than $100 per class session - versus using their hand-held technology.

"I'm used to it now - it's annoying," said Joel Destino, a senior chemistry and history major. "I prefer when professors do make comments."

Yet Destino admits that he has sent an occasional text during class.

Faculty members are still unsure of how to approach the rapidly changing classroom crisis.

When Diem, the history professor, sees someone sending text messages during his class, he said it shows that students do not care about the class. Currently, he tries to talk to students after class, but next semester he will be more specific in his syllabus.

"Those are things that can really harm my concentration," he said. "I'm improvising."

Just one ring or beep from a text message can throw Diem off focus during a lecture, he said, adding that because he doesn't script his lectures word-for-word, it can be hard to get back on track.

"If you don't switch it off, I will do it, and I usually destroy things when I do it," Diem said. "It's extremely annoying in general."

But texting can be extremely useful to students.

If Kara Landsman needed to make after-class plans, she said she would respond to a text message during class, but would not start the texting conversation.

"I wouldn't initiate something myself," the undecided freshman said.

While Landsman said she would not answer a phone during class, she did not think responding to a text message during class was rude as long as it was out of sight.

"If they can see you, and it would be really obvious, then it's rude," Landsman said. "It's definitely not distracting."

Usually, people send text messages under the table, so it is not distracting, Landsman said. But if someone answered the phone during class and started talking, that would be uncouth and distracting in her opinion.

"I don't think it's a big deal in class," Landsman said.

That opinion is not shared by most professors.

In only the past two years, Robert Thompson has begun to notice cell phones as a problem.

"Once you're no longer oblivious, it really does tick you off," said Thompson, professor and director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture.

Thompson relies on technology to teach his popular culture and television history classes. He often needs a DVD player and television to present his lectures.

"There's certainly a place for technology in a classroom," he said.

But Thompson makes it clear that cell phones are not necessary to present the lecture. He does not mind an occasional ringing phone during class, he said. It's the text messaging that bothers him.

"It's just a way to send notes in class," Thompson said. "That's unprofessional. It's rude."

Because Thompson's classes often consist of screenings in a dark room, it is easier for most students to take notes on a lighted laptop than a notebook they cannot see, he said., adding that the situation only increases the temptation to check e-mail or Facebook.

Thompson estimates that half of the students who take notes on laptops in his class are using their laptops for more than just taking notes.

"It's distracting them from getting the full service of the professor," Thompson said. "If I could fire my students for those kind of offenses, I would fire them."

Surfing the Web in class is becoming easier for students everywhere with wireless Internet connections infiltrating college campuses. Sixty percent of college campus networks across the country are wireless, according to the Campus Computing Project's national survey in 2007.

SU went completely wireless across campus this fall.

Thompson suggests a consistent campus wide policy for technology in classes.

"Every teacher needs to fight his own battle," Thompson said. The university needs to collaborate and decide what is considered acceptable behavior, he said.

Kristina Rossman doubts that a school-wide policy would work. The senior marketing and entrepreneurship major said that professors enforce policies differently anyway.

"If professors really care, they should have their own policies," she said.

Left to fight his own battle, Thompson said he will begin instate an "airplane" policy in his classroom. "Cell phones and all those devices need to be turned off and stowed."