Ask-Dr-Kirk

Happy Turkey Day!

Q: What do you get after eating way too much turkey and dressing?

A: Dessert.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday!

University Fires Teacher For Blogging About Students Who Cheated In His Class

Texas A&M International University in Laredo fired a professor for posting the names of six students on his blog after they cheated in his class. You can read the story here.

The article states that,

"In his syllabus, professor Loye Young wrote that he would “promptly and publicly fail and humiliate anyone caught lying, cheating or stealing.” After he discovered six students had plagiarized on an essay, Young posted their names on his blog...

“It’s really the only way to teach the students that it’s inappropriate,” he said.

Young...said he believes he made the right move. He said trials are public for a reason, and plagiarism should be treated the same way. He added that exposing cheaters is an effective deterrent.

The university notes that he "was terminated for violating the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law that prohibits the release of students’ educational records without consent."

While I understand that the university had to discipline the professor for violating the law, the question is, what message have we given these students? Should the students be expelled as well? Also, did the students accept his terms in the syllabus by continuing to take the course? Cheating is widespread on college campus. How do we get through to our students that this is wrong?

It's All About The Shoes!

My students and colleagues all know that I love shoes. One of my current MBA students sent me this link; I could spend hours looking at all the choices...

A colleague of mine at the University of South Florida-Sarasota sent me this article from the Wall Street Journal on shoes. The author is bemoaning the fact that she has gotten too old to wear high heels to work. As she notes:

Our shoes define us in a way that other apparel does not.

Our language acknowledges this truth by constantly using shoes as a metaphor. If we can "fill someone's shoes" we are up to the job. If we can "walk in someone else's shoes" we are empathetic. We allude to "old shoes" to evoke a comfort level.

Shoes are also a metaphor for power -- consider Dorothy's gleaming ruby slippers in "The Wizard of Oz." Without them she could have never gone home.

My friend and former Drake colleague, Timothy Johnson, once wrote a poem about my shoes...

Angela Maiers is also a shoe fan.

From the movie, American President...

Lucy: Just be yourself.
President Andrew Shepherd: Be myself.
Lucy: Yeah, and compliment her shoes. Girls like that.

As Cinderella said, "One shoe can change your life." 

Anyone else have a good shoe quote?

 

What Should You Do To Build Your Resume For A Tenure Track Job?

A grad student getting her Ph.D. in cell biology recently posted a question on building your CV (resume) for getting a tenure track job. Specifically she wanted to know if service counted.

There are different expectations depending on discipline and hiring university. However, as someone who has been on numerous search committees,  I would say focus on (1) finishing the Ph.D., (2) getting some publications (hopefully from your dissertation), and (3) decent teaching evaluations.

Service will not count for much, if anything. Instead, network and get good references from people in your field.

Do You Test Students on Their Class Presentations?

One of my students asked me last week if the material from the team presentations was going to be on the final. The answer is yes as I think these team topics are important and I believe that accountability helps the students be more attentive to each other's presentations. The difficulty though is deciding what questions to ask.

Thus, I've decided to let the teams design their own questions for assessment. Each team has been told to develop 10 questions to assess their classmates' understanding of their topic. The questions can be multiple choice, true/false, matching, or a combination. As I told the students, this will be beneficial in several ways: it will force the teams to think about how to present their material in a way so that knowledge CAN be tested; it will show them how difficult it can be to come up with good assessment questions; and it will help focus studying for all the students (although they will not know which questions I will choose).

I would be interested in hearing from other faculty as to whether they test student learning on class presentations...

How Do You Handle Students Who Have Missed Many Classes Due To Illness?

I just got an email asking what I would suggest college teachers do to help students missing long periods of time from school due to sickness.

My first thought is that if the student has missed a number of classes, they probably haven't learned much about the subject matter. My response would be to suggest they drop the class to concentrate on getting healthy and take it again when they are feeling better. Another possibility would be to take an incomplete for the course and complete the work at a later date.

However, obviously this depends on the subject matter. I teach management courses where being in the classroom is important in order to participate in various experiential exercises and cases. In other subjects, it might be possible for the student to read the book and other course materials and do makeup work and exams.

I would be interested in hearing how others would handle this situation...

Patti Digh, Barnes & Noble, And Help For Those Who Need It

Patti Digh has agreed to do an author reading/booksigning in Tampa, St Petersburg, and Sarasota, Florida on December 4-6.

Barnes and Noble has agreed to donate 10% of all sales IN ANY BARNES AND NOBLE STORE December 4-9 to a charity that helps the poor and homeless. This includes all books, not just Patti's new one, Life is a Verb.

Metropolitan Ministries does a great job of helping those in need.

Just Download voucher.doc and take to your local Barnes and Noble December 4-9.

Everybody wins! 

Overheard In The Hallway

Professor: They're closing campus because of the snow we're supposed to get tonight.

Student: I hope they cancel my online class.

Professor:

Uses For Wordle In The Classroom

Rodd Lucier shares 20 uses for Wordle.  Wordle.net is a free site that allows you to type in a list of words to create a word cloud.

I had my MBA students use Wordle as an ice breaker for the first day of class. They had had me for another class eight months previously so my question to them, was "What have you been doing since then?" Each student had to do a one minute presentation using Wordle as a visual aid with key words. They enjoyed it and so did I!

How To Embed A YouTube Video Into Powerpoint Slide

Neil Gomes (University of South Florida) shares instructions that allow you to embed a YouTube video into your powerpoint slides and view it during a presentation (as long as you have an Internet connection during the presentation).

Tips For Students On Doing Powerpoint Presentations

Professor Barbara Nixon (Georgia Southern University) shares tips on how to put together a great powerpoint presentation. There's some very useful advice to share with our students.

Here's how NOT to use powerpoint.