twit! - A foolishly annoying person
twitter - blogging for twits perhaps? or just blogging for people with little to say. I'm just asking. I mean I don't really have any beef here, I refer to twitter at various point as mobile myspace, the perfect stalking tool or a tool used to make the mundane exciting, plus I think the machine is secretly just trying to make us comfortable with giving out way too much information so it can get as much info on us as possible to perfect its artificial intelligence but whatever! Yea I watch too much Sarah Connors Chronicles so what!
Dear God I wonder can you save me.
Illuminati want my mind, soul and my body
Still it is rather interesting to watch the procession, from blogging to myspace to facebook to twitter. Now we never ever have to communicate with anyone face to face again if we don't want to or send personal messages cause we can share with everyone one time at the press of a button. That should save us time but then again we'll need more time to do important things like checking status updates and twits from the hundreds of celebrities we're following online and "friends" who we met once in a drunken stupor in a bar two years ago.
We're making more connections but less lasting ones perhaps. The word friend has been diluted beyond belief. By the way that's not saying you cant make real lasting friendships online cause you can.
Oh well enough of a rant today. I'll stick to real blogging and leave the twits alone. I just really wanted to say that I wonder if the twitter-ers realize what that root word twit means.
Showing posts with label facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label facebook. Show all posts
Friday, May 08, 2009
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Update
In case you were wondering the Ryerson student who faced expulsion over running the Facebook study group (I wrote about it here) wasn't expelled.
The disciplinary panel who ruled on his case said they had no proof that his facebook study group was used for cheating. His original mark in the course was reinstated although he is to get zero on the particular assignment associated with the study group, he has to attend a workshop on academic integrity and he is getting a disciplinary notation on his record which he can appeal. You can read the full article here.
My thoughts are the University isn't man enough to say we were being asses about this but they cant full well expel him so they are trying to save face by adding the disciplinary notation and giving him zero on the assignment. He'll take it and rightly so cause he doesn't want to be expelled but the University is still in the wrong here. Big bullies!
All in all just bad press for Ryerson in an age where the grab for students by Universities is an all out war. They ended up with egg on their face, in my opinion looking silly to potential students and parents of potential students (who sometimes have a say in where their kids go. Don't believe the hype Obay is real son!)
The disciplinary panel who ruled on his case said they had no proof that his facebook study group was used for cheating. His original mark in the course was reinstated although he is to get zero on the particular assignment associated with the study group, he has to attend a workshop on academic integrity and he is getting a disciplinary notation on his record which he can appeal. You can read the full article here.
My thoughts are the University isn't man enough to say we were being asses about this but they cant full well expel him so they are trying to save face by adding the disciplinary notation and giving him zero on the assignment. He'll take it and rightly so cause he doesn't want to be expelled but the University is still in the wrong here. Big bullies!
All in all just bad press for Ryerson in an age where the grab for students by Universities is an all out war. They ended up with egg on their face, in my opinion looking silly to potential students and parents of potential students (who sometimes have a say in where their kids go. Don't believe the hype Obay is real son!)
Monday, March 10, 2008
Face(book) off
The scenario is as follows:(article link here)
- Last semester Student at Ryerson University starts a Facebook study group for his first year Chemistry course.
- Students sign on and exchange ideas and ask questions about homework assignments.
- Professor gets wind of Facebook group, gives student who organized group an F and charges him with academic misconduct. The argument is that the homework assignments are supposed to be done individually with no assistance from fellow students and that the Facebook group is facilitating cheating.
-Student goes before committee today facing 146 counts of academic misconduct (one for each member of his Facebook group) to determine whether he will be expelled. As I write I haven't heard the outcome.
What do you think?
My thoughts, given the available info, are that this study group is the same as a bunch of students hanging out at the library exchanging thoughts and knowledge and doing homework (except they are doing it online). Only difference is that the Professor can go online and see how they talk to each other and exchange ideas and hence charge them with cheating cause he has a paper trail.
If this is against school rules then if you've ever been doing a homework assignment gotten stuck and called your buddy at 11 o'clock to ask if he understands question 3 and ask how did he do it or what the final answer is supposed to be then you too are guilty of cheating. Way I see it that means that a lot of folks are guilty of cheating at University on homework assignments if there is to be no interaction amongst students when doing homework that they individually hand in.
Actually to go even further I think that idea goes against one of the fundamentals of what a University is really supposed to be ... a place to share knowledge. As the accused student says in the newspaper article "But if this kind of help is cheating, then so is tutoring and all the mentoring programs the university runs and the discussions we do in tutorials,"
Talking about and sharing when doing homework helps all parties involved in my opinion. Just going over the ideas and explaining them orally or in this case writing them out can open your eyes to concepts you might have missed making you a better student and more knowledgeable on the subject. Plus God knows some of these Professors cant teach worth a damn anyways.
Way I see it too, if you really don't want students talking and discussing the subject in an online forum, or by extension to my mind any sort of forum at all, the only way to deal with it is to not give homework for marks and just make the entire course's mark be based on exams, tests and quizzes done under supervision within class time.
- Last semester Student at Ryerson University starts a Facebook study group for his first year Chemistry course.
- Students sign on and exchange ideas and ask questions about homework assignments.
- Professor gets wind of Facebook group, gives student who organized group an F and charges him with academic misconduct. The argument is that the homework assignments are supposed to be done individually with no assistance from fellow students and that the Facebook group is facilitating cheating.
-Student goes before committee today facing 146 counts of academic misconduct (one for each member of his Facebook group) to determine whether he will be expelled. As I write I haven't heard the outcome.
What do you think?
My thoughts, given the available info, are that this study group is the same as a bunch of students hanging out at the library exchanging thoughts and knowledge and doing homework (except they are doing it online). Only difference is that the Professor can go online and see how they talk to each other and exchange ideas and hence charge them with cheating cause he has a paper trail.
If this is against school rules then if you've ever been doing a homework assignment gotten stuck and called your buddy at 11 o'clock to ask if he understands question 3 and ask how did he do it or what the final answer is supposed to be then you too are guilty of cheating. Way I see it that means that a lot of folks are guilty of cheating at University on homework assignments if there is to be no interaction amongst students when doing homework that they individually hand in.Actually to go even further I think that idea goes against one of the fundamentals of what a University is really supposed to be ... a place to share knowledge. As the accused student says in the newspaper article "But if this kind of help is cheating, then so is tutoring and all the mentoring programs the university runs and the discussions we do in tutorials,"
Talking about and sharing when doing homework helps all parties involved in my opinion. Just going over the ideas and explaining them orally or in this case writing them out can open your eyes to concepts you might have missed making you a better student and more knowledgeable on the subject. Plus God knows some of these Professors cant teach worth a damn anyways.
Way I see it too, if you really don't want students talking and discussing the subject in an online forum, or by extension to my mind any sort of forum at all, the only way to deal with it is to not give homework for marks and just make the entire course's mark be based on exams, tests and quizzes done under supervision within class time.
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