Why Professors Love (and Loathe) Technology 113
dougled writes "A survey of 4,500 college professors (and campus technology administrators) reveals what faculty members think of digital publishing (they like it, but don't do it very much), how much they use their campus learning management systems (not nearly as much as their bosses think), and how digital communication has changed their work lives (they're more productive, but far more stressed)."
Flipping the classroom..? (Score:4, Interesting)
Man..glad they didn't have this crap when I was in school....I just wanted to get in there, listen, take notes....and GTFO. I just need enough interaction to take the test and make the grade and get out to get a job.
Strange tho...I'm actually quite a sociable person...outside of the class and work, I have lots of friends and go out, have fun, I have no problem talking to strangers and making new friends.
But at school, and usually at worksites...I'm there to go in, get a job done...and get out. I'm not there to make friends. I don't hardly ever socialize with co-workers. I didn't ever want to really socialize with anyone in my classes, hell, I never really knew anyone's name in the classes (unless it was a good looking girl I'd like to meet and bang)....
I dunno....i guess to me, work is work...get in, get it done, get out...and then go into "real life" mode..where I have my friends and my fun.
Re:Flipping the classroom..? (Score:2, Interesting)
Man..glad they didn't have this crap when I was in school....I just wanted to get in there, listen, take notes....and GTFO. I just need enough interaction to take the test and make the grade and get out to get a job.
To put it bluntly, professors don't care about students with this attitude. Nor should they. If the student has no interest in learning (but just wants to do the minimal amount of work to get a grade and pass the test), a professor isn't going to put any kind of effort into teaching them. Why should they? College isn't elementary school where it is the teacher's job to force kids to learn.
Newer ideas like "flipping the classroom" are for students who actually want to learn about the subject. Studies show that techniques like this are much more effective in getting interested students to learn. Yeah, it actually does annoy the hell out of students who want to sit there, put in a minimal amount of thought, and move on. But as I said, nobody cares about such students.
Why do Doctors hate technology? (Score:1, Interesting)
Students (Score:5, Interesting)
The professors I know say that "technology" has had a bigger effect on their students than it has on themselves -- specifically, their lack of concern with plagiarism. Having grown up with Google and the Internet, when asked to write a paper discussing, say, the contributions to Twentieth-Century culture of recently-deceased Lithuanian tennis champions, the students' normal way of research is to Google the topic, find a relevant web site, copy the material, and present it.
They're often shocked when the plagiarism is noted and the fail the assignment because, after all, the paper is on-topic and factually true (let's suppose); what's the issue? The concept that one needs to come up with his own ideas and opinions is often a foreign one to someone who has grown up using the web as an immediate source of all the world's knowledge. I suspect, but of course cannot prove, that developing one's own opinions was an easier and more natural thing when one had to search multiple libraries for bits and pieces of the subject matter here and there; often your opinion developed over time, based on the facts you were able to find, and the order in which you found them.
Students (and professors) have been plagiarizing since the second piece of paper was made, of course; the new issue is that many students today do not see a problem with it. Because of this, the highest level of technology some professors use is their plagiarism-detect software.
Re:working with them.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Interestingly enough Max Planck said the same thing back in 1948 about the dogma and institution of Science:
"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it."
Or para-phrased:
"Science advanced one funeral at a time"
The old want things to remain the way they always have been.
The youth want things that will be.
Society is a balance of these two diametrically opposed ideologies.
Reference:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Max_Planck [wikiquote.org]
Re:working with them.... (Score:5, Interesting)
The administrators appear to be out touch too (see below). Frankly I don't understand the obsession with posting video lectures. I've found copied handouts of the prof's notes (and also homework solutions) much more useful than a meandering talk. I can scan the notes far, far faster than I can scan a 50 minute video.
"
Administrators believed that 73 percent of the professors at their institutions used data logged by the LMS either âoeregularlyâ or âoeoccasionallyâ to identify students who need extra help..... In fact, only 51 percent of faculty reported doing so. About half of the administrators estimated that professors regularly or occasionally posted video-recorded lectures into the LMS, but just 25 percent of the faculty respondents actually do. Nearly 80 percent of administrators said their faculty members regularly or occasionally used the LMS to track student attendance; the professors clocked in at 44 percent."
Re:working with them.... (Score:2, Interesting)
...to that I'll add that things shouldn't always change. For every new correct idea there are 100 new incorrect ones that sound reasonable, and among the ones that people think are correct, half are wrong.
Actually, all of them are wrong. Some are just less wrong than others.