National Collegiate Honors Council
Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive
Date of this Version
Fall 2024
Document Type
Article
Citation
Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council (Fall/Winter 2024) 25(2): 25-30
Special issue: Forum on student mental health
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Abstract
This essay draws upon Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” to examine student use of personal electronic devices and emphasize the value and power of conversation in learning communities. Observing the isolation that often characterizes the five minutes prior to class time, the author considers the psychosocial challenges to building classroom community in a technological age. Literature review provides ample testimony on how emergent technologies contribute to social fragmentation, emotional instability, and pedagogical hurdles. Noting current smartphone bans in K–12 education, the author acknowledges similar challenges to tertiary education, suggesting that individualized “caves” of ubiquitous personal (and highly personalized) technology are threatening the art of casual conversation. Supporting a view of education that places connection and conversation before information delivery, the author encourages honors educators to be mindful in their curricular and extracurricular practices of the ways in which honors students look up and out to connect with and support one another, thus improving student mental health and the endeavor of higher learning.
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Comments
Copyright 2024, National Collegiate Honors Council. Used by permission