161–170 of 293 posts
I find it telling that they are afraid of letting students know what their bluetooth receivers look like. I know that if I was in still school and being tracked like this, I'd ether vandalize or come up with a way to jam those receivers..
> logging their absence into a campus database that tracks them over time and can sink their grade. Fortunately, I attended a college (Caltech) that as institute policy did not take attendance and no part of the grade was based on attendance. The result was nobody was disruptive in class, because if students didn't want to attend, they didn't attend. I remember sitting in class as a freshman thinking about this and e…
This sort of thing doesn't work at schools that don't have such a high bar of entry. Caltech can afford to treat their students like adults, because they're picked from the cream of the crop. On the other hand, schools like the one I went to would have a horrible(r) matriculation rate if students were not forced to attend certain classes. It infuriurates me (and I think students who want to fail should be allowed to…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where is that worldview evidenced in the post you were responding to? The poster seemed extremely cognizant of privacy concerns, and was defending a limited collection of specific data under very narrow circumstances for similarly delimited purposes. Put another way, saying "I think some specific data collection is ethical" is not the same as saying "all data collection I do is ethical, others may not be ethical". Th…
The OP's main concern about privacy was that "third parties" might get the data. There is no recognition of the fact that a student might deserve or expect privacy from the school , only from some nebulous Other who is certain not to treat it with the great respect sure to be afforded it by the Benevolent and Definitely Not-For-Profit university. There is no question of whether this totalizing monitoring of a life is…
As for recognizing the fact that students might expect or deserve privacy, and the affront to dignity, etc., I was quite clear that we are as transparent an upfront as we can be about this, and students have the ability to tell us "no". Beyond that, the concept of "affront to dignity" on the matter is a personal opinion on the topic, not an axiomatic ethical marker. Similarly "expectation of privacy" is not an unmovable value. My school, in part because of a years-long careful deliberation on the topic, was behind the times in this area. As a result, I cannot tell you how many times students speak to advisors and are actually frustrated that the advisor does not know some of these things about the student, that the advisor has to ask if the student has been attending classes, what their midterm grade is, etc. The students expect us to have all of this data at our fingertips because they expect a seamless, friction-less level of service.
Maybe you'd say "that's just because they're used to so many organizations collecting data," and sure, you'd be right (my apologies if the the words I put in your mouth aren't one's you'd say or agree with) But here's the thing: If it's what they expect, what they want, and done responsibly, what is the problem? To contradict the students' attitudes puts you in a position of telling other people that what they want is wrong, and that they should want other things that you think are best for them. Again, my apologies if that doesn't correspond with your own ideas. It is, however, not an uncommon stance, so I think the point still stands.
> logging their absence into a campus database that tracks them over time and can sink their grade. Fortunately, I attended a college (Caltech) that as institute policy did not take attendance and no part of the grade was based on attendance. The result was nobody was disruptive in class, because if students didn't want to attend, they didn't attend. I remember sitting in class as a freshman thinking about this and e…
> Fortunately, I attended a college (Caltech) that as institute policy did not take attendance and no part of the grade was based on attendance. I attended Caltech (BS '01) and given that they allowed us to take exams home with us, it would have been surprising if a professor took attendance. This was part of the overall honor code ( http://www.admissions.caltech.edu/explore/about-caltech/hono... ) that looking back,…
> logging their absence into a campus database that tracks them over time and can sink their grade. Fortunately, I attended a college (Caltech) that as institute policy did not take attendance and no part of the grade was based on attendance. The result was nobody was disruptive in class, because if students didn't want to attend, they didn't attend. I remember sitting in class as a freshman thinking about this and e…
This sort of thing doesn't work at schools that don't have such a high bar of entry. Caltech can afford to treat their students like adults, because they're picked from the cream of the crop. On the other hand, schools like the one I went to would have a horrible(r) matriculation rate if students were not forced to attend certain classes. It infuriurates me (and I think students who want to fail should be allowed to…
We were treated like adults, and attendance was entirely optional for most lectures and tutorials. If you failed a paper because you didn't go to any lectures, that was your problem.
> logging their absence into a campus database that tracks them over time and can sink their grade. Fortunately, I attended a college (Caltech) that as institute policy did not take attendance and no part of the grade was based on attendance. The result was nobody was disruptive in class, because if students didn't want to attend, they didn't attend. I remember sitting in class as a freshman thinking about this and e…
If you don’t mind me asking, what Hou(v)se were you in?
I'm a college student myself (my university, as far as I'm aware, has no system such as this). As far as I'm concerned, it's both an insidious creep of social-credit policy and a gross invasion of student privacy. It treats us as children rather than as the adults we are, and seems to me to be a sign of the re-infantalization of colleges. Many generations ago, when the age of majority was for the most part higher, co…
My university was very reasonable though, they let me sit an exam 2 days late because I had to fly out for a job interview, they simply made me promise that I wouldn't ask my classmates about the exam. Funnily enough I actually ended up failing that paper anyway, but the opportunity was appreciated.
Not sure if this is still the case or not but at Maryland circa. 2007-2010 it was school policy that no class could have attendance factored into the grade. If you wanted to skip every class and only show up for exams, that was your choice. Privacy implications aside, I feel that this should be the case everywhere since college is effectively a business transaction. What you decide to do with the product after you've…
I teach in political science and I require regular attendance as part of one's grade. Miss more than a few classes absent a compelling excuse and you are docked a half letter grade. Why? My classes are typically small, under 15 students, and are heavily discussion dependent. Engendering open discussion between students, as opposed to top-down lecturing, has resulted in keeping students engaged and actively learning i…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seriously. I was lowered an entire grade in one class for not attending despite my work being of the highest quality. Attendance was not even listed as part of the grade on the syllabus so I was graded on something without even being told ahead of time. Teachers that do that should be fired. As should teachers that lose your midterm. But I doubt anyone cares about the students and the impact things like this have on…
> I was graded on something without even being told ahead of time Ever heard of a pop quiz?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seriously. I was lowered an entire grade in one class for not attending despite my work being of the highest quality. Attendance was not even listed as part of the grade on the syllabus so I was graded on something without even being told ahead of time. Teachers that do that should be fired. As should teachers that lose your midterm. But I doubt anyone cares about the students and the impact things like this have on…
> I was graded on something without even being told ahead of time Ever heard of a pop quiz?