Pricing varies. The independent use of ALEKS by indiduals in the most expensive at $20 per month. Next comes Higher ed Math (sold through McGraw-Hill). Next is Chemistry at $40 per semester (which includes ~ 3 extra weeks for summer prep), and finally K-12 math at ~35 per student per year.

I’d be happy to answer your questions: egates@aleks.com

This is something we all face with the changing dynamics of classrooms. I too have lamented or considered the question of where technology is in within the classroom (http://goo.gl/JWYLm). What has worked best for me is to require them to email notes to the instructor at the end of class. If they don’t have substantial notes, their privilege to use a laptop is rejected. My approach is that if they can produce respectable notes while doing those distracting things–well, who am I to judge since in my day, I certainly doodled, wrote short stories, etc and still took substantial notes.

Teach older adults and you’ll discover extremely different behavior, far more attentive and cooperative.

Many 18s are mature enough for college (some 15s are) but many are not. Most flunk-outs are from (mis)behavior, not insufficient intellect.

Best wishes,
Norm Sperling
http://www.everythingintheuniverse.com

Andy, Rhett’s response to the post gets at some of what I’ve been thinking about regarding your “is it worth their while?” question. I do see the class as “good for them,” and that includes both the more easy-to-engage-in hands-on activities, as well as the discussion afterwards. While I respect students’ opinions and reactions to the class, I also don’t know that I would automatically trust that if they are “voting with their distraction” that that vote is valid. In other words, just because they’re distracted doesn’t mean that the activity is not worthwhile. It may not be worthwhile, but it may also be that it’s just more work to engage in. And my failure was to not explicitly address the point and say that these were worthwhile aspects of the class (generally) and that it was in their best interest to engage in them.

Plus, it’s also just plain rude. I spend a lot of time trying to give them a worthwhile educational experience, and then they tune out as soon as it becomes easy to do so. There is a norm of social acceptability that, to me, is not upheld by such behavior. As Paul says, they are adults and can make their own decisions, but to some degree, I need to make it clear what is considered “adult’ behavior in my class. Because they’re adults, not preschoolers, they can adequately make that set of rules themselves, if I give them that opportunity.

That said, I’m sure that some disengagement is caused by activities that are less worthwhile than others. I’m not saying that everything I do in the class is brilliant and inspired, because it most certainly isn’t. I did notice that the disengagement increased as I became more distracted by some items out of the classroom. But the general principle holds — engage if you want to do well, and if you want to be polite to your prof.

That never worked.

But if he asked the participants to make a set of rules, they would come up with essentially the same ones but this time they would follow them. I’ve taken a similar approach to constructing things like evaluation rubrics.

Having said that, though, I’ve never constructed such a contract for general class behavior. I do, however, devote the first day of each semester to a short lesson on how people learn, and how that explains the peculiar structure of my classes. Part of that is the research of Stanford psychologist Clifford Nass on the negative effects of multitasking on learning. But in the end I tell them they are adults. They can make their own decisions. Here’s what the data says, if you choose to goof off anyway, that’s your own lookout. Around a third of the class pretty reliably chooses to continue goofing off.

Maybe that’s too hands off, and this is an interesting alternative. At the end of the day, they are adults, and part of their maturation process involves taking responsibility for their own actions. I make the nature of the choice clear to them, but I’ve never taken any action to insure that they have all actually made a conscious decision.