Thanks to all of you who responded to my question about what you would have done as a presenter if someone was texting during your workshop. I’ll be sharing in a two-part series since I keep these blogs to about a minute each for a quick, easy and helpful read.
Here we go!
• Many of us are guilty of texting almost everywhere … it’s very rude and disruptive to the speaker. I promise to be on my good behavior from now on. Let’s hope others do, too, so we can get the most out of every networking event.
• Did the facilitator remind everyone to put away their smart phones? (No. And I chose to start with an interactive exercise rather than having my first words be a “command.”)
• I would probably include this behavior in future presentations on networking with the learning objective of being present in the moment. (Good idea!)
• Very occasionally, I address this issue in the adult classroom as a university instructor. The syllabus says that phones must be muted. (Unfortunately, workshops usually don’t have syllabi. They do have facilitators or people who introduce us.)
• I’ve read about a K-12 teacher who has the pupils put their cellphones across the bottom few inches of the whiteboard (space reserved for markers and erasers) with their names above the phones.
More varied opinions next time, plus what I did.