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That's fair - the intentions of the no-screens policy are really good, and I hope that students do respond favourably and end up getting more out of their classes because of it.

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I do think the intentions are good. I know Clay Shirky and have taken several classes from him. He's very thoughtful about the decisions he makes in his classes. On top of being someone who has a very good rapport with his students and is very talented and making class interesting. If he thinks this will help, I am strongly inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.

You also happened to tap into one of my pet peeves about education: Students being weirdly condescending to their teachers for having the audacity to try to make them learn.

Thanks for your reply! I admit that I've spent the last 10 years teaching, TAing, and being a student, and I'm probably a tiny bit skeptical about what it's possible to get students to do, which coloured my initial reaction. Anyway - hopefully Clay is right and the learning process improves screen-free! :)

Sure -- thanks for not (appearing to) take offense to my snarky tone. :-)

I've also spent a fair amount of time on both sides of the classroom, as student and as teacher. It's really tough for students to understand the classroom from the teacher's perspective.

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