I agree with many of your points. But I pay my own way through school and don't need a babysitter to tell me how to effectively use my time. A blanket no laptop policy is not the answer. Forcing students to pay attention? How about personal responsibility, these are adults. Being mature enough to attend college is something that the parents should have considered before paying for their kids to go.
I've always thought that degree programs should start with or at least offer a note-taking seminar or something. I've never been able to take good notes and would love to be taught how to. I just don't take them.
"4. People who are real good test takers that don't need to pay attention to what the Professor says."
Can you expand on this? I don't pay need to pay attention to what the professor says and I do well on tests, but I always thought that was because I'm a self-motivated learner. I've never taken a test where I did good on it because of anything other than knowing the material.
I've had a handful of classes at three schools that took attendance, and it did not work that way. Attendance was a calculated part of the grade and was recorded "just in case". I often lost points because I did not attend every lecture (as is my choice), despite having 80-100% on every assignment.
One thing teachers are doing nowadays is using "clickers", small remote controls that wirelessly record answers to in-class questions. They are not attendance per se, but as the correct answer is irrelevent to scoring, and getting the points requires being in class, it is a de facto attendance monitor. I have seen this in two schools.
Interestingly in the first class I had it in it was at least of some benefit, the teacher would put up a short question and then allow students who had answered in the two majority choices to defend their responses, and would therefore find what part of the concept the students were not understanding. But the one I have now is pretty much using it to waste time and make sure that we are present to have our time wasted. Leaving 10 minutes sometimes to answer simple problems and then moving right on to the next one with no explanation or useful discussion.
This is a great opportunity for someone to build an alternative North Carolina referrer network. This would have the effect of localizing the job that Amazon was doing, which can only strengthen NC. It's possible that most if not all of what was being offered at Amazon could be recreated; if there is a demand for a product, then maybe a local company can begin to fill that demand.
... and further increased the usefulness of the file cabinets, as the frat members at least had the opportunity to look at something while everyone else had nothing to go on.
You can't blame faculty alone for courses being the way they are -- the students have learnt how to play the game. You work many old papers and basically end up memorising the classes of problems that can be asked. This behaviour leads to a sort of conundrum: if you keep setting new and interesting papers, you will start running out of problems that are within a certain difficulty level. Your students will hate you because they can't prepare for your tests they way they are used to. If you set similar papers (or recycle papers) the first-time difficulty of each paper remains the same, but the apparent difficulty of your subject decreases because your subject is easily gamed by people not interested in mastering the subject but rather passing your tests.
Shouldn't curving fix this? Even if everyone gets 30% on every test it shouldn't matter, as long as everyone is getting around 30%. If you are getting wildly varying test results on a single exam then perhaps what you find new and interesting is expecting too much of your students. I think that if they know and understand the curve and have access to test statistics then they shouldn't be bothered by low scores.
On the other hand if the students who are griping are doing so because they typically excel/do average in school -- but are not excelling/doing average in your course -- and your tests are not insane, then I think that those students would probably do well to be exposed to something outside of the box. In fact by not doing so aren't you just perpetuating the system that is promoting the cheaters and the system-gamers above their peers, placing incompetent people in positions where they don't belong, only to have those people hire similar inflated people in the future? I think that if you're "new and interesting" tests are really better at discriminating between the best students, then it's probably just that different students would do well in your course, and they may also be more deserving of a good grade than the complainers.
If Apple came out and guaranteed royalty free licensing for all then it would be a positive move for society.
Are you serious? Why would apple invest time and money in developing a technology only to give it away for free? The entire submission is a troll. There are literally thousands of patents on 911 technologies. Just because 911 is a public service doesn't mean that it exists in a vacuum of altruism; people still spend money and make money deploying and developing these technologies, so naturally there are patents. And like any other market, if it is useful and desired by the consumer, it should be profitable, and then the company that made it makes money. I know it's trendy to demonize contemporary corporations --especially when it comes to patents-- but this is how capitalism works... this is the USA.
Does it just have some of the worst graphics output ever, or what?
Yes. It's graphics power is nearly the same as the last-gen nintendo gamecube. The ps3 and 360 look better because they have better graphics. So the ps3 and 360 would look better on composite graphics too (or even an old black and white tv). The output resolution, (480p, 1080i etc.) just allows those better graphics to shine through with less jaggies. It's textures and polygon counts that make the difference in video games.
umm..? except then you have thousands of printed copies containing both your question and the answer. and if it's indexed you can just search the question and the answer will pop up in google.
Slashdot Mirror
Just play Crusader Kings 2
I agree with many of your points. But I pay my own way through school and don't need a babysitter to tell me how to effectively use my time. A blanket no laptop policy is not the answer. Forcing students to pay attention? How about personal responsibility, these are adults. Being mature enough to attend college is something that the parents should have considered before paying for their kids to go.
