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. 

Multi-Tasking: Friend or Foe?

I embark on this post, with neither a direction, nor a purpose. Except maybe to alleviate my boredom. As I sit here in class, my professor talking about something regarding Japanese internment camps, and constitutional law, I can not help but turn my attention away. Not because I don't feel as if this topic deserves my full attention, is unimportant, or the professor is unintelligent, but instead because that is what I do.

Now I wouldn't say I have ADD. In fact if I really get into the zone with something it is hard to pull me away. *coughvideogamesandcomicbookscough* I think instead what it is, is that I've almost become dependent on multi-tasking. A self-proclaimed multi-tasking master, more than once this summer, I sat in my room reading a book, watching SportsCenter, and talking to people online. Good times right? But now when I'm stuck in class, listening to my professor talk, I just can't do it. I have to do something else. More often than not I don't have my computer, so I just end up doodling all over my notebook. But with a computer in my hands, I've bounced back and forth between my Facebook, Twitter, and iGoogle about a million times, looking for something to keep me distracted. The only reason I've settled on writing a post is because from my teacher's perspective it probably looks like I'm taking notes very, very adamantly. The fact that I can look up and pretend to nod in agreement while I type does well to enhance this illusion.

But now, I ask for your feedback. As I would very much like some input on this topic. Is it a bad thing that I can't put my full attention on my teacher? Don't get me wrong, I'm still learning, hearing, thinking, but at the same time I've also got a part of my brain working on writing down this entire situation that I'm in. Is it bad that I can't feel my right foot, as it fell asleep a long time ago, and I felt like letting it take a nap? Do you do this same thing? What classes does this happen to you most in? Or can you just walk in to class and enter in to a trance-like state when the professor begins talking, and become some sort of note-taking machine? I'm bored, and I'd be eager to hear your thoughts on this matter of utmost importance.

Starting.....Now!

Psych! Now!

Tweetcast : Being an Extra

I know about zero of you guys out there follow my Twitter. But from time to time, I do tend to tweet whilst I am out on my various escapades. So I decided that instead of writing a huge blog post detailing every experience, I'll just use my tweets as jumping points and go from there. And even though these didn't actually show up on Twitter cause Twitters still broken from the other day, it still counts. Enjoy.

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5:48 - Just got to Essex with Beckett, who by the way is the worst Navigator ever. Getting shuttled over to the set now. Whooo!
So I asked Beckett to map out where we were going and print it out so I could find my way there. He looked at a map, but decided not to print it out. He's a dumbass. I got lost a few times, but eventually found the right way under my own power. They don't call me Prince Jim the Navigator for nothing. :D

7:21 - Just got a maroon collared shirt from wardrobe. Still haven't gotten anywhere near set. Whatevs I'm getting paid.
Upon arriving and checking in, we filled out a form, checked in with hair and makeup (who said we didn't need anything, because we were beautiful the way we looked (no they didn't)) and then went over to Wardrobe. Apparently my white shirt with a logo on it was a double no-no. Like a no-no Squared. So they gave me a shirt, and then I went back to my table with Beckett and we hung out.

8:06 - Drinking some jungle juice with strangers. Awesome.
While we were out checking in and stuff, some people had moved onto the other side of our table. Turned out they were like professional Extras, and one of 'em was an up an coming rapper named Kahdiak, and we talked for a bit, he showed us his music video on Youtube, and after he offered us some jungle juice. It was awesome.

9:15 - Been talking about movies and being an extra for the last hour. I am confident I could be a union extra in a high budget movie. Sweet.
After talking with him, we talked to his mom who was like a super extra. She'd been a cop, a criminal justice teacher, and now a professional extra. She told us all about how she got into being an extra, projects she's worked on, all sorts of cool shit. It was probably the most interesting point of the night.

10:01 - Finally going up to set.
After being there for almost 5 hours, they decided to let us move up to the beach where they were going to shoot the scene. It was a cool place, nice scenery, but by the time we got up there it was night, so the nice view over the lake was more, darkness lit up by giant ass spotlights. So Beckett, this kid we met Doug, and I picked a spot a bit back behind the camera and just chilled out for the night. They shot off some fireworks to entertain us, and filmed the cast watching it.


10:56 - David Spade, Colin Quinn, Chris Rock, Kevin James, Rob Schneider, Adam Sandler, Norm MacDonald, Maya Rudolph, Selma Hayek and Jim Redding. Awesome.
Yeah. It is an all-star cast. The director of the movie is the guy who played the head of the PGA in Happy Gilmore if you can remember back. Anywho, he was really funny and kept us entertained. Norm MacDonald took tons of pictures with people. Adam Sandler stood up and thanked us all for having us there at Essex (it was the last day of their shooting there), Rob Schneider and David Spade cracked some jokes, and Chris Rock kept running back and forth to watch the Red Sox - Yankee's game. They filmed us behind the cast cheering for the fireworks, now being represented by the director raising a flag on a pole, with flashing lights behind it. Then after that they had us pantomime cheering for fireworks while Adam and Selma Hayek recorded some dialog. All this lasted around two hours, and got really, really tiring after a while. We did get to sneak away a couple of times for free burgers though. That was awesome.

1:24 - Finally done shooting. Waiting in a nice long line then a nice trip home. Is Dunks open at 2AM?
Around 1 AM, they wrapped, and we all peaced back to the tent to check out. I had to turn in my maroon shirt before I could go though, so after waiting in that line, I had to wait in the other line. Bundles of fun. And we were just about asleep at that point, so we were weighing the possibility of there being an open Dunkin' Donuts. We couldn't find one, but we made it back from Essex to Marblehead in a mere 27 minutes. I went the Speed Limit the whole way. Promise.

Conclusion: I had a good time. I got paid 88 bucks, and I might be in the back of a scene in a movie. I was really tired by the end of it all, but I'd say it was definitely worth it. Next time I think I'll bring a book and my iPod though.