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lotus79
2010-01-19 03:07 am UTC (link)

The thing is, even if he was paying for the service of being assessed on his learning as he claims... guess what? While you're in the classroom, you're being assessed. It's impossible for any teacher, professor or educator to test every single thing they've taught to see if it's got through and of course it's also pretty much impossible for a student to remember every single thing they've been told (which is why exams don't usually require a 100% in order to pass!)

You're expected to pay attention as much as possible - if he's visibly making no effort to learn the material in class, why should a professor sign off on his degree? Say he then gets out into the workforce with his degree and is found to be lacking in the essentials due to not paying attention in class? The university/college he studied at loses reputation because they've certified him as competent. Then all the other graduates from the same university/college also suffer because when they go up for a job they aren't as competitive as some with a degree from a better respected institution.

Now having said that... I'm not wild about the "zero tolerance" attitude of the professor's policy (if his description of it can be trusted, which is debatable of course) because what if someone was using the phone to take notes? check the time? receive an urgent message (such as "hi honey, I'm in labour meet me at the hospital" NOT "hey man, drinks tonight, y/y?"? As long as those things are unobtrusive and kept to a minimum, they shouldn't be punished.

*cleans up*

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	visp 2010-01-19 05:33 am UTC (link)
	But even so, I wouldn't say that "shouldn't" = "a right that must be allowed." (Reply to this)(Parent)

	sequinedlizard 2010-01-19 07:53 am UTC (link)
	While I'm sure professors of that assmagnetude exist, the vast majority of the professors I know are reasonable if they are talked to about stuff like notetaking on the phone/emergencies/anything that's not being a dickmuffin. And I'm really disenchanted with academia, so I'd happily rip professors new ones if I thought they merited it. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

chibikaijuu
2010-01-29 12:12 am UTC (link)

Apparently not my polisci prof, who is teaching a 700+ student lecture hall and has banned laptops/netbooks and requires that all cell phone be completely off, and when I told him that I use my phone to keep track of classwork and events (I have ADD, even if I write it down I'm likely to forget, so I make a point of putting any and all assignments and changes to routine into the calendar and homework apps on my phone as soon as possible, usually while in class), and he was... less than sympathetic.

Also, he has a tech at the back of the hall use a laser pointer to point out students the tech notices violating this policy, and he refuses to put up lecture notes online or basically anything else to help students with less than stellar attention spans (or handwriting...), and there's no textbook, only readings. So basically you are shit out of luck if you ever have an off day and don't have a note-taking buddy.

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	sequinedlizard 2010-01-29 03:34 am UTC (link)
	He would be one of the professors with great assmagnetude. Although if you wanted, you could probably fight him with your campus' accessiblity office. Understandable if you wouldn't want to, though - it's not easy. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

chibikaijuu
2010-01-29 08:15 pm UTC (link)

It would be considerably more of a hassle than it's worth, especially as I have no documentation of testing results for AD(H)D, just, you know, a psychiatrist who is treating me medically for ADD and a psychologist who is seeing me for therapy for comorbid depression/anxiety/ADD, who has said that I have a pretty severe case of inattentive type. When I did get testing as a kid it didn't show, likely because the tests are geared towards hyperactive type, and the testing periods are too short for me (I get fidgety and bored very easily but am very good at focusing on ordered tasks, definitely for more than twenty minutes, which was most of what I recall being tested on).

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	frequentmouse 2010-01-19 09:37 pm UTC (link)
	I would like to note that in my academic career, the only people ever to get on the table and jump up and down and scream were faculty members. (Reply to this)

	annaham 2010-01-20 01:15 am UTC (link)
	That is some grade-A special snowflakiness, that post. (Reply to this)

evilsqueakers
2010-01-20 10:53 am UTC (link)

Upon thinking and looking horrified at my screen for class discussions, do you think the texting problem is why so many of my classmates have never heard of any sort of paragraph punctuation? For example: "My name is Julai Skye an i am a history major from ohio this is my first online class and i don't think i will do very well in it but i will try i am very interested in athropologie and hope to learn a lot this semester." Not a an actual example but alter a bit for the sake of anonymity. And sadly, not a single event.

