CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) – The University of Virginia is holding its first class free of modern technology.

Say goodbye to phones, computers, and any other pieces of technology.

Students are doing things the old-fashioned way.

“I have to do more of the technology to get ready for them to be tech-free at this point. So I think it’s a struggle for me in that way,” Heidi Noble, an assistant UVA professor for the Writing and Rhetoric Program said.

Going back to the basics, these UVA students are learning how to depend on their brains and not on spell-check.

“I think we’re reading more carefully than we ever have before, because we’re having to do things in slow motion.” Nobles said. “We can be so much more authentic,”

The class is called Making Books: Introduction to Editing and Publishing.

It’s all done without the use of modern technology.

“The students are doing all of their writing by hand on hard copy. They’re doing all of their edits by hand in hard copy, and they’ll do the sealing and binding,” Nobles said.

The commitment also follows them outside the classroom.

“I’ve kind of come to enjoy it. There are a lot of things I’m just learning,” Marty Dwyer, a second-year UVA student said. “We have to try to do four hours of no-tech time when we’re outside of class. So, I’m trying to figure out what I can cut tech on.”

By disconnecting from the online world, students try to build a connection with the offline world.

“I think it just helped me notice a lot more both about how myself and how I think when I have nothing to do but think and also just like the world around me,” Dwyer said.

Now, it opens this student’s eyes to a brand new world.

“You don’t realize how much goes into it and then seeing behind the scenes just like, wow,” Dwyer said. “It gives you a deeper appreciation for the work that you do get to consume.”

Nobles says she hopes to do the class again next summer.

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