Big Brother

It is fascinating how a service that many people deem as good, important, or even a luxury, can actually give the government more information about you then you may want them to know. A student of mine recently gave a speech arguing that, in a very real sense, 1984 is here.

She explained that a GPS device enables the government to track you and it may become a standard device in most new cars, without the buyer even knowing it is there, as a way for the government to find out about you. Automatic toll pay cards let the government know how fast you are travelling as it can track when you first started on a toll road and when you got off of it. On-star devices also mean people can find out a lot about the individual driving a car.

That is not to say these devices are bad. Many of them can make life easier and may even save lives. It is just that new technology can be viewed in terms of a Satan-Savior dichotomy. For instance, there is now something called air ambulance international. This is more than just a lift flight by helicopter to another location.

This is a service that allows patients to charter a flight to get to another hospital. Whether it is transporting a patient’s room to a new facility or transporting a person overseas back to the United States, Air Ambulance can get you there.

Is this simply something designed to make it easier on patients needing to get from one location to another? Perhaps it is another way of the government obtaining additional information on people? How much paper work gets filled out? Is this a good thing? I would guess, like anything else, it depends on who is using it at any given time.

Seven out of Thirteen

Not surprisingly, the past few days have left my classes well behind in delivering their demonstration speeches. In one class I was in touch, via e-mail, with all the students who were not in class right before the break and told them they were speaking the first class session back from break.

The two people who had signed up for that day were there and they delivered the speech. Of the remaining students who were supposed to speak that day (by my declaration), only one of them was ready. She responded to my e-mail after break was over, but still a couple of days before she was supposed to speak and she came in well prepared and did a nice job.

Only one other student responded to my e-mail. She indicated that she would be set to talk, however, she was not in class. That means she has missed two classes in a row (a three hour class that meets once a week), in back to back sessions, once before break and once after. I’ll bet that the week in between, when we were on break, she was fine to do whatever she wanted.

In my other class where we started speeches, there were two students absent the week we assigned dates but I e-mailed both of them. Again, it took about a week to hear from either one of them. I indicated that I could get one of the two of them on the first day and the other on the second day and it would be on a first come, first serve basis. The first student who got back to me indicated he wanted the second week and the second student said he was fine speaking the first week. That student was there and ready to go. So were some of the others but two people who were supposed to speak that first session back from break (both of whom had signed up for it before break) were not in class and have not been in touch with me yet.

So, overall, of 13 speeches that were supposed to be given over the two days (for two different classes), only 7 of them went. I just do not understand why students do not take things so seriously.

Peanut Butter And Jelly

Those of us who teach know that students can be confusing and perplexing. I encountered such a situation earlier today.

We have started demonstration speeches in my classes. I have told them numerous times that the topic being discussed has an impact on their grade. I am not looking for anyone to deliver a speech about brain surgery but it should be a topic that is important (A life saving technique, something that will save us money and something that is just fun like performing a magic trick are a few examples I use of topics that are acceptable). I also tell the students they should look to demonstrate something that most people cannot do.

In countless lectures I have stressed that a demonstration speech about how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich does not warrant an ‘A’. In fact, under the section “An A Speech,” I include the following: “The topic of the speech must be a "meaty" or important topic. (A demonstration speech on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, for example, is not worthy of an ‘A’)”.

I do tell them that if they can convince me in the speech the average person does not know the proper way to make a PB&J sandwich and convince me that it is important they learn the correct way (It will prevent divorce, it will enable them to win the lottery, etc.) then the topic becomes permissible. I do tell them, however, when it comes to making a sandwich I doubt this can be accomplished.

Guess what happened in today’s class? A student (one who has previously complained about grades so I am bracing for another battle) gave a demonstration speech about how to Make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It makes me wonder what language I am speaking?

Saving Money

When you go shopping, what ends up in your shopping cart? What products do you want? Do you end up buying just what you need?

Teaching Public Speaking at a university, I see more and more of a need for people to buy products beyond the traditional methods. For instance, seeing the price of textbooks is amazing. More and more people consider going to E-bay or other on-line sites. This allows the individual to save a lot of money.

There is a whole world beyond E-bay however. For instance, there is ecommerce softwarethat allows people to sell various products on-line (and as I indicated before, you can buy almost anything on-line). It is a way that allows some people to save money as you can often get these products at a cheaper price than you would if you bought them at a store. It also allows other individuals, using shopping cart software, the opportunity to set up a business and make money by selling products. It truly could be a win-win situation.

