Dr. Abdel Bachri visits Honor Seminar

Dr. Adbel Bachri visited Honors Seminar today. Dr. Bachri teaches engineering physics at SAU and began by telling students about the academic journey that led him to SAU. That trip began in Morocco where he took his undergraduate degree, then led him to Italy for a master's degree, and finally to Stillwater, Oklahoma where he obtained his PhD at Oklahoma State University. A few years later, he found himself at SAU.

Bachri noted that science students today have so many more choices than he did. When he began college his only choices were physics, chemistry, or biology. Today, students are faced with a bewildering choice of options when they decide to pursue a degree in science. The program he heads, engineering physics, is an interdisciplinary amalgam of physics, engineering, and math. Most of the students, he said, go on to pursue advanced degrees. Several honors students are recent graduates of the program and are currently enrolled in programs at the University of California-Berkeley, the Colorado School of Mines, and the University of North Carolina.

When asked what gave him the most pleasure, Bachri replied "teaching." He enjoys teaching and has forged a close-knit group of students. Every fortnight the revived Society of Physics Students meets. Bachri says he likes for the group and he to "build things." He added that because of his training in theoretical physics he never had much chance to do things with his hands. Building apparatus with students helps fulfill that personal need.

Bachri urged students to get involved in research. For the last several years he has taken 3 to 4 students to Berkeley to work on physics projects. Thanks to grants and stipends, SAU students can go with him an no cost to themselves. Honors students, he said, should take advantage of opportunities like those.

Zigler, Jessica: Beloit List

People in classrooms everywhere discuss diversity and the different types of misunderstandings that can occur when people of different cultures come together and interact.  However, culture is not the only thing that can cause conflict between two types of people; age can have that effect as well.  Faculty born before 1980 and students today grew up in two completely different eras and can interpret different words, phrases, and gestures differently.  The students today grow up with many things that the older faculty did not have as young adults.  There are also many similarities found between the two age groups.

                     

One of the most useful features of a computer is the option to connect to the Internet.  By searching the Internet, a person can find out how to knit a scarf, build a computer, or solve an equation.  The professors who are teaching now did not have that tool when they were going through school.  They had to earn their degrees the old-fashioned way, by researching in books.  Not only can today’s students search library databases to find books and articles pertaining to their areas of research, but also they can read them on the computer.  Professors tell students all the time about how privileged they are to be able to do research so easily, but regardless of the research method, students today still have to write essays and projects just like the older faculty had to.

                   

In most high schools, cell phones are not permitted in class, but in colleges, that is not always the case.   Why is it that high school faculty are so against cell phone use?  They must believe that cell phones in schools are a distraction and tempt students to focus on other things, rather than the lecture that is being presented at the time.  However, cell phone use is not the only thing that can distract a student from the teacher’s lesson.  Students born before 1980 probably did things like draw, write notes to their friends, or do other homework in class.  Students have always wanted to find ways to communicate with their friends and avoid boredom; it is only the method they choose that has changed.

                  

 Every student who enrolls in Southern Arkansas University receives a student e-mail address.  Although most students rarely check it, most teachers suggest that they do so.  Some teachers use BlackBoard and e-mail frequently, while other teachers choose not to use them at all.  Many older teachers will either not use them at all, due to a lack of technological skill, or use the electronic resources, because those teachers would have liked access to those things when they were a student.  Regardless of what each teacher decides to do, the students have to adapt to it.  For students who check their e-mails all the time, it can be very difficult to have a professor who will not respond to e-mails quickly or post grades until the end of the semester.  On the other hand, for students who never look at their e-mails, it can be frustrating to go to class unprepared because teachers posted assignments they did not see. Teachers’ use of technology boils down to their point of view about new technology. Adoption of new technology depends less upon age and more upon individual excitement about new technologies or commitment to traditional teaching.

                  

 It is very important for teachers and students to communicate with each other with open minds.  In addition, they should also be cautious when talking to one another, so they do not offend or confuse the other person.  Steps can be taken by both parties to avoid any conflict.  Maybe older faculty members did not have access to things like the Internet, but they should still appreciate the hard work that students put into their assignments.  Almost all students have cell phones, but that does not mean they are listening any more than they would without them.  Perhaps, some teachers believe that it is not necessary for them to use BlackBoard or e-mail, but most of their students would likely find that very helpful if they would.  With all of the changes in technology, it is necessary for students and teachers to be considerate when making decisions that will affect the other.

