Jeff's classroom management strategy of having students turn their computers towards the teacher when it's time to focus up front is something that was new to me and immediately struck me as a highly reliable way to shift attention away from individual screens. As a class of responsible adults in their 20s or older, it was even hard for us MIT students to look away from our screens; I can't imagine how hard it must be for a teenager. Making it so students physically can't look at their screens is as much of a prevention tool as it is a simple reminder.
After reflecting on the effectiveness of this strategy in the classroom, I started to wonder if I could incorporate the screen turning into the lesson in a way that supplements the activity so that it doesn't come across exclusively as a rule to keep them focused. I haven't thought of any specific lessons for this, but anything that involves students creating a piece of visual media would lend itself well to it. Students could turn their screens to show the teacher what they made and the teacher could lead a discussion about it, potentially picking up one of the laptops and turning it to the rest of the class to show them.
Not only would this be a good way for the teacher to check progress and understanding from all of their students at once, but it would shift students' focus to the front without them even realizing that they are following a classroom management strategy set out by the teacher because of how much they enjoy the activity.
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