Nudging students (and others) into better behavior
I am a big fan of the book Nudge by Richard H. Thaler Cass R. Sunstein. The book highlights the way in which social architecture - everything from how questions are phrased to default rules shape our behavior.
The Chronicle of Higher Education today reported on a very effective "nudge" example. According to the article, Students Stop Surfing After Being Shown How In-Class Laptop Use Lowers Test Scores, "professors increasingly frustrated by students who use laptops for non-class activities--like updating their Facebook pages--may be heartened by news from the University of Colorado at Boulder. A professor there has found that educating students about the negative effect that frivolous laptop use has on their performance reduces class t
ime spent going walkabout on the Web."
Engingeering Associate Professor Diane Sieber "identified 17 students in one of her classes who were using laptops most frequently. After the first test, she told them that they did 11 percent worse, on average, than their peers who did not have their faces in their computers as much."
When the default position was that all uses of the laptop were accepted, students used them for everything. When students were educated regarding the appropriate uses and warned of the intrinsic consequence of the laptop misuse - the misuse declined.
Professor Sieber did not bar the laptops, but in Nudge's terms used "libertarian paternalism" to educate the students on the effect of their behavior and give them the opportunity (but not the obligation) to expect better behavior.
There are many examples (just read the book). But the application to both technology norms and educational defaults will fill many new books to come.
See www.nudges.org for some of the newest applications.