Editorials

I learned today that many students do not know what an editorial is. I gave them an assignment to come into class today with an editorial (An editorial written in a newspaper or on line, an Op-ed piece, a letter to the editor or a columnist who is taking a position) and be ready to discuss it. Specifically what I wanted them to do was talk about ethos (the credibility factor and ethical appeal), pathos (the emotional appeal) and logos (the logical appeal).

Almost all students came in with something from the newspaper, and I was pleased about that. All of them also seemed to take the assignment seriously. We sat around in a circle and started discussing the article and how the appeals worked. Unfortunately, a number of my students came in with an actual article and talked about how it was factual.

I was able to go with this as I had them discuss how credible the source was and what the reporter did to establish, or try to establish, his/her credibility. I also had them discuss how they felt about the issue that was being discussed and used that to talk about the logical and emotional appeal. Hopefully they were able to see how this works and it will help them when they have to deliver their persuasive speeches.

I did not want to embarrass anyone so I did not tell anyone that s/he failed to bring in an editorial. Ultimately, as I stated, I think I was able to make the points I wanted. Still, being that this is the first time I tried this exercise (I stole the idea from a full-timer here), it was a learning experience for me and I know some things I will try to change in the future to hopefully give the students and better understanding of what I want.

Thoughts On Disclosure

In a recent response to one of my posts, an individual wrote in responding to my “Disclosure Policy” on this blog. I actually found her thoughts to be fascinating. She talks about “Word of Mouth” (WOM) blog advertising.

There are a number of sites which provide bloggers the opportunity to write a review about a product, service or site and get paid for doing it. One such site is Smorty.com. This site lets individuals look at available opportunities. You claim your opportunity and get paid for blogging.

Is it ethical to endorse a product that you have never used? Is it ethical to claim to be someone you are not? Certainly there are ethics that are involved. Fortunately, most of the sites that provide opportunities where you can blog for money have certain requirements. Still, having some governmental regulations on this is not a bad idea, as long as they do it the right way.

At the current time, there are problems with which the government is dealing. We are in a recession, people are having trouble making ends meet and gas prices are ever increasing. The government seems to be doing little to address those concerns. By blogging for money, one can supplement ones income and not need to spend any money on gas. As a result, I think such opportunities should be endorsed.

Still, is it right to claim you have used a product if you never have? I say no. One thing which I try to do is blog about the types of things I normally would and provide the necessary links to the website. For instance, I might talk about the problems of traveling 100 miles round trip to teach a class as an adjunct and how I need to save money on gas. Next, without endorsing a product, I might indicate that there are alternative methods to saving on gas expenses and suggest they are worth checking out (Which I believe). I would include a link to the sponsoring site and people could check it out and make their own decisions.

So, if the government wants to set up certain requirements, I am all for it, as long as they do it the right way. I fear, however, that government will not get it right, at least not at the start.

A Good Evaluation

I previously wrote about the student evaluations I got from one of my classes last semester and how it was my worst evaluation ever. Now, I have received the student evaluations from a second class I taught last semester (Same school, different location, and obviously different students) and it is actually the best evaluation I have received to date.

I take evaluations seriously. I look them over and see what changes, if any, I should be making to the class and to my teaching style. Certainly it was rewarding to see this evaluation, especially after the last one. Still, one thing which I think these sets of evaluations point out is, a lot of how the class goes depends on students.

I like to have a lot of class discussion. I like to give students freedom to speak their minds and I try to create a loose and relaxing class atmosphere. After all, delivering speeches is tough enough, if it s a laid back class, it helps to make it easier for students to standup and give speeches.

That being said, when you have a student who disrupts class, when you have students who do not want to speak in class (via a structured conversation), when you have students who have just decided that lectures are boring and they are not willing to give you a chance, it is hard to make the class interesting.

As mentioned in a previous post, I talked about how some students don’t understand the movie clips I show or why I show them. I set them up but some students just want to be spoon fed everything and do not want any type of creativity.

Yes, I as the teacher am ultimately responsible for how the class goes. Not only is it a ‘Buck stops here’ mentality, certainly when things do not go well, I have not handled things as effectively as I could have or should have. So yes, I deserve a large part of the credit or blame when it comes to evaluations. Still, the students also help to create the atmosphere and attitude.