Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Students... please... Go kill your iphones.
- Thread starter hcho3
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
In my opinion, this is a poor example. There's no rules (about the only rule is to not do anything illegal), no contract, and I clearly stated multiple times "within reason." Obviously there's rules and limitations, as there naturally will be, but my main point was that media usage in the classroom shouldn't be restricted, and shouldn't be an item considered unreasonable for the classroom. Is it really that untenable to allow personal responsibility? I know plenty of professors who do; its up to the students to achieve success (or not), and quite frankly it works out rather well. Again, within reason, as per not disturbing others.
I'm not quite sure where this idea comes from that professors need to baby their students--why can't they succeed or fail on their own? No one is going to care when they're in the corporate world, in fact things are vastly different. If more professors were to offer their course in this light, as some do, average grades would stay about the same, but now the students have personal responsibility. Kids that are going to fail or do poorly are going to do it anyways; those that are motivated to learn will still continue to do so, and will still do well in the course. In fact it would be better this way, because then those kids who don't have the motivation would be weeded out early, prompting either a reevaluation of their standards and hopefully an improvement in their drive or simply a drop-out scenario.
As per texting; texting will occur regardless of the situation or scene, it happens in the corporate environment all the time as well as the classroom. You can't stop it, especially in a lecture hall of 300+-- you'd be playing phone police the entire lecture. Someone made a comment earlier about students not paying attention in lecture and then reading the book later; this is common, and is in fact a valuable skill. To those education-based people, I believe the term is discovery learning. I actually learn better this way; I can teach something to myself much faster than listening to someone talk-- lectures aren't my learning style. Furthermore, its an important skill to have. Once you get to graduate school you're teaching most things to yourself anyways, and in the sciences its a constant learning process.
If MY adult "child" were in that class, I'd expect him/her to act like an adult and deal with it as they saw fit. I'm no helicopter parent.
The role of the student is to master class material. The role of the professor is to impart said material. An absence here or there should NOT affect a grade. And unless classroom behavior is disruptive or rude (this includes sleeping, texting, playing games in class, etc.) the method of note-taking should not matter.
No, what I think is that you completely misinterpreted my post.
I never had a problem with my professors expecting that I be on time simply because it's a good lesson for what actual employers expect. If you're late in the real world in most jobs you're considered unreliable. It doesn't matter how brilliant you are, if you're unreliable you're a worthless employee.
professors like you are the problem with our educational system. students have lives outside of the college, even if the professor doesn't. i commute an hour each way to school during the week, and sometimes i'll hit traffic or construction or something and end up being a couple of minutes late. if i got to class 5 minutes late because of something out of my control like that, and the professor wouldn't let me in, that would be absolutely ridiculous.
If half the students are doing this, than realistically its probably the professor who is bad. I've taken a lot of classes over the past 5 years, and I can tell from experience that there are some professors who are really good at what they do, and there are some that arent. The good professors never have a problem with attendance, people not paying attention, etc. Everyone who takes their class enjoys it and wants to go there and learn. On the other hand, you have the professors who aren't good at teaching, don't care, or whatever. People in these classes are obviously going to be distracted, or skip, or whatever. Yeah, this isn't a cut and dry case for everyone, but for the majority of people this is the situation. I know I had some professors where I WANTED to go to every class because I knew it would be fun, interesting, and I'd actually learn. And then there were other classes I completely dreaded because it was just some old guy rambling off topic for an hour about stuff that I don't care about and was completely irrelevant to the actual material the class was supposed to cover. instead of focusing on trying to police the class, they should focus on teaching the material and making the class interesting for students. if they did, the class would police itself.
I think it's the "go screw yourself" part that should have got him thrown out of class. I use my laptop in my ethics class to take notes, even though the professor said no technology. The whole class is now taking notes on their laptops. On the one hand it's easier to keep up with the professor, on the other, it's a lot easier to get distracted.
I am also a college professor, and I wouldn't care if someone was taking notes on an iPhone, provided it was muted.
And I say this as someone who enforces a mandatory donut rule for cellphones going off in class. I've already had two students required to bring my class donuts for not silencing their phones before class... phone went off, instant lunch opportunity for everyone else.
And I say this as someone who enforces a mandatory donut rule for cellphones going off in class. I've already had two students required to bring my class donuts for not silencing their phones before class... phone went off, instant lunch opportunity for everyone else.
I knew a Professor who claimed to never have taken a note in college. His philosophy was to pay attention in class and think about what was being presented now. After working with him for a while, I believed he did it!
Taking notes requires so much energy to get everything down, it makes you wonder what you are missing...
Taking notes requires so much energy to get everything down, it makes you wonder what you are missing...
It probably depends on the person.
I found I did a lot better when I took notes. It forced me to pay more attention to the lecture than if I just tried to listen (my mind would invariabley roam or I'd fall asleep if I just tried listening. I honestly don't do well listening to lectures, the person has to be very animated and excited about his/her subject for a lecture to catch my interest. That or taking notes that made me pay attention which if it was interesting subject matter would then get my focus on the subject matter and interested in it. Seriously, I really did have to take notes to focus my attention if the professor wasn't animated about the subject no matter how interesting the subject itself was).
I think it really depends on the person what works best for them. For some people taking notes on the laptop may be fine (I'd probably like it better than writing notes but I'd have the issue of the fact that a computer in front of me is very distracting. I'd have a hard time keeping myself from finding other distractions on it. As much as I love computers, I'd probably do better just writing notes down).