Monday, March 09, 2009

The Gap, Part Deux

I suspect the internet has ruined teaching. Before you go all nutsy defending the relative ease with which students can find useful information, the convenience of email for student-teacher (and even parent) communication, and all that other crap - save it. I have heard it before. And I am a fan of all those things, not to mention the vast wealth of entertaining and useful clips available on youtube and hulu for me to include in my lectures.

I stand by my statement: The internet has ruined teaching. My students, the same ones who expect that they start with an A, now expect me to put a study guide up on webct and post their speaking schedule (which they signed up for!) online. Apparently they believe it's so easy to put it on webct that they no longer have any responsibility to remember vital information. And I'm not even going to start about the geniuses who cheat by pasting an entire webpage into their papers (see how I sneaked that in there even though I said I wouldn't?).

What would have happened six years ago, before the internet made its debut on college campuses, if these students lost their speaking order? I'll tell you what: The Duchess would have told me to ask another student in the class and left it at that (true story). And do you know why? Because she recognized I was a grown up and it wasn't her job to babysit me.

2 comments:

The Numismatist said...

Did that mean teacher Duchess pick on you? Do I need to send an email to the principal?

Just Casi said...

idiots.