TimothyTraini

When I Think Of Punk, I Think Of Nirvana And The Melvins.

I'll leave you to google who sings that song. I haven't made an update until now, because with renovating my room, work, Warcraft, and setting up a wireless internet network, I've been busy and have been taking full advantage of the word, "break."

First off, I want to apologize, some comments, including some of my own, got eaten up or disappeared thanks to the wonderfulness that is Moveable Type. I tried posting that a few times, but it apparently some of it didn't work.

Anywho, I'm sure that some people have wanted a proper, calm-looking update on the status of things. I'll admit that I do appear a lot angrier online, it's easier to type up a short bit of text that can blow things out of proportion. I've been known to come off like that.

I will admit that the last update was written with a little hasty frustrations in mind, due to the aforementioned distraction of Jerz's PDA and my ass going numb, and something which I'll mention later in this post which offends me (properly this time) a good bit.

Bottom line, I am a strong advocate in the belief that using the internet to teach, or as a major function of the class, is a bad method of doing things. E-reserve, or usage of Jweb's facilities are fine, they're there for a reason. It's one place where students can convene or get a certain text. The blog system is separated, and with only anonymous comments on, discussions are hard to come by. As far as class goes:

"And how is students expressing their opinions about the texts not learning? It brings up discussion about the text, which, i thought was the whole point? We learn things about the texts such as themes, and symbols, for example, i mean really, how else do you learn about lit?"

A greater discussion can be developed if a teacher suggest a few themes. If you ask anyone, "What did you think about this?" You get, 99% of the time, the same response. Either, "I liked it," "I didn't like it," or, "It was okay." If you ask further, they'll either say, "I don't know," or give a half-assed answer. I do it. You do it. We do it until the day we die. But if you have someone who has experience with the text, and asks more involved questions, then students pick up on other themes they didn't notice or were unaware of, possibly changing the relevance and meaning to a story. If the whole class is just the students talking about what they liked, why do we have a teacher? Let's just get a referee to take attendance and make sure we don't get off-topic, because we don't go to class to listen to other students all day. We go to class to be taught; if you want to sit in a circle and hear what everyone thinks about a text, join a book club.

As stated, using texts which are googled and have typos looks very bad and unprepared. Using texts that they teach in Intro to Lit course also leaves this impression. Class should function without the use of a glowing box. While not every class should be a lecture, a portion of the class should be information and themes given to the students. Discussion is vital in a good class, but it shouldn't be the driving factor, which is something I think the class is focused on. Posting, "Hey, I wanna know what you think," in someone's blog isn't very good motivation. What does it achieve? It's no different than the silence that follows in class. Honestly, if the internet MUST be used, a place where we can all get together is best, and not 20 different URLs, and only being able to comment to a short few. Hell, You can see how little comments I got over my last two entries. Moveable Type and motivation don't go hand in hand.

And as a side note, I find it odd that we're at the midterm, yet we're still stuck in the Great Depression. Go fig. There's a joke in there somewhere, I know it.

But my last gripe, which you can stop reading at this point if you like, is about referencing 9/11 in class. Anyone, and I mean ANYONE, can get in front of a group of people, mention 9/11, and spark a discussion. It's a cheap, low, dirty, and terrible tactic to pull in class, and it's one of the few things that will actually get me truly pissed off. It's something that's so recent that any yokel can get people involved into talking about it just by mentioning it's name. If any of you have listened/watched to Dane Cook's standup... "Yeah, I was in my pueblo, and i heard the noise..."

Now, I'm sure my ten or so readers are wondering what my plan of action is. Something as far as complaining to a higher board is unecessary; I'm not trying to get Jerz fired or anything silly, he's a cool guy. But yes, he is wrapped up in technology to the point that it dampens the class. There is a flare to a book, to a printed, hard bound, flippable copy of something we can hold in our hands, and to a class that doesn't need a projector to function. While the facilities are there, and I'm sure they cost a lot and are well used in classes that need them, but anything apart from the text and the ELMO (why it's called that I do not know) is not needed. Lastly, when students don't get something or are confused, you can't expect someone to chime in with what you're hoping, a stronger gameplan or idea must be established.

And since I don't have any way to end this....

http://www.shadowtherat.com/temp/danceflash.html

Here's a video of me badly dancing to Dragonstea Din Tei from Haducii, a Romanian pop band. I'm sure you've heard it before, if you haven't, google Numa Numa and watch that fat guy dance in his chair much better than I.

Posted by at March 13, 2005 08:13 PM | TrackBack