I've always thought that degree programs should start with or at least offer a note-taking seminar or something. I've never been able to take good notes and would love to be taught how to. I just don't take them.
"4. People who are real good test takers that don't need to pay attention to what the Professor says."
Can you expand on this? I don't pay need to pay attention to what the professor says and I do well on tests, but I always thought that was because I'm a self-motivated learner. I've never taken a test where I did good on it because of anything other than knowing the material.
Was that class in the basement of the ME building?
typo
I've had a handful of classes at three schools that took attendance, and it did not work that way. Attendance was a calculated part of the grade and was recorded "just in case". I often lost points because I did not attend every lecture (as is my choice), despite having 80-100% on every assignment. One thing teachers are doing nowadays is using "clickers", small remote controls that wirelessly record answers to in-class questions. They are not attendance per se, but as the correct answer is irrelevent to scoring, and getting the points requires being in class, it is a de facto attendance monitor. I have seen this in two schools. Interestingly in the first class I had it in it was at least of some benefit, the teacher would put up a short question and then allow students who had answered in the two majority choices to defend their responses, and would therefore find what part of the concept the students were not understanding. But the one I have now is pretty much using it to waste time and make sure that we are present to have our time wasted. Leaving 10 minutes sometimes to answer simple problems and then moving right on to the next one with no explanation or useful discussion.
hours of operation per 58 km
Summary fucked the pooch
After eating my daily hunger-food I like to wash it down with a nice soda-drink cooled off with water-ice. It makes my stomach-digestion easier.
This is a great opportunity for someone to build an alternative North Carolina referrer network. This would have the effect of localizing the job that Amazon was doing, which can only strengthen NC. It's possible that most if not all of what was being offered at Amazon could be recreated; if there is a demand for a product, then maybe a local company can begin to fill that demand.
yeah because no one in a position of power has ever made a bad decision...
That's just because everyone spend their time trying to find the answers instead of just using their brains.
... and further increased the usefulness of the file cabinets, as the frat members at least had the opportunity to look at something while everyone else had nothing to go on.
You can't blame faculty alone for courses being the way they are -- the students have learnt how to play the game. You work many old papers and basically end up memorising the classes of problems that can be asked. This behaviour leads to a sort of conundrum: if you keep setting new and interesting papers, you will start running out of problems that are within a certain difficulty level. Your students will hate you because they can't prepare for your tests they way they are used to. If you set similar papers (or recycle papers) the first-time difficulty of each paper remains the same, but the apparent difficulty of your subject decreases because your subject is easily gamed by people not interested in mastering the subject but rather passing your tests.
Shouldn't curving fix this? Even if everyone gets 30% on every test it shouldn't matter, as long as everyone is getting around 30%. If you are getting wildly varying test results on a single exam then perhaps what you find new and interesting is expecting too much of your students. I think that if they know and understand the curve and have access to test statistics then they shouldn't be bothered by low scores.
On the other hand if the students who are griping are doing so because they typically excel/do average in school -- but are not excelling/doing average in your course -- and your tests are not insane, then I think that those students would probably do well to be exposed to something outside of the box. In fact by not doing so aren't you just perpetuating the system that is promoting the cheaters and the system-gamers above their peers, placing incompetent people in positions where they don't belong, only to have those people hire similar inflated people in the future? I think that if you're "new and interesting" tests are really better at discriminating between the best students, then it's probably just that different students would do well in your course, and they may also be more deserving of a good grade than the complainers.
If Apple came out and guaranteed royalty free licensing for all then it would be a positive move for society.
Are you serious? Why would apple invest time and money in developing a technology only to give it away for free? The entire submission is a troll. There are literally thousands of patents on 911 technologies. Just because 911 is a public service doesn't mean that it exists in a vacuum of altruism; people still spend money and make money deploying and developing these technologies, so naturally there are patents. And like any other market, if it is useful and desired by the consumer, it should be profitable, and then the company that made it makes money. I know it's trendy to demonize contemporary corporations --especially when it comes to patents-- but this is how capitalism works ... this is the USA.
sensile is not a word
For a second I was worried I'd be pushing a button every 108 minutes
mod parent up
Does it just have some of the worst graphics output ever, or what?
Yes. It's graphics power is nearly the same as the last-gen nintendo gamecube. The ps3 and 360 look better because they have better graphics. So the ps3 and 360 would look better on composite graphics too (or even an old black and white tv). The output resolution, (480p, 1080i etc.) just allows those better graphics to shine through with less jaggies. It's textures and polygon counts that make the difference in video games.
umm..? except then you have thousands of printed copies containing both your question and the answer. and if it's indexed you can just search the question and the answer will pop up in google.
I know this one, try www.google.com/ncr
I've determined that the most slashdot articles are complicated set-ups for xkcd links
science news is bi-weekly now
Well we weren't quiet about the site, as it was funny. And I told the truth about it when they asked.