Falkoff, Brian: Beloit List

            The two lists exemplify the basic human nature of arguing. This, of course, is not the intention of the authors of the articles, but is the product of their subject and the comments of the readers. The commenters are one way that the two articles are alike, though. The reactions of those readers are also quite drastically different, although the readers who comment seem to be peers. The content of the comments is different, one group successfully referring to the past and the other group just as successfully referring to the present. The intended audiences are different too. The College Mind-Set List’s intended audience is educators at universities. The intended audience of the article's antidote, Mind-Set of Faculty, is educators and their students. The messages being sent by each article are different as well.

             

Readers who commented seem to be peers.  This similarity between the two articles is not that surprising, though. How many college students have time to read something they do not have to write about? That the commenters are peers can be seen by paying attention to when they way they were born and their occupations. For instance, in the original article, 22040003 commented about his or her students, pegging this reader as an educator. In the antidote, K wrote “I am a faculty member,” also pegging this reader as an educator.

The comments posted on the antidote are much more argumentative. One reader, drspektor, wrote on the antidote, “oh yes … let’s blame those awful public school teachers yet again for ALL of the problems the country faces.” This response is clearly aggressive and combative. Bstevens called Mr. Krajewski, the author of the antidote, “bitter.” Jhar3556 accused another reader of “[missing] the point.” While the commenters of the antidote argued and bickered, the commenters of the original paper played along very well with the humor of the article. Comments such as “got a great laugh from [this], but sure does make me feel old” and “I look forward to reading this each year,” show the lighthearted opinions of the readers (written by Carole Letson and docsilverfox48 respectively).

The content of the articles separates them as well. The original Beloit article used references to the past that the educators it was intended for would relate to and that the students of the freshman class would definitely know little about. One such example is number 47; “No state has ever failed to observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day.” Although most educated freshman know that Dr. King died not long ago, the generation below them is very likely to not realize how near, historically, to segregation they are. The antidote article uses modern references of celebrity, such as the Kardashians. Anyone who enjoys watching reality tv knows who the Kardashian family is. But those who do not care for reality tv, do not care to know anything about the Kardashians.

             

The message of the two articles has both similarities and differences, both articles provide understanding. The difference lies in the seriousness of the articles. The original Beloit article was intended to be humorous and serious. Most of the statements made were accurate and insightful. The antidote article, however, offers something that will be a “benefit of students and administrators.” This, of course, is not truly the case, because the information provided to the readers is general and reads as if written on the fly. The information provided in College Mind-Set List was precise and organized, short and simple. Clean, even.

             

Both Beloit articles were enjoyably lighthearted, allowing them both to be fun to read and easy to comment on. The few negatives of the antidote article, however, produced arguments and bickering among commenters. This contrasts sharply with the well-received original, College Mind-Set List.

Hamilton, Josh: Beloit List

We live in a time period of great change. The difference between the lives of those that lived in the 1970s and now is astounding. Technology, morals, religions, economies, and even countries are rapidly adapting before our eyes. With all these different factors we might as well say that one generation was literally born in a different world from another. One such comparison of generations would be the faculty and students of higher learning education facilities.

            

 Back in “the good ol’ days” teachers and students were required to see each other. If they didn’t then they would probably not be getting a very high quality education, and it seems that students would be wasting their money. Nowadays though, distance learning is becoming more and more common. Rather than being tied to a classroom, teachers and students have the luxury of taking their classes practically anywhere, because as portable computing devices are now more powerful than anything that existed back in the 20^th century.

Time has an uncanny ability to speed itself up the longer it progresses. This is made especially evident in the progression of years between the 1970’s and 2011. People today seem to be in a huge rush. They have an infinite amount of things to do within a finite period of time, so everything has a sense of urgency. This sense of urgency often couples with a lack of a need for perfection. In the past doing things right was often seen as much more important than meeting a rushed deadline.

