Do you know what it feels (and sounds) like to talk on the phone with someone who is watching tv or doing something else? That’s the feeling I’m trying to banish from our classroom. Although I know that people’s minds always wander - and that can be a wonderful thing! - I don’t want our preciously few hours together to have to compete with whatever’s happening on facebook, snapchat, or whatever app the cool kids are into these days.

Given my sense of the rewards for making our class free of digital technologies, a student has written me asking if they could buy and read e-books for the course.

I am trying to avoid a situation in which students are more absorbed in their technology than the conversation or their own thoughts (about the class). If you can have an e-book in front of you and not be at all disassociated from the class, you are allowed to use it. However, please know that if I have to ask you to stop messing with whatever technology is near you, I will ask you not to bring it back. Therefore if you think you might have a hard time not using the e-book for anything other than looking up a quote or following along with someone else’s point, I recommend you buy paperback books.

Also, please remind yourself that our phones, especially, are now literally being designed to make you never want to let it go, so you might feel some pangs of discomfort or confusion.