[jackcosgrove]

I don't think the author of the piece is saying there has been a cultural change among students, emanating from within. Rather the thesis is that smartphones are the culprit. "Things changed" can encompass the proliferation of smartphones.

[Olreich]

Sure, but the argument is still that the smartphones aren’t the root cause. It’s the transactional nature of the thing. Can’t fail students because money would go down, so keep passing them as they get better equipped to ignore you and have reduced requirements to get a passing grade.

The thing that’s changed is how much the transactional nature favors the lazy students, not the smartphones specifically.

The reason the argument is so bad that “it’s the smartphones” is because that implies an easy solution that is external to the academic system, when the root cause is internal to the system.

[zamfi]

Why would the transactional nature favor students now though? What’s the mechanism for that, that’s internal to the system?

In other words it sounds like you’re arguing that the root cause is “the transactional nature” but that’s the one thing that hasn’t changed. So why is it worse now?

What is it that makes students “better equipped to ignore you”?