Monday Morning Media Memo # 590 --- Smart Phones, Dumb Students? & Sinclair.

     Several years ago (no, not as long ago as reflected in the Old Alabama Town classroom above) I was in an elementary school classroom for a story and noticed the teacher had a wicker basket at the door. 
     Students were required to put cell phones in the basket during class. Do they still do that? When I was teaching I was tempted to do the same with the college students, but the classes were small and most followed my request to keep them in their bags etc till class ended or we took a break.

Anyway, Gallup is out with a study asking teachers about the impact of digital devices. The results?

• 41% of teachers say digital devices are helpful to students' education
• Most see devices as harmful to students' physical and mental health

• Parents have much more positive views of digital devices than teachers. 

     And it is an issue in the workplace too. Young workers are so attached to their phones that customers sometimes have to interrupt the workers' digital lives to get them to pay attention. 

 
     Someone forgot to explain to them the connection between the money you are trying to spend with them, and their paychecks.

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     If you somehow missed the "viral" coverage of Sinclair Broadcasting's dictum to anchors to read a corporate editorial about fake news (irony alert!) here's the YouTube story, including a video compilation of dozens of the company's anchors reading the same editorial. 

And Sinclair has retaliated against a journalism group that criticized the mass-editorial.

[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a longstanding feature of www.timlennox.com. --now in its 11th year online.]