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The heart of learning is experience. Whether it is the experience of discussions in the classroom, studying for an examination, working on a project with other students, or pursuing and reflecting on a task independently, the experience can be transformative and lead to new knowledge and insights. The National Day of Unplugging is an event held annually in March. It provided an opportunity for graduate students in a business creativity course to participate and confront, for what has become a habitual consumer behavior to many, an ongoing and near constant use of a smartphone. Participation in the Day experience afforded students the opportunity to gain perspective on their own consumer behavior of technology while providing information relevant to subsequent classroom discussions. The current article presents student reactions to the event and commentary on its use as a pedagogical tool for other instructors to potentially use in their classrooms for discussion and/or replication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an era of increasingly diverse student populations, multi-format MBA programs, and seemingly unrestrained social media discourse, institutions need to establish a code of behavior or expectations for students in the classroom. A professionalism statement is needed, both for inclusion in course syllabi as well as reinforced verbally at the first-class meeting (as well as potentially periodically throughout the program) as a way of acculturating students newly returning to a classroom at the graduate level. In addition to helping insure that all concerned have an environment where they can contribute to case and other topical discussions it sets the behavioral and attitudinal expectations of the faculty, so all can get the most out of the educational experience. The current paper presents such a drafted, faculty discussed and approved statement. The content of the professionalism statement is deconstructed and discussed by linking it to management best practices. Lastly, the statement is evaluated through role theory to indicate how the change of roles between students and instructors occurs in a graduate program. Not meant to represent or replace separate and perhaps more significant organizational policies on bullying, sexual harassment, or even microaggressions, the professionalism statement attempts to strike a balance on the issues and topics that are appropriate for detailed delivery in the MBA level syllabus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]