This is Crap.

(Or Why the Ban of Technology in College Classrooms is Stupid.)

I wrote this blog in class on Tuesday. Due to it's considerable length, and just not caring enough I didn't transcribe it until now. I hope you enjoy it. It's verbatim, with the exception of a few punctuation and spelling corrections.


So here I am, sitting in my Tuesday night SpecialEd class. The teacher is this hispanic lady who is roughly 65 years old. This is being written literally 10 minutes into class. She's banned the use of laptops and cellphones, so I decided, "Well I'm not going to pay attention anyway, and I haven't written a blog in a while so screw it, I'll just handwrite the damn thing."

The thing that sucks is, writing this, I'm paying way less attention to this lady than I would if I were just sitting on my laptop. This is one of two classes that has banned all technology during class time. By giving us this rule that no technology can be used, in my mind, you're not respecting my right to use technology, and whether it's because you don't think i'll pay attention or what, it means you're treating me like a child. I'm a big boy. I'm almost 22. (Yikes!) All in all it means I'm not going to respect you back.

IMeanwhile both of these classes have optional-mandatory online coursework. Meaning, "It's up to you to do the coursework online. But if you don't do it, you'll automatically fail the class." Okay, so I get there's online materials and work, but you're not going to allow me to access any of it during class? Yeah, no. That makes perfect sense to me too.

What it comes down to, is that both of these professors have had "years of experience" in their fields, and are now teaching college courses. Bully for you! But guess what? We don't care! Just because you've been doing your thing for years and are an "expert in your field," it doesn't mean you know how to teach a class/lecture full of college students.

Day 1. Both these teachers ban technology under the ruse that "Multi-tasking doesn't exist!" Claiming studies have discounted it, and that in reality you're just shifting focus rapidly between two or more stimuli. Well... I don't know who let the secret out... but duh! I'm not saying my brain can magically comprehend everything around me, but if I can surf the web, and still take notes, and listen to you when you make a point, that's really all I need to do.

I've talked about multi-tasking and me before, (hyperlink here,) so I'm not going to go into another long tirade. All I'm trying to say is just because you've been in the education field for years doesn't mean you know how to teach. Best professor I ever had didn't care what we did in class as long as we sat and stayed quiet. He didn't take attendance and in fact told students not to come to class if they felt remotely sick. (He had small children.) He made the class interesting, he made us want to show up, and to interact. He respected our ability to learn. So some classes I would sit there, laptop open, and just listen. Then when he made a point, I'd ask a question, and he would just roll with it. He complimented a kid in class for the great drawings he made. He let us do our thing, while he did his thing. I might not have "learned" as much facts or methodology in that class as I've been forced to in others, but I learned how to treat people, how to act, and a lot about life. And that was just talking to him during and after class.

Not letting college students use laptops or cellphones in class is dumb. Our generation, especially the freshmen, has grown up with computers as an integral part of our daily lives. Saying "You can't use a laptop unless you have a note from disability services," is the equivalent of saying, "I know you can type faster than you can write, but the threat of Facebook scares me." It's not practical. I can see where they're coming from with cellphones, but once again, if you respect me enough not to make a big deal about it, I'll keep any texts short, sweet, and I'll go back to listening to you when I'm done. If I miss something, that's on me. I'll take that burden. And if I keep missing things, i'll wise up and save my texting for later. Even the naive freshmen are still adults, so treat students like we give a damn, and maybe we will. But if you're going to give us the "Teacher knows best," routine don't expect us to drop everything and believe you. We're not (all that) dumb. Sure, we'll most likely do as we're told, but you're going to be staring at a sea of dead, uninterested eyes, who most often then not will be staring down pretending to take notes while we text friends or tweet about how much your class sucks.

If there's one thing I've learned from being a comm. major, it's that change is coming. Media is becoming more and more ubiquitous, and is rapidly approaching omnipresence. These professors are tying to teach us as they were taught; trying to fight the times. Stop. We know you don't get this whole "technology" thing. But then maybe it's time to get out of the teaching game. Maybe technology is the reason you got out of your field in the first place, I don't know, but you aren't helping anyone by trying to bust us back to the days where students sat quietly with pencil in hand while the teacher drones on. (I picture the classroom scenes in the Indiana Jones movies.) Moves on, and let our generation do what we do best: use technology. There's a reason you ask for our help when you can't get your computer to work. Time to stop punishing us for it.

Jim

P.S. And if this teacher knew anything, it'd be that there's no public wifi in this building. So... you're dumb. (Link.)

Yeah. I was pretty pissed. Oh well. I take none of it back. Let me know what you think.