Thursday, October 25, 2012

Mini-Thirsty: On Earbuds

Q: What do you do when you have a student wearing earbuds (noticeably) in your class? 

(This has not happened to me, yet--but a student came into the class right after mine while I was taking notes down and bragged about listening to music during lecture. The guy sitting next to him said "Yeah, we can hear it too" but has apparently not complained to the instructor.

And if the little fuck ends up in one of my classes, you can be sure I will have something to say. I just want to know what you all think.)

17 comments:

  1. My policy is that I won't call out a student texting/on Facebook/listening to music publicly (because I'm not a believer in social shaming), but they lose all participation points for the day. With participation being 10% of their grade, that can hurt. However, if we're working on their papers in class, I don't have a problem with them listening to music as long as it's not loud and they're not disturbing anyone else. I understand the value of music in concentration.

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    1. During your lecture? While you're talking? They're able to concentrate on your lecture while simultaneously listening to music?

      I'm sorry, but I don't think so.

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    2. I will ask them once to take them out, but I am not going to have a huge public fight. If they are writing in lab classes, like Snarky, I am fine with it as long as there is no sound leakage.

      Delete
  2. BC: For some reason, Blogger won't let me click on "Reply." But, no, not while I'm lecturing. I teach freshman comp, and there are several days a semester in which they work on writing their papers in class. I find it helps them have better first drafts because if they think of a question while they're writing, they can ask it right then.

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    1. Ah. Yes. Listening while working independently probably wouldn't bother me as long as it wasn't bothering the people nearby.

      Reminds me of Milton Waddams (Office Space)--

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  3. Not in my class they don't! yesterday i went up and gently but firmly closed a student's laptop in class while they were busy texting. I know they were not taking notes because I asked them a question and they had no clue what the class was discussing.

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  4. Oh, I just call them out in lecture. There is a way to do that without shame. Let's say I'm lecturing on underwater basket weaving and I work a line in there "Then take the cell phone, loop it through the basket, and put it away before texting any further."

    The class laughs a bit, the person puts the cell phone or iPod away, and we continue.

    Unless the person is so fucked that they don't hear my comment, in which case I pause and wait for them to look up. That shit is unacceptable.

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  5. The "noticeably" part is probably the hitch for me. Odds are, I wouldn't notice. If I did, I'd probably say something only if it was noticeably distracting adjacent students (which is probably how I'd notice; I'm not completely oblivious, just a bit slow on the uptake). Then I'd say something along the lines of needing to pay better attention to the conversation.

    Interestingly, it bothers me a lot less when they ignore me than when they ignore each other. If they're ignoring me, the consequences are pretty clear, and they're taking responsibility -- whether they acknowledge it or not -- for those consequences when they make the choice to tune/drown me out. If they're ignoring and/or distracting each other, it implies that their classmates and/or the sorts of basic civility necessary to maintain a community don't matter. That bothers me.

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    1. That's a really important point. It isn't about me being on a power kick. It's about being distracted from my lecture notes, or not being able to listen to what a student is saying because of the conversation going on.

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  6. I tell them to remove the earbuds, or leave the classroom. If they give me shit about it, I tell them I'll call security to have them removed. So far, they've never called my bluff, but I'll do it if needed.

    I'm a big guy, who in my younger days loved to get into a good physical fight, especially if it was standing up to a bully. I am getting old for Indiana Jones stuff, but I still talk a mean game.

    I do much the same with students reading newspapers, making noise, texting, or using laptop or tablet computers. Of course, all of these are explicitly forbidden in my syllabus (now 16 pages long and counting), and I repeatedly tell the students that I will just plain not allow them in my classes. I also tell them that I'll let them know when this becomes a democracy. (I stole that line from Captain Kirk, I'll admit it.) For students sleeping, I say, "Will someone wake that guy up?!" and be careful never to touch the student myself.

    On anonymous end-of-term evaluations, students often complain that I am "rude." So be it, I say: I wear their scorn as a badge of honor. (I stole that line from Ron Reagan, I am ashamed to admit.)

    But of course, I cannot be harmed by student evaluations, since I have tenure. I also have seniority, having served as department Chair and having an active research program that involves lots of students and brings in external funding, mostly from NASA.

    I remember all too well my days as an Accursed Visiting Assistant Professor. I am not nostalgic for them, since I had little choice but to let students walk all over me. My totally unsupportive blob of a department Chair was no help: what got me about him was that he seemed genuinely perplexed about how to improve student quality.

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  7. I lower my volume and speak even more softly than I already do. And I whisper what's going to be on the midterm exam...

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  8. I'm with Frod. I call them out. My syllabus also forbids that kind of shit.

    I am well known for being a hardass on policy, and I rarely have issues.

    We must watch a lot of the same Trek - I use that same line. One student did make me laugh however - he asked if I ever let a class know it was a democracy.

    The answer was "never". That class was one well behaved (and one of my most rewarding) classes in the last 20 years.

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  9. I like Frod's approach but I tend to let it slide. If a student isn't willing to put in what I consider a minimal effort - which includes not listening to music, web surfing or texting in class - then I don't care much about them. I'm not here to save them. If they want to succeed, I will do what I can to help them. Otherwise, well, their tuition checks have cleared by now.

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    1. I used to take the attitude that playing nanny was beneath me, since this was college and students are expected to act like adults, and fuck 'em if they don't.

      I find this approach doesn't really work. As you may have heard, about 10% of college students are fully engaged. They'll learn, no matter what you do. I never have enough time for them.

      About 20% of college students are fully disengaged. They won't learn, no matter what you do. I do my best to avoid wasting time on them.

      Then there's that large group in the middle. Many of them don't know what to do, but some of them will follow directions, if you give them.

      If they see students wearing earbuds, sleeping, texting, or using a laptop to look at Facebook in class, many of the middle group ascertain that these behaviors are OK, particularly if the instructor does nothing to stop them. Then they start doing it. Pretty soon, you start seeing ones that used to be fully engaged doing it. That was when I decided to pull the plug.

      It may not be easy for you to do much, since your chemistry classes of 500 are larger than my general-ed astronomy classes of 100. Still, don't underestimate the power of "making an example" of someone, especially on the first or second day of class, with reminders throughout the term.

      This works best if your example is much bigger than you. People have an instinctive deference to authority, especially if deep down they know it's in the right, but they also have an instinctive antipathy toward bullies. Never pick on someone smaller than you.

      My God, what have we come to?

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  10. It's in my syllabus that phones, earbuds and laptops(unless they're taking notes) are forbidden. Since I show slides in the dark, it's sort of hard to hide. If I catch them, they are marked absent.

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  11. The first day of class I point to an invisible line that goes in front of the first desks. Then, I tell them that this line marks the separation between the technology friendly zone of the classroom (my area) and the technology free one (theirs).
    I make an allowance for use of phones for first-response personnel (I have cops now and then), parents, and adulterers (taken from Umberto Eco). After this, most students feel embarrassed when their phone rings. I sing Lady Gaga's "Hello-hello" on occasion.
    (It is fantastic the stuff you can get away with when you have sweet, sweet tenure).

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  12. Dude who spent most of class time messing with his cellphone failed his essay. He came to see me with this whole "I THINK YOU OWE ME AN EXPLANATION" attitude. I mentioned the paying attention to stuff I said in class, "as I said in class, your essay should do X, Y and Z not A, B and C".

    Interestingly, at the next class, he was paying attention and contributing to discussion, and the phone was nowhere to be seen.

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