Who cares about understanding....let's just get it done!

Tried something new in class. I wanted to get a feel for how helpful the students felt the tutorials are in each module for CAT100. I decided to actually show one tutorial in class so I could generate some discussion. From my observation, at least 80% of them were occupied typing instead of watching the tutorial, yet asked the questions that were covered in the tutorial.

After the tutorial, I asked how helpful the other tutorials had been for the previous assignments. The response that I got, by show of hands, was that absolutely none of them had watched any of the previous tutorial. I have been stressing all semester that the tutorials would assist them with understanding how to complete their assignments, yet they don't take advantage of the available help. Several of them have told me that they just want to get the assignment done and I stress the importance of understanding what they are doing in each lesson instead of just going through the motions.

Why is society so driven to just "get it done" instead of "get it done with understanding"? Where are we failing in the education system to promote real learning? Hmmm...

Prank or Prioritization Issues

Got to LOL at this one!

One of my students (female) came into class early so I asked her if another student (male) was going to make it since the two of them always sit like 2 peas in a pod during each class (might I add and giggle together). Well, just so happens that she was speaking with him on the phone at that moment and relayed the message. The male student apparently told her to tell me that he was going to be on time, but the LOL starts here. He also tells her to tell me, "I'm going to bring you some food from Milo's." I quickly declined several times with a 'Thank You' and reminded them that food was not allowed in the labs. Well, the male student decides to still bring me some fries to class and again I declined to take them. The kicker here is that he tosses them in the garbage after that, so it makes me wonder WHAT had been done to the fries to make him not just keep them for himself....hmmm. He is definitely one of my class slackers that have managed to get a "D" thus far in an easy "A" class. Can we all say "Priorities in the wrong place"....REALLY!

Test the Instructor's strength....

There will usually be ONE student that tries to see how far they can go to get you to either do the homework or check the homework before they submit it. The issue I have with a student is that he specifically asked me if I would "look at" his work and let him know what he did wrong...this was during the first class meeting. I clearly told him and the rest of the class that I would answer specific questions pertaining to assignments. The funny thing is that this same student emails me and tells me that he really needed to meet with me, but didn't state what the meeting agenda would be about. I responded and asked for his specific questions/issues that he was having and would provide him with guidance. He sends his ONE question and I responded with guidance to his issues (this same answer was available to him within the eLearning module, so it appears that he did not read). However, this student goes over the edge and starts makes accusations that I would not meet with him or help him. Luckily, Dr. Lewis requested to see the communications between this student and I, which made the student really nervous because he knew his acquisitions were not true. Documentation is key!!!

Just last night, this same student asked me again if I would review one of his assignments and tell him if it is correct. Of course, I made it clear that if he had questions that I would guide him, but would not provide answers. Let's see what his strategy will be to make it seem like the instructor will not help him this go-around or maybe he will finally realize that I will not sway to his demands.

eLearning Grading Form

I'm not sure if this goes for the CAT 100 courses, but the assignments for my course did not come with rubrics.  I thought maybe I could do without them, but as soon as the first assignments started rolling in, I struggled with how many points to count off for this or that (especially since I didn't choose the total point value for the assignments).  For the next assignment, I decided that I definitely wanted a rubric to not only help me, but to help them see what I was looking for.  Although I could have built one using online tools such as Rubistar, I decided to try out eLearning's built in Grading Form.  You build it just as you would a rubric, and when grading student's assignments, you pull it up from the Assignment drop box, just go down the list and click the appropriate button and it calculates the final score for them and adds it to the specified column in the grade book.  The students also have access to this rubric from the assignment page so they know exactly what is expected of them.  The grades were much better than the first one and it made the assignments much easier for me to grade.  When I returned the graded assignments back to the students, they were able to see exactly what I counted off for.  If you haven't tried it yet, I highly recommend it for assignments...I know that I will be using it from now on :)

