One big complaint about bring-your-own-device (BYOD)
learning is the distraction the devices cause. A professor at the University of
Pennsylvania is trying to find out just what is possible from that sort of
distraction.
“Wasting Time on the Internet” is a creative writing
seminar where students will be required to divide their classtime between the
Internet and the classroom. Kenneth Goldsmith wants his students to be
distracted in hopes they will be inspired to write something particularly
creative by the end of the term.
“Creative writing and art is the place where you get to
try out … things that might seem a little bit outrageous,” Goldsmith told The Washington Post.
“Isn’t that what an undergraduate education is, really? It sounds like a
perfect undergraduate class to me.”
Goldsmith admitted he isn’t sure what sorts of writing
he will get from his students, but he does have some experience with unusual
teaching methods. He has taught “Uncreative Writing” at Penn for years, a class
in which students must plagiarize other works to complete assignments.
“Once you take away the forbidden fruit, then they
shift their orientation and view it as a creative exercise,” Goldsmith said.