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	librarianmouse 2010-01-21 04:24 am UTC (link)
	People do that in online grad school classes, which boggles my mind. How can a person who has already attained a college degree have absolutely no understanding of how the English language works? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	evilsqueakers 2010-01-21 04:29 am UTC (link)
	Oh, thank god. Well, not that they do it, but it's not a singular event I keep finding. I have some people coming back to school after the economic downturn that are degreed in major fields...and they still type like that. It baffles the mind. I'm not exactly punctuation queen but even I know to add a period at the end of sentences. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	librarianmouse 2010-01-21 04:34 am UTC (link)
	And capital letters! Why must the text-typers ignore the poor capital letters? (Am I the only person who actually texts in complete sentences with punctuation and capitals?) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	evilsqueakers 2010-01-21 04:37 am UTC (link)
	No you aren't! I do that. I hate netspeak when I'm trying to text. I tend to use real sentences and capital letters. Well, the caps are if I'm in a position to do so (like a non-emergency or not driving). I should mention I text at red lights, not while actually on the roadway and attempting to move a two ton vehicle through Atlanta traffic. I don't want to die. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	librarianmouse 2010-01-21 04:51 am UTC (link)
	It's against the law to text while driving in Phoenix. That doesn't mean people don't do it, but they're cited and fined if they do. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

evilsqueakers
2010-01-21 04:53 am UTC (link)

That's why I do it at red lights, and only on long ones. Like I don't bust it out if it's obviously about to change. I have to physically see it turn red because some of our lights are a couple minutes long and Atlanta has a light every block on some roads, like Peachtree. I see people texting while driving and I'm going "How are you holding the actual steering wheel?"

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	tachikoma01 2010-01-21 05:17 pm UTC (link)
	Obviously, you just need to get one of these bad boys for maximum impact, click customer images and reviews (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	evilsqueakers 2010-01-21 11:27 pm UTC (link)
	....they make a desk for a car? Wouldn't that, say, get in the way of quick turning to avoid a crash? Wait, what I am I saying. People already are when they use the laptops. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	snarkhunter 2010-01-21 04:57 pm UTC (link)
	No! I do it too. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	v_digitalwytch 2010-01-22 02:21 pm UTC (link)
	In texts and chat programs, I do tend to not use capital letters. Punctuation, grammar and spelling always correct though I still need to remember that the semi-colon can be my friend from time to time. Not sure why I just type lower case in those, just always have. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	tachikoma01 2010-01-21 05:11 pm UTC (link)
	He's one of those guys who walks into a store with a broken item he bought a year ago, no reciept, no packaging, and expects full cash price paid back. And then throws a fit that would make a two year old ashamed because "THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT!" when they won't give him a refund. (Reply to this)(Thread)

tachikoma01
2010-01-21 05:36 pm UTC (link)

Because I can't edit: I'm also enjoying that his whole argument comes to "I should only be graded on how well I can regurgitate the material, not how well I pay attention/participate in class and actually learn how to use critical thinking skills."

We get WAY too many of those students trying to do research in our lab so they can add it as a check mark to their grad school/job applications. All they can do is learn something and then spit it back out. They have no capacity for expanding on what they've memorized or actually using it in any form, and no initiative to direct themselves. They're just "Tell me what I need to do to get praise, I'll do it, and you'll praise me" machines.

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	librarianmouse 2010-01-21 08:42 pm UTC (link)
	The customer is emphatically not always right. That's why department stores have security guards. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

tachikoma01
2010-01-21 09:51 pm UTC (link)

Indeed. It seems like the ONLY time you hear that phrase is when the person is dead wrong. Like the person who wanted the store where I worked to refund a broken inner tube. (Like, float down the river inner tube). It apparently got a hole in it the first time they used it.

They wanted a full CASH refund despite 1) not having a receipt 2) not having any packaging 3) not having the actual inner tube anymore. In other words, no proof they ever even owned it, and no proof that their own stupidity didn't break it.

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	snarkhunter 2010-01-23 04:39 pm UTC (link)
	...that's some impressive entitlement there. Wow. I hope you laughed them out of the store. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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