Thursday morning stuff

* I still haven't eaten at Khan's Fire yet (mainly because I only eat at restaurants these days if some of the folks want to go out after church, and Khan's isn't open Sundays). I also hadn't driven by them after dark since they opened. But I did last night coming home.

And I found out that the outdoor "lamps" - which are big squarish glass things, which I thought enclosed a bog-standard outdoor bulb - are actually plumbed with gas and they are jets of fire after dark.

That made me smile. Nicely played, Khan's Fire. Nice touch. (I really do need to go try them sometime, especially if, as someone told me, they have options that are lower-sodium)

* Two interviews down, two more to go. Hopefully one of the people will be head-and-shoulders clearly better (and will want to come here and teach). We have to hire someone this spring as we're apparently facing big budget cuts for the fall, so hiring will be frozen again. (And there will probably be other cuts: I'm guessing we may lose our adjuncts, which means Overload Ho for the regular faculty)

* I had a student e-mail me about the class I teach as a hybrid (this was originally an arranged class; because of the requirement that students are really supposed to spend an hour per week even on one-credit-hour arranged classes, I went to a hybrid model with discussion boards). The student says they don't know how to work the discussion board.

Facepalm. (This is week 4 of classes, for the record)

This is one of those "You knew this was in the deal when you signed up for it" things. It's their responsibility to learn how - heck, I learned how to MAKE and MODERATE the discussion boards for the class. I told them to come see me so I could show them.

And this is why I'm really suspicious of the educators who speak of this generation being "digital natives" who know how to do everything online and will leave us GenXers (and the Boomers before us) in the dust - yes, the 20-and-under crew knows how to do SOME things online, but I find a lot of them have real shortages in being able to do more scholarly things - and it's like some of them don't want to learn. I can't mention how many times I've gone after students when I required they find a journal article online, and they come up with just the abstract, and I point to the place where it says "Click for full article .pdf" and they get all belligerent because they DIDN'T KNOW.

I don't know. I think one of the problems that may come with some of the digital nativity - or maybe it's a problem of extreme youth - or maybe it's some other problem - but people aren't willing to mess around with stuff. They're not willing to look at the "article" they found and go, "Wait. This is awfully short. Wait. This is just the abstract. Okay. What do I have to do to get the full article?" No, a certain percentage of people just print out the abstract and then complain when the professor tells them that's not good enough.

I also notice this with math; when I have some kind of mathematical operation in a lab or homework, and I explain, "Now, when you've calculated this, you can check your work in this way to be sure you did it right..." and people don't bother. Like, when we do relative density calculations and I point out that RELATIVE means that all the results need to sum to 100% or dang close to it, and I'm getting some people handing in relative densities that sum to 150%....or to 65%. It's like some folks don't have that little light that goes off in their head (like I do) that goes, "Wait. Something might not be correct here, check it again."

And I get it: people who become professors are different in a lot of ways than the average college student. Been there, done that, got the conference t-shirt. But it's aggravating to have to repeat instructions four times because some people choose not to follow them, and it's wearying to deal with people who are upset with me for calling them out for not following the instructions.

* I'm really thinking I need to find a tactful way to ask my chair if this can be the last time I do this class, and, I don't know, take on a second section of the intro-majors lab. I've had a lot of frustrations both semesters I've tried teaching the class as a hybrid, and I'm not coming up with changes that do any good.

Taking on a second section of the lab would stink, because it's two hours per week and I get credit for one, but it would ultimately be less frustrating than this class. (Or maybe phasing out the readings class, and forcing people to actually take a regular-meeting class for 2 or 3 credits, is one way we could cut our budget - by shifting me into another lab and replacing an adjunct in one. I don't know).

Part of the problem is that this is typically an extremely small class - this semester I have 4 people - and that makes it hard, if one person isn't contributing, it makes it awfully dull and small online. (What I'd really like to do? Change the class to Journal Club* where we meet once a week IN PERSON to discuss the article of the week) This is also a pass-fail class, so you have to really NEVER contribute in order to fail, and that adds to the issue.

(*First Rule of Journal Club....well, you know)