Why? WHY has Technology Tina turned in her eight-page essay in eight separate documents? Each page is saved separately and uploaded to the LMS. HOW does this child not know that she can keep typing beyond a single page and that she doesn't have to save and start a new page in a new document? This is the same Technology Tina who spends each class period tweeting about what's happening in class. This is the same Technology Tina who complains that writing notes down hurt her hand, so she attempts to photograph the board when I write reminders (i.e. "Remember to submit your final project to the LMS by 2 p.m. tomorrow"). This is the same Technology Tina who complains that I don't send her homework reminders to Facebook (despite the fact that our LMS actually IS integrated with Facebook if she turns that option on in her settings). This is the same Technology Tina who bemoaned the fact that someone used PowerPoint for a presentation (i.e. "That's SO 2004," she derided). And yet, the most basic of assignments: writing a paper in a SINGLE document, seems to have confused her.
And now I have eight different documents open for a single paper.
I think I'd fail that bitch. And then give her a chance to redo it with 10 points off the top.
ReplyDeleteSend HER a fragmented communication: a sentence on email, the next sentence via text, the next sentence on Facebook, the next sentence by email again and on and on . . .
ReplyDelete(well, except that the effort-to-satisfaction ratio would probably be too small. Bella is right. Fail the bitch)
I had students like Tina while I was an instructor, which was in the days before Facebook and smartphones (yup, that's so long ago, we used to hunt dinosaurs for breakfast).
ReplyDeleteBack then, I would write things on either a chalkboard or a whiteboard. Sometimes, things weren't clear or I might have to re-draw diagram. Often, I'd get someone whining that I should stop changing things on the board.
Why? Because they had to use white-out to make corrections. When I told them to use a pencil and eraser instead, like I did when I was a student, the answer would be something like: "But I want to use a pen!"
Often, I wanted to simply bang my head against a wall when I heard that.
They could do the technology stuff if they wanted to, but would just rather whine. Do they have someone cutting up their food in the cafeteria, too?
ReplyDeleteRight? They can set up TVs and videogames in a common area on campus, but make it an assignment, and they'd all act helpless.
DeleteI hand out tech policies (addendum to the syllabus) on first day. Clearly written is that if it's in a form I can't open with my grader app, it won't be graded, and will receive a "0". If they upload it in a form I can't mark on (after I show them how to save it as a PDF), I take 10 points off and the essay is only graded with the rubric AND they have to see me for feedback.
DeleteAstoundingly, by the second major assignment, everybody was following directions. I am holding my breath that it's not just a fluke.
Reminds me of this.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ
Thank you! Very funny.
DeleteThat's very strange. I'm used to receiving bibliographies separate from the papers (for all that I warn them not to do that), but I haven't seen the one-page-per-file paper yet. If you ask her why she does this and she provides an answer, I'd be curious to hear it.
ReplyDeleteI often get the Works Cited or Bibliography in a separate document, too. She claimed she didn't know she could just keep going and thought she had to save each page separately. I wonder what HER files look like on her computer. Actually, I don't.
DeleteThat's a very special kind of stupid right there. You'd better bottle it, label it, and sell it on ebay.
Deleteand cover pages. They haven't learned how to do a section break in Word I guess.
Delete"And now I have eight different documents open for a single paper. "
ReplyDeleteNo you don't. You have an incomplete paper to grade because the other 7 documents went through the electronic shredder.
LOL--because our LMS only shows the last uploaded page, which is the final page of her essay, that's all I can grade. :) BRILLIANT!
DeleteOOH! Tell us what happened, 'K?
DeleteI heartily endorse this solution, and I second the request for an update!
DeleteDelicious.
DeleteSimilar situation- I had a professor in grad school that said, "The document you submit must between ten and fifteen pages, including cover page and bibliography. Not less than ten pages, not more than fifteen. I quit reading at page fifteen. If your bibliography does not end on page fifteen you will be penalized for not including all assigned elements of the document."
ReplyDeleteA grad-flake just couldn't condense everything she had to say into less than 30 pages and couldn't comprehend why she failed the assignment when she had turned in, "Everything he asked for and a lot more, too!"
Now THAT's a paper I would have loved to see be submitted online in 30 separate documents.
Delete