Everyone talks about how social media is changing everything. Media, professional networking, credibility - you name it. Sometimes education is thrown into the mix, but I’ll have to admit that even I never thought about this new classroom I’ll describe here.
Thanks to Dr. Alex Halavais who posted a link the link through Twitter (@halavais), I found this post on Media Shift about what NYU’s very respected journalism school was doing in their teaching of social media in the newsroom. The post was by NYU student Alana Taylor.
And man, it was not pretty for NYU.
This represents a new classroom, where once-private teacher evaluations & complaints are more than public … especially when they are endorsed as a “special report” on a very credible Web site.
(sidenote, wonder what Dr. Jay Rosen, who teaches at NYU & writes PressThink, has to say about this?)
In all these days of talking about consumer-generated content and the increased level of credibility for “someone like me” that you’ve never even met has in recommending or rejecting something (Yelp, Amazon reviews, etc.), it never occurred to me that students could or would use it as a place to so one-sidedly air their grievances publicly about a class or professor. Never.
Now, mind you, I knew that this happens in spaces like RateMyProfessor or similar sites & I was fine with that.
But something about Alana’s tirade against her professor, her classes & the NYU journalism program as a whole really struck a nerve with me. Not to mention that her blog post happens to be published on a well-read media blog, hosted on the PBS server. I’d say that takes RateMyProfessor to the next level, wouldn’t you?
Gotta say I even I didn’t see that one coming.
In the beginning of the semester, especially in a newly developed elective course, it can be challenging to communicate the course to students. Assignments or projects may seem to lack the level of guidance presented in other classes, the professor may seem disorganized - lots of things can happen. Sometimes the professor really is disorganized, and sometimes it just takes time for the students to “get it.”
Traditionally, student complaints begin with adult and professional one-on-one discussions with the professor in office hours. If the complaint is not resolved, it continues up the chain of academic command.
This Media Shift/Alana Taylor method, however, is worrisome for so many different reasons in my view. Maybe when I get tenure, I’ll go into them all.
So anyway. Read that post if you haven’t already. And don’t forget to look at the comments.
PR pros have something to think about, too: http://www.culpwrit.com/?p=154
This was inevitable, wasn’t it? I had a student write a blog post once about a professor in another department. A real tirade. I shared with her the wisdom of first discussing her problems with the professor. Then, I shared the reality of maybe not putting this online with her name on it, as she was still in the class and he/she would see it. The student clued in … took it down.
I also see/hear the disorganized/unclear side of the students. With such new subject matter (for most students), teaching to the lowest common denominator would mean never getting anywhere, IMO. So, I often have students feeling that way. It frustrates me as much as it frustrates them, but try and tell them that. ;o)
This is a tough row to hoe, isn’t it. I’m frankly surprised there hasn’t been more of it.
Karen: thanks for sharing that internship rating link here. I know many students keep internship blogs too so it is always wise for students with mulitple internship offers to do a quick google on “company + intern” to see what might be a better choice.
Robert: I agree with you on all points & appreciate you adding them here. I feel like many times students get so caught up in the quick, emotional online tirade & forget how professional adults operate. Talk about the anti-thesis of relationship building! Learning how to have difficult conversations & adult disagreements is MUCH better learned in the safety of college rather than the harsh reality of the real world where a post like we’re talking about could get someone fired!
I’m a bit late to this conversation, but can’t help but jump in.
The critical theorist in me is happy this is happening. Alana’s post is an example of tearing down the Golden Wall I wrote about some time back. It’s good that students have a voice. Education is by definition a power imbalance, where students pay to subject themselves to our authority and power. In theory, I say, bring it on!
The professor in me smiles a sad smile: I was once young and arrogant and thought I knew it all. I hated classes that didn’t teach me real skills for the real world.
It took me years to get over myself and understand that the best classes are not the ones that teach me skills that will be dated in 2-3 years (though you need those, too, to get a job next year) but those that teach me how to think.
Here’s critical theory again: Students expect us to train them to be good employees, servants to the Corporation. They’re lost and disappointed when we teach them how to be free thinkers, free people. That’s called hegemony, I think.
A recent opinion article at Clemson ranked liberal arts courses as the worst, most useless ones. How sadly misguided.
Where we profs fail is that we don’t help students understand WHY we do what we do and how it WILL be more useful than teaching button-pushing.
As a prof, I try to teach students skills that will be relevant 10-20 years later. They can’t appreciate that now. They need help. They’re too young to think in that time frame. So I take time to explain.
See also my comment on Alana’s post.
[...] Kaye Sweetser’s blog, this NYU student asks the same, and [...]
i can understand completely about this situation. It is — indeed — up to the professor to rise to the “challeng of communicating the course to students.”
I agree with Mihaela V in that the level of information exchange, interaction, and student empowerment is a good thing — afterall, as Confucius said: “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”
As the challenge grows for the educator, so too does it grow for the learned. The challenge that students want and need is relevance — present authenticity and vision, and though shall appease the future.