Monday, January 26, 2009

Teachers that Don't Think

Three of my English teachers have administered mini-lectures on their anti-"inappropriate use of technology in my classroom" stances. It's been pretty blah. Here's what they say, more or less, about laptops specifically:

"If you use laptops to look at Facebook, Myspace, or whatever, other people can get distracted by that. They look over and see you on websites and what not and they get distracted."

So basically, looking at websites is distracting to other students because those other students will look at them over your shoulder. I gues that makes sense?

Well, as much as I'd like to dispute other students being distracted by someone engaging in non-note-taking activity on their laptops, let's grant that it's entirely, 100% true, all the time.

Students, then, are distracted and so you shouldn't be allowed to do anything on your laptops other than take notes. Well, in that case, typing shouldn't be allowed because in a classroom filled with, at first, only the teacher's voice, even one person typing can be loud as hell. So, right away, typing is out. That, or people have to type really softly. Try that sometimes, and keep in mind you have to keep up with a teacher who's not going to pause much.

But here's my favorite consequence of this anti-"inappropriate use of technology" stance: you can't let people with nervous ticks in the classroom. Yes, I just. Said. That. If other students are going to be distracted by Facebook on someone else's laptop, then anyone with a nervous tick is going to be just as much as a distraction. So there you go: teachers who adopt this stance for this reason have to put a disclaimer in the course catalogue: "No nervous ticks. Drop them or drop my class."

I may be a dick, but seriously, just sayin'.

2 erotic poetry prompts:

Unknown January 27, 2009 at 12:57 PM  

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090127/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/pentagon_nomination_financials;_ylt=AirVWioidnr0mINW3ubFNUKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFlZnAxMzVtBHBvcwM4OQRzZWMDYWNjb3JkaW9uX3BvbGl0aWNzBHNsawNkZXB1dHlzZWNkZWY-

What will happen

The Filthy Logician January 27, 2009 at 1:34 PM  

Everyone will be confirmed and no one will care in three months.

What do you think?