Teachers are getting lazy

[Fashion Lad!]

I'm sitting in my Windows Server 2003 class. This is how it goes everyday, my instructor will read the power point for the first hour and a half to two hours of the class. He reads these slides verbatim and adds very little to them. I of course, find this to be a waste and cruise the internet for the first 2 hours of class.

I'm still getting an A.

This is weekly for me. http://twitpic.com/h4qpo

How do you feel your teachers are performing?

[the_std]

I don't believe that teachers are getting lazier. I believe that there are good teachers, mediocre teachers, and bad teachers. You seem to have a mediocre teacher - he's teaching things, but not putting much effort into it or making it engaging. There have been mediocre teachers around ever since teaching became a profession. This is just the newest technology that mediocre teachers can use. It doesn't make them lazier, just gives them a way to showcase their mediocrity.

[AdminAssistant]

This is just the newest technology that mediocre teachers can use. It doesn't make them lazier, just gives them a way to showcase their mediocrity.

And it's the technology students beg for. College students today have a freakin' love affair with PowerPoint. I'm personally not a fan, except as a way to organize images.

I don't think it's professors getting 'lazier', but right now, fewer professors are teaching more classes. Universities are reducing tenure-track positions and piling more and more classes on adjuncts and lecturers - all of whom are paid very little ($3,000 per class if you're lucky). So, not all professors are able to put as much time and effort into preparing lectures as they used to.

[Greenday]

And it's the technology students beg for. College students today have a freakin' love affair with PowerPoint.

You realize it's because posting the slides on blackboard means they don't have to show up to class right? That's supposing it's a large class where you don't do attendance. But yea, I never skip classes that use chalkboards and whiteboards. But sometimes, if I'm just in a really crappy mood or I'm feeling tired or whatever and the class is REALLY easy and everything is on blackboard and there's no attendance taking, skipping class becomes a really easy option.

[Mr Slugger]

The problem with the tech field really is that it's pretty tough to teach this stuff IMHO. I mean software changes very often and as much as you learn there's some 13 year old kid that knows way more than you.

[Fashion Lad!]

My whole thought is they should be able to lecture on the subject they're teaching. I've had too many instructors in all my years of school rely on PowerPoint. PowerPoint should really only be talking points. I always get mad when I get an instructor that reads the PowerPoint verbatim. I can read and I can do that for free.

[AdminAssistant]

You realize it's because posting the slides on blackboard means they don't have to show up to class right?

Yep.

Which is why in the Intro class I'm a TA for, the professor doesn't post the slides to Blackboard. We don't even use Blackboard. If someone has to miss class, they're responsible for getting in touch with another student or their TA to catch up on what they've missed.