Two weeks since I have written, two weeks of classes and assignments. Most students seem to have adjusted to being at college. Some have not. At this point I am familiar enough with most students that I have noticed patterns in their behaviour. Items I have noticed include: absences, poorly done work, little or no attention in class, reluctance or refusal to follow simple requests. I attended a faculty meeting this morning with the group who teach computer technicians and programmers. One person reported a study done several years ago that showed final marks are almost always within 1% of mid-term grades. That backs up what I have experienced. Students who don't get involved in their college education within the first few weeks do not do well. And it is possible to measure that involvement through the work they do in the first six or seven weeks of the semester.
My struggle is to find a way to help students connect with their education in courses that are basic skills for all their other work. Telling them they need to know these skills to succeed in all their college courses does not work very well. Many of them think they learned the necessary computer skills before they arrived at college. There seems to be more interest, or at least more focused work on these skills this semester than I have seen in many years.
Technological struggle: Many students prefer to play with the computer rather than listen to me. This is extremely distracting for their neighbours. Obviously if two or more students in the room are exchanging messages then several students are not participating in their education. There is software that will control the computers so the instructor controls what appears on students' screens. I would like to be mandatory software in our labs but it won't work with laptops.
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