Students who e-mail too much (and the professors that don't quite love them)

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Ah, the modern world. To me it's a definite sign of the times because I was pretty much pushing e-mail requirements on students back in 1993 to 1996 when not all were comfortable with it (understandably, but I figured they'd better learn to know how to use it sooner rather than later). My favorite part:

But student e-mail can go too far, said Robert B. Ahdieh, an associate professor at Emory Law School in Atlanta. He paraphrased some of the comments he had received: "I think you're covering the material too fast, or I don't think we're using the reading as much as we could in class, or I think it would be helpful if you would summarize what we've covered at the end of class in case we missed anything."

Students also use e-mail to criticize one another, Professor Ahdieh said. He paraphrased this comment: "You're spending too much time with my moron classmates and you ought to be focusing on those of us who are getting the material."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 19:26 (twenty years ago)

You'd need to register to read the article.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 19:29 (twenty years ago)

As always, Tuomas, bugmenot.com is your friend.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 19:29 (twenty years ago)

My current art history professor bravely gave our class her home and cell numbers at the beginning of the semester. I guess she figures the class is small enough to keep people from really annoying her.

― Erick Dampier is better than Shaq (miloaukerman), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 19:33 (twenty years ago)

DAEREST PROFESSOR,
HOW DO I SHOP NOTEBOOK?

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 19:34 (twenty years ago)

So does this mean office hours are a thing of the past?

― Miss Misery xox (MissMiseryTX), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 19:42 (twenty years ago)

i had students who asked me to read one or two drafts of their papers before the due date. one of them was reduced to tears when i suggested that i didn't have time to look at ANOTHER draft of his paper. i always suggest that people bring an outline or some ideas to my office hours and we can discuss them.

honestly this stuff hasn't really become a problem, it's just a few students who seem to make unreasonable demands. and it's easy enough to deal with them, you just say that you can't help them with that. and you have to have a backbone and realize that even if they seem upset, they'll get over it, and they need to learn to fend for themselves.

― amateurist0, Tuesday, 21 February 2006 23:55 (twenty years ago)

i think some of this has to do with

(a) the sort of school you teach at. do the students feel "entitled"? do they all think of themselves as "gifted" and so on? the positive aspects of teaching at a selective school are paired with some negative aspects.

(b) what sort of "teacher persona" do you assume? do you set out to be their friend? do you act casually and not set down rules at the beginning of class?

― amateurist0, Tuesday, 21 February 2006 23:57 (twenty years ago)

speaking of which i must go teach now

― amateurist0, Tuesday, 21 February 2006 23:57 (twenty years ago)

A friend of mine, who has been hired to teach university out of his field, is going through this right now. I told him, "Just remember that university students are the most important people in the world." We both had a good laugh about it.

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 00:05 (twenty years ago)

My theory is that student email is inversely proportional to their workload. Students with packed schedules don't have time to write emails about stupid shit, in part because their considerable workloads force them to make the distinction between crucial details and trivial ones (far easier said than done) in order to properly manage their time.

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 00:32 (twenty years ago)

My theory is that *the frequency of* student email

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 00:33 (twenty years ago)

Interesting article. When I was a grad student I had a job where I'd have to upload pdfs of the lecture notes for 1st year Physics students. There was an online bulletin board where some students would bitch and moan if the notes weren't there yesterday and it really started bugging the hell out of me until I tore them a new one, ever heard of a library, try going to a lecture, there're these old fashioned devices called pen and paper that you can use to get a transcription of the lecture notes in real-time, often more useful than a pdf because you have to listen & act etc. The students were quite apologetic and the prof gave me a pat on the back. It was cathartic.

― Heath Pardoe (badg), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 03:13 (twenty years ago)

"old fashioned devices called pen and paper that you can use to get a transcription of the lecture notes in real-time"

This made made me laugh > cry. Genius!

― fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 06:11 (twenty years ago)

They also have an effectively infinite number of fonts installed plus full wysiwyg formatting and graphics!

― The Vintner's Lipogram (OleM), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 11:44 (twenty years ago)

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