             

Language has also changed slightly. Words are no longer used to express the same meaning. 
"Well, uh, he meant to make the report, like, really good, but, uh, he didn't have time." (Belim) Sentence fillers such as like, uh, and um are running rampant. Not only are sentence structures being modified, though, but also words themselves. “Wii” is no longer assumed to be an exclamation of elation, but rather a noun of itself.

Getting satisfactory grades only is no longer acceptable. Gone are the days when merely passing a course was something to be excited about. In the current competitive global environment GPAs may as well be tags worn on our sleeves. They are something everyone is going to look at and they are not better than those of the other thousands of competitors any opportunity previously hoped for is lost.

The world has become a much more luxurious place, although some may not feel that way. Bottled water, baristas, McDonald’s coffee, and free music downloads are just a few things that were not nearly as available in the past, that is if they even existed!  These are things so common that they are nearly unnoticed, but if they were to disappear suddenly there would be a big impact.

One subject that is the source of bitterness to some is money. It is not at all surprising that money be the cause of bitterness. Present day faculty members are asked to do more work than their predecessors without appropriate pay. That is to say, they’re working too hard for the money they are earning. Not only do they still do the work faculty members did in the past, they must now perform new duties as well. Their bitterness is definitely understandable.

Chapman, Jordan: Bucket List

In today’s society teachers and students somewhat clash. Most professors still live in the past, and today’s students are simply passing them by. Technology plays a big role is how students are more advanced than their teachers. If you gave a teacher an “iPhone” they would rip their hair out trying to figure out how the contraption works. Whereas the phones that students carry are or are similar to the iPhone are amazing because the things that you can do with this device. Another advancement that today’s generation has over many older faculty members is in computing. Most technology advances at a very fast rate and the only reason the current “Internet Class” generation is so good at keeping up is because how much they spend using computers. Half of my professors can remember when the computer first came out and how mind-blowing they were. Now, those same people own computers but can only do the simple things with them, such as sending email and using word processors. The Internet has also changed and now astonishingly fast. Professors connected using dial-up which is very slow.

            

 Many professors that still teach complain about how little money they get for work. They are asked to do more work and are paid the same pay they have always gotten, causing some to become bitter.  A few of the things that are asked of the professors are requests such as helping pay for housing or taking up another class without any compensation. Professors in private schools, on the other hand, have never been paid higher.

             

Students in the “Internet Class” are considered to have an easier time in class. They no longer have to sit through the whole class or write down every word verbatim. Now they hardly have to meet the teacher, whether enrolled in an online class or retrieving notes online. In one of my classes I recently discovered that all the notes I have been jotting down can be found on my Blackboard on my professor’s page. I still attend the class regardless because I like being involved in discussions, but if it weren’t for that and never knowing when a quiz was I would not need to go until exam days. Online classes almost require students to teach themselves. This a new phenomenon that is changing the way that faculty teach. Students never really meet their professors and the only relationship they have is through e-mail. Instead of getting hands-on help they must ask teachers online and hope they explain the topic well enough. Faculty members sometimes have a hard time dealing with these changes and can make the process of asking and answering questions hard students and themselves.

           

             

The sad thing about life is that eventually everybody is out of the loop. We students, just as our professors, will discover many things are going to change rapidly and we won’t know what to do. We will, in turn, become them. As technology becomes more and more advanced. My generation’s aspiring professors will probably be bitter when forced to change the way they teach. Those same teachers will also probably be upset with their increased workloads. Faculty members of post-1980 and everyone considered in the “Internet Class” may be quite different on how they do things, but all in all we are all going to wind up old and behind the times.

Brinkley, James: Beloit List

Academic environments consist of distinct criteria and social norms by which students and faculty must abide. Unfortunately, there is an ever-growing generation gap between academic  faculties and the students they teach. Older faculty members must become accustomed to a world that constantly changes its methods. Teaching and learning are vague concepts and they are annually approached in different directions by students and faculty. Modern students and faculty born before 1980 share similarities, but time has put a rift between them as well.

