Forcing students to part with their phones and laptops and confining them to a classroom to read Nietzsche or Sartre for?four?hours doesn¡¯t seem the best way to win over students at your new university. However, that¡¯²õ exactly what David Pe?a-Guzm¨¢n, an assistant professor in humanities at San Francisco State University, has done ¨C and?it appears to have been a success.

Every other week, students signed up to the class ¡°The Reading Experiment: The Power of the Book¡±, are given a short introduction to the day¡¯²õ work and then asked to put their phones in a bag. They then read for four hours ¨C with short breaks every 55 minutes ¨C before an hour-and-a-half discussion about the reading material.

Dr Pe?a-Guzm¨¢n said that he designed the unique class to counteract the distracting effects of technology and to help students ¡°reignite their love of attentive reading¡±.

Dr Pe?a-Guzm¨¢n told Times Higher Education?that he did so after noticing how technology was increasingly affecting his own reading habits. ¡°It¡¯²õ now so easy to pick [your phone] up and check for messages or alerts and I realised that would be affecting students too,¡± he said.

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There is one piece of technology in the classroom: a white noise machine to remove outside noise. ¡°It¡¯²õ about a distraction-free environment; I incorporate technology that is conducive and confiscate what is not conducive,¡± he said.

Dr Pe?a-Guzm¨¢n said that he had been surprised at how students had taken to the class. ¡°A couple of times after the class introduction I¡¯ve forgotten to collect their phones, and every time they remind me,¡± he said. Some students have even asked how to recreate the environment at home. He admitted, however, there is some self-selection bias because students who like to read are more likely to choose the class.

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The concept is important because students are typically not taught to read any more, according to Dr Pe?a-Guzm¨¢n. ¡°We simply assume that reading is something [students] mastered when they were five or six¡­they aren¡¯t being asked to reflect upon their reading habits and what it means to read attentively, intentionally, and purposively,¡± he said.

Dr Pe?a-Guzm¨¢n, a philosopher, explained that the course¡¯²õ theme, existentialism, fitted well with the self-reflection that the class design forced students into.

Other faculty at San Francisco State have expressed interest in replicating the experiment, Dr Pe?a-Guzm¨¢n said.

¡°It¡¯²õ important to be honest about why you are conducting this class in this way from the beginning,¡± he explained. ¡°It¡¯²õ not about not trusting them, it¡¯²õ not arbitrarily taking their phones¡­the format is motivated by concern [over] the ever-increasing influence of technology in our everyday lives ¨C and I am implicated in that too. I give up my phone as well.¡±

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anna.mckie@timeshighereducation.com

Academics and university leaders will discuss how universities can encourage innovative teaching and learning practices at Times Higher Education¡¯²õ Teaching Excellence Summit, which is taking place at Western University, in London, Ontario, Canada, from 4-6 June.