Importance of Documentation

Some students get angry when you [the instructor] will not do their assignments for them and in return claim that you will not meet with them or assist them. I make good use of the eLearning email for possible situations as mentioned above. I've found that being able to redirect the students to the email communication reinforces the classroom policies of the instructor and also reminds them that you have proof of communications with them in case further issues arise. eLearning is a great tool that allows for all sorts of instructor to student communication with the students so don't let its capabilities go unused:-)

Student Story: Digital Written Communication

Another form of content that I want to include on this blog is "student stories" from teaching CAT classes. Student interaction, whether in person or online, usually yields frustrating, humorous, and insightful stories about working with undergraduates.

Today's story: Poor Digital Written Communication Skills

I communicate daily with students through email. Throughout the past year, I have noticed the quality of writing that appears in email messages is poor. I received another such message the other day and feel compelled to share:

hey i m sorry i keep having to rescheduele but i have a grandma that jus got out the hospital wit a broken hip so im headed home for the weekend and is it mandatory tat i meet u? jus curious cause if not ill jus see u nxt class session. or monday between my other classes

The message above has not been edited for grammar, spelling, punctuation, or capitalization. I copied and pasted directly from the email. I did not include the student's name, well, because they didn't sign their email (one of the important criteria described below). Obviously, you can identify several errors in the message and I won't take your time to edit it and show what you I expected to read. However, this email concerns me and I began asking myself the following questions:

• How will this student digitally communicate in future jobs?
• Should I include a lesson in this course about grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization?
• Should I bring in a Language Arts teacher for special digital writing lesson?
• Is this a result of poor grammar training or a side effect of text messaging?
  

When reading about this topic, I found the following link provided by ISTE. In this webpage, Peter Weddle overviews the "7 Habits of Good Online Communication".

http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/CareerCenter/Resources/The_7_Habits_of_Good_Online_Communicatio.htm

After reading through these, you will notice that my student who sent the message above might need to edit future emails and digital communication with Weddle's criteria close by.

Have has anyone received similar email messages? Feel free to paste them as a comment.

Attendance Grade

This post combines the reflections discussed in the previous two posts. I also require students to earn points for class attendance, representing almost 10% of their final grade. However, I decided to try a different approach this year. In previous semesters, I simply recorded attendance grades (20 points for each class) based on a student's physical presence in the classroom. However, I noticed several problems:

• Students arrive as late as 20-30 minutes.
• Students leave class early.
• Students simply don't attend class.
  
• Students are distracted by the computer (Facebook chatting, web-surfing, clothes shopping) evidenced by busy fingers typing on the keyboard during discussions when the computer is not needed
• Students emailing me in the weeks after a class asking how to do something or needing clarification on something that was purposely and clearly explained in class.

Therefore, I changed my attendance policy to hopefully alleviate some of this problems. Students still earn 20 points per class for attendance. However, the points depend on the following three conditions:

1. A student's physical presence in the classroom for the full duration of our class.
2. A student's active participation in the lecture/discussion/demonstration (I keep a roster handy to note any students who seem to be distracted by the computer).
3. A student's completion and submission of an in-class assignment (Assignment is emailed to the instructor during the last 5 minutes of class).

The in-class assignment is something that students hopefully find interesting and useful in their everyday life. In my my class this past week, we overviewed the learning unit on Microsoft Word. During class, I presented them with the following scenario:

Text message from your mom: Every time I open Internet Explorer, the first webpage to open is always www.msn.com. I want the University of Alabama website to pop up instead. How do I do that?

Students complete a four-step pictorial manual for their moms in Microsoft Word using the Print Screen command. Most students are unfamiliar with it's capability. I help them understand the usefulness of this tool in later job or personal situations when a computer error pops on the screen. I explain that a screen shot of the error can be made and sent to the appropriate people. Additionally, this activity educates students on how to change the homepage of a web browser. They emailed me their manuals at the end of class.

So far so good on the new attendance requirements.