Serendipity...

I admit, I was annoyed.  Tired.  Irritated that, despite a fairly "strict" cell phone policy for my classes and my feeble attempts to enforce it, several of my students check their cell phones more often than they take a breath.

So today, mostly out of a sense of frustration, but with the ever-professional tone of a seasoned instructor, I admonished:

"Ok.  Every pull their cell phones out."  (And literally EVERYONE did.  It's rare to find a student without one these days.)

"Hold it up high over your heads."  (They were mildly amused by this.  My hidden motive was to check their compliance with my instructions.)

"Turn it on silent--not vibrate or cutesy music or clever ring tones, but completely silent."  (Their amusement was short-lived, but I sensed the instruction was not unanticipated.)

"Now, set your phone in front of you, face down, as far to the front of the table as you can."  (They did, with no protest.)

The lesson today in this First Year Experience class was, coincidentally, on focus.  So I quickly wove that theme into my instructions, making it appear that this action was purposeful and premeditated (which it was, but not for the reasons I stated--a "test" to see if they could maintain focus for the remainder of the class.)

For the first time in weeks, Every student (except one) was locked in to the lesson instead of staring down at their crotch, fiddling in their pocket or trying to discretely rifle through their backpack.

At the end of the class, I asked how many of them had be tempted to reach for their phones.  No one said they were, and by their relaxed body language and facial expressions, I believed them.  Totally serendipitously, I had discovered something... something that I already knew in another context.

When I facilitate growth groups, we talk about "keeping our 'shadow self'--the part of that we hide, ignore and deny--in front of us so we can be aware of it's influence on us.  It can be illustrated like this:

Have someone stand behind you, with their hands on your shoulder, and try to shake them off without putting your hands on them or facing them.  It's virtually impossible, because for every move you make, they can make a counter move way before you are aware they are doing so.  As long as you can't "see" your shadow, it can hang on to you and even control you.

Now, have the individual stand in front of you, and move where you want to move.  Unless the person is a 250 pound lineman for the NFL, even if you are not as strong, you can actually DIRECT THEM to where you want to go.  Your forward leverage is more powerful than they are in this position.

Having their phones in front of them seem to make the students feel they had more control.  I would hypothesize that if their phones were even placed at their sides, the effect would not have been as great.  By having their eyes on their devices in a setting in which they didn't need to use them gave them POWER over their technology.  It was amazing.

I wish I could say I had the genius to realize this before.  I didn't.  It was just a "defensive maneuver" born out of desperation.  But it worked, and became an awesome teaching moment.  Any time when students become empowered it is.

Serendipity.