Mark James, a visiting lecturer at the University of West Florida, declared his summer course in English literature technology-free—he skipped the PowerPoint slides and YouTube videos he usually shows, andhe asked students to silence their cellphones and close their laptops.

Banishing the gear improved the course, he argues. “The students seemed more involved in the discussion than when I allowed them to go online,” he told me as the summer term wound down. “They were more
attentive, and we were able to go into a little more depth.”

From The Chronicle…what do you think? Whenever there is a lot of “fill-in-the-blank”, there is the inevitable backlash AGAINST “fill-in-the-blank”. But is it justified? Are these people fighting a losing battle? OR fighting for a just cause?