I’m just gonna say it…
Professors should not be allowed to ban laptops in class. Professors should not be allowed to ban recorders in class. Professors should not be able to ban students from taking pictures of the whiteboard at the end of lectures. Professors should not be allowed to ban ANYTHING that will make the class more accessible for ALL students. I don’t care what the excuse is.
“They might not even be taking notes on their laptop, they’re probably playing games!” So that’s on the student and they’ll have to live with those grades. They’re paying thousands of dollars to be there, if they want to fuck off and waste their money that’s on them.
“I’m uncomfortable with my lectures being recorded!” What EXACTLY are you saying in your lectures that makes you worried about being recorded, hmm?
“I just don’t like the idea of being on camera/recorded at work. How would YOU feel being recorded at work?” Buddy, I work in retail. I’m always being watched. Suck it the fuck up.
And before anyone says “but you can just bypass this by getting permission from accessibility services!” 1. Not all students with disabilities have up-to-date diagnosis to qualify, 2. Not all students with disabilities have had it confirmed by a professional yet and won’t be able to access those services, 3. Not all students who need these accommodations even have a disability! Some people just learn differently and lecture-style learning actually doesn’t work for a lot of people! and 4. This often puts a student on the spot to all their classmates and can make them feel very uncomfortable.
Students should not have to jump through hoops to get an education that they’re paying for. That’s not accessibility.
Students, however, who ARE just playing games on their laptops instead of taking notes, should have the courtesy to NOT SIT ANYWHERE BUT THE BACK ROW.
Because I am HAPPY to make things accessible for you. I will record my own lectures (so the online-only students can listen to the MP3s on their commute, too). The PDFs are on the class website. A copy of the textbook is ON RESERVE at the library, so you can do the readings EVEN WHEN YOUR CAR IS BROKEN INTO. I’ll give your ASL interpreter a copy of the notes so she can sit facing you, and I will harass the publisher until they get off their asses and FedEx a Braille textbook to me to give you.
But everyone else in that class is jumping through hoops, too. And you do NOT get to make it harder for other students to concentrate.
Which those blinking, MOVING games will do. Motion draws the eye.
Why else do you think I roam the classroom while I teach?
It’s not just so I can see IF you’re playing games and NOT sitting in the back.
It’s so I can keeep everyone else’s attention, too.
And rest assured, I will pull out my ‘Captain America is VERY disappointed in you’ face if I roam, and see you gaming (in a front row).
I’ll also happily stand RIGHT NEXT TO YOU until you start making it harder for everyone else to learn.
Game all you want.
Just don’t distract ANYONE ELSE.
Okay, reblogging again for only small thing.
About the professors feeling uncomfortable being recorded. Look. I’m a teacher myself – although I’m not exercising my profession yet – in a country where the fucking PRESIDENT told kids to record their teachers and SEND HIM the videos if they thought it was a SUBVERSIVE CLASS.
Yeah, i agree that you should let people watch your class however is better to them, but if you are in a complicated political climate, record your class yourself. Talk with all your students if possible, try and see who of them would have the class experience improved by it and then give it directly to them.
Praise for accessibility. But do not put yourself in risk.
All very true.
And to add: I’m one of those folks who takes notes better on a laptop. When I took History of Witchcraft (a bomb fucking class, by the way, should be required for women’s studies majors), THE PROF ACTUALLY USED MY NOTES TO HELP COMPOSE THE FINAL.
Why?
Because I can take dictation at 92 WPM unassisted, and with OpenOffice’s autocomplete and a custom complete list, I was able to bump that to 132 WPM.
In other words: she accepted my request to take notes via laptop, and in return she damn near got transcripts of her lessons, color-coded and everything. Which she, in turn, used to assist other students, because sometimes lessons go in directions you didn’t expect because of questions, or because your students may have put the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLAble in their notes and it tells you that you need to clarify your key points.
Accommodating my disability helped THE ENTIRE CLASS. Being open to diverse learning styles created a better class FOR EVERYONE, including the professor.
…..also, she did stop class one time over my laptop. She walked behind me, looked at my screen, and I heard her just….slowly stop…..and then she looked closer over my shoulder, obviously reading the text, and there was this pause, and then she picked back up. I don’t think she believed I could possibly actually be typing that fast until she saw it with her own eyes.