                   

The roles of a student and faculty are constants in the world of academics; students learn and faculties teach. Their roles have changed over the last few decades, a professor born before 1980 may be accustomed to teaching small, personal classes. Today, a college student can expect to learn amongst a massive number of peers, and may be lucky to even come into close contact with the professor. There are a continually growing number of people attending college. Classes naturally grow larger with a rising attendance, but modern student-to-teacher ratios are higher than they’ve ever been. In addition, professors are faced with learning how to utilize a variety of new technologies, such as Southern Arkansas University’s Blackboard and Campus Connect programs. Similarly, both generations are capable of participating in new methods of teaching, such as online classes.  Although, older professors are required to accept the new methods as an alternate way of teaching, alongside the standard face-to-face teaching they’ve always known. Young students, having been born into the modern world, see digital education as an ideal and primary way to learn, pushing aside any non-electronic methods of education.  Many students can’t identify with a world where small classes and in-class gatherings were the only options to learn. For example, I’m required to check my online email and Blackboard account whenever I need to manage my academic affairs. I’m certain that my older professors were forced to change their teaching methods when such technologies were introduced to the education process.

                   

Despite technology and rising attendance, other factors have contributed to the warp in academics. Culture is a massive aspect in the lives of everyone and is always impinging on education. Students and older professors may hold common beliefs that have always been intertwined into society, such as refusing to commit crimes. Though, society has changed over the last few decades and ethical rules are not as potent as they used to be. For example, professors must always be wary of students cheating. There have always been students willing to cheat, but the situation has now become ridiculous. As a student, I have come across peers who put more time and energy into cheating than doing work. Then again, I have met several other students who would rather take the honest path. Similarly in this regard, a few students and most professors born before 1980 approach academics with integrity and appreciate the hard work involved with education. On a different topic, media are a potent factor that changed today’s culture from the form it took three decades ago. Media influence the thoughts of both students and professors, thoughts that are brought into a university and determine how the education process takes place. Ultimately, media's spin on politics and technology affects students born today and professors born before 1980 differently. Although, people will always be attentive to the media.

Today’s students and professors born before 1980 have experienced separate eras of culture. Both versions of culture place value on aspects of everyday life, but they place it on different things.  Those differences have caused certain rifts, but the roles of students and professors will always be the same.

Oglesby, Nikki: Beloit List

If a professor and one of this year’s freshmen were to sit and have a deep discussion over how times have changed, both would learn much new information about the other. One issue they would learn about is grade inflation.

             

According to “The 2011 Mind-Set of Faculty,” “Faculty members who have been teaching for more than a decade remember when C was an average grade students received in courses, because it represented an ancient concept called ‘satisfactory’.” The average grade students now receive is no longer a C. Most students receive either high Bs or a low As. These grades might not be what the student deserves.

             

One reason might be that professors do not enjoy spending hours grading paper after paper. They may read a couple papers then just scan the rest. More mistakes are caught when a paper is thoroughly read instead of just scanned. At times, a teacher may bump up a grade if the person is just a few points below the cut off for the next letter grade. It is not unheard of for a professor to raise athletes’ averages so they can continue to play. Sometimes grades are also given for only attempting an assignment, not completing it. In freshman seminar classes, students are required to attend the school-sponsored functions and they even receive grades for doing so. Getting easy points for attending football games is how so many students have a higher grade than what their academic work has earned them.

             

Students expect to achieve higher grades. They might not earn the grades but they still believe they should receive nothing lower than an A. Some of the work turned in is only thrown together at the last minute. It is not fair for every paper to get an A when only a few really deserve it. Student athletes believe they should be treated differently than their fellow classmates. They know they must maintain a certain grade point average to remain eligible to participate but that does not make a difference to some. Those slackers plan to get by with the lowest grade average that they are required to have. If they fall short of that, they expect the professors to help them out because of school spirit or out of sympathy. When student athletes learn the bare minimum required, they will take advantage of the situation. If the quality of the work is not what earns the grade, then they will just make stuff up as they go instead of putting real thought into it.

             

Each year, the differences between the new freshman and the older professors increase dramatically. During a discussion between the two, it would be easy to see how times have changed. They would learn about the issue of grade inflation which is becoming more popular.