(with gratitude to Bloglines) Thanks Michael Stephens for mentionining J. Lewandowski's new blog, her post at Teaching and Thinking With Technology: Bringing Back Civility and the article that stimulated her post didn't ask or answer why students are tempted to split their attention from the class.
Attention is too often not essential in order to pass or even excel in the course.
1. Ensure the class presentation is riveting
BUT
2. Only require class attendance if content is not able to be obtained any other way
a) big example: don't repeat (including repeat in advance of) written information.
(i) to be fair some people need to learn auditorily rather than from text, so if the class is available to present the same information which has or will come in written form the unit outline could specify read this and/or attend that class.
b) if class attendance is required for assessable participation in discussion then have a legitimate method of evaluation of participation - not just attendance.
Whether attendance is required or optional what ought to be the codes of conduct then? I lean toward a compassionate democratic needs/solutions based approach: ie each class determines the needs of teacher and students and develops creative agreements to meet those needs.
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