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[What's Burning?]

Ran across this on insidehighered.com

Frank J. Rybicki, assistant professor of mass media at Valdosta State University, did the equivalent last week when he shut the laptop of a student who was allegedly web surfing as opposed to taking notes. She filed a complaint (reportedly about a finger or fingers that were hurt when he shut the laptop) and the university's police arrested him on a charge of battery. The Georgia institution suspended his teaching duties there, although not his pay.

Reached on the phone, Rybicki confirmed his arrest and suspension, and said that he had been told by the university not to answer questions about the incident. He did say that the article and comments in the student newspaper, The Spectator, were accurate. That article quoted students who saw the incident as saying that Rybicki closed the laptop amid an argument with the student over his view that she had been on websites not related to the course.

The article also quoted students of Rybicki as saying that they were concerned that an outstanding professor had been arrested and might have his career disrupted. (Rybicki does not have tenure.)

Comments on the site said that the student had been warned to stop surfing the web and had ignored the professor. Generally, the comments were supportive of the professor and critical of the student. "Arrested for battery. For closing a laptop? Did it break the students fingers or something? I was thinking he hit a student with a computer. Simply closing it may be a little trivial to ruin a man's entire life over don't ya think?" said one comment.

The comments from those saying that they were in class suggested doubt about the extent of the injuries to the student's fingers and surprise that the incident had led to an arrest. Another comment said: "If this teacher shut the laptop so hard that her arms were somehow mangled, fine ... but seriously, she had PLENTY ... PLENTY of other options. A. Don’t be so rude in a classroom. B. If you are going to play on your laptop ... either don’t take the laptop to class, or don’t take yourself to class. C. Do what the teacher says for half a second; he/she probably knows more than you do so grow up and take some responsibilities; College isn’t another episode of High School where you can get away with being a distraction; some people here WANT to learn, if you don’t care, ... then get out! Or at least be somewhat polite."

While he declined to discuss the incident specifically, Rybicki did answer a few questions. Asked if students shouldn't look at non-class websites while in class, he said that was "pretty obvious." Asked if he had ever caused physical harm to any student, he said "absolutely not, never."

Several students who were in the class said that they were told by the university not to discuss the incident. The head of the Faculty Senate referred all questions to the university's spokeswoman, Thressea H. Boyd. Via e-mail, Boyd said, "The university is investigating an incident involving a faculty member and this matter will be processed through the appropriate legal channels. In terms of class instruction, modifications have been made. All employees are expected to perform their obligations and responsibilities in a professional manner."

As to university policy on laptop use in class, she said that "the use of computers during classroom instruction is within the discretion of each professor at the university."

Samuel Logan, a Valdosta State student who was not in the course, but who has taken other classes with Rybicki, said via e-mail that he admired Rybicki. "He cares about his students and our grades, always making sure we do our best." As for what reportedly happened in class, Logan said that an arrest "was not justified because he is a great teacher and she was on Facebook, when we know not to be on other sites while the teacher is teaching."
— Scott Jaschik

[Hammer278]

Too much protection/leeway for students nowadays. The deteriorating ethics/manners in younger generations is a good representation of this.

[FRAFPDD]

Too much protection/leeway for students nowadays. The deteriorating ethics/manners in younger generations is a good representation of this.

Im jjust plain stopping caring, im not wasting my goodwill and time caring about someting like this when its only ever going to get worse. Makes my blood boil when i see not just what your saying about students and younger generation, but Britain full stop. Infact i think the claim from the bigots that Muslims will out"breed" the majority white english in 100 years is a damn good thing, infact it makes me happy when i see the english moan about it, at least religion and islam have some friggin morals to them.

[killem2]

What a weird story. i use a laptop in my college classes, best thing ever, so nice for note taking and those computer programing classes

[texasmr2]

Too much protection/leeway for students nowadays. The deteriorating ethics/manners in younger generations is a good representation of this.

[What's Burning?]

Too much protection/leeway for students nowadays. The deteriorating ethics/manners in younger generations is a good representation of this.

I blame the parent of said students more than I blame the students themselves.

[texasmr2]

Yes I agree with you. When I was in school and even 27yrs later while in the police academy I had respect for the rules/guidelines setforth because I was raised to respect authority. The 'battery' charge kind of reminds me of one of our state laws, specifically:

Section 22.01 of the Texas Penal code subsection C:

Assualt by Contact:
1. Person, county, and date
2. Intentionally or knowingly
3. Causes physical contact with another
4. When actor ie offender knows or should reasonably believe that the other will regard contact as offensive or provocative

Not really the same but #4 is the point I'm refering too.

[stonemonkey]

She must've been pretty engrossed in facebook or whatever to not notice him approaching.

[zurich_allan]

Students now are definitely more and more disrespectful in the class and also in other comunications (phone / email) than they used to be. Personally I think it's down to the internet and google generation in general. With (surface - i.e. wikipedia) information at your fingertips, everybody thinks they're an expert at everything these days (have any of you seen the episode of scrubs where the fat chick self diagnoses herself constantly before Dr Kelso has the chance to speak?), and doesn't readily accept that there are people that know sustantially more about something than they do and that there is more to the area they're learning about than what they got from a 15minute google search...

This year at the University I teach at I altered my course documents (student handbooks etc.) adopting a harder line with them - not because I want to, but through necessity. If I catch a student with a mobile phone during class (unless they have BEFORE class told me a very good reason why they have to have it on their desk or have to check it during class) I invite them to leave immediately - no warnings, no second chances - just out! Likewise, I have implemented a lateness policy that if they are going to be late to wait until the break before entering - if they enter once class has begun (and I already give a 5-10 minute grace period before I begin so there REALLY is no excuse) I ask them to turn around and walk straight back out and come in once there is a class break.

As I say, I don't know where in the world students would think it's appropriate to check their phone messages during class, or walk in to a class in the middle of a lesson in the first place, but it was common for them to do it without the batting of an eyelid, so I had no choice but to make the changes I've mentioned and adopt this hard line.

It definitely IS a relatively new phenomenon, as I know that when I was first at university circa 1997-2001/2 I would NEVER have done the things above (or more accurately would never have presumed it was acceptable to do them!!), nor would anyone in the classes I went to.

As the article points out - University / College is NOT an enforced education, it's a choice to go there, so why go there and be disruptive / disrespectful. I could see myself ending up in a situation like that lecturer if I lived in the US, as I wouldn't tolerate it and would likely do exactly the same as they did... and rightly so...

[texasmr2]

^^^^^

[FRAFPDD]

Assuming your a university lecturer, how sad that you have to enforce childlike rules on 18+ year olds.

[zurich_allan]

Assuming your a university lecturer, how sad that you have to enforce childlike rules on 18+ year olds.

You're 100% right - it is incredibly sad. I honestly wish I didn't have to, but unfortunately it's the world we now live in. And I'm sad to say it's not longer a small minority that act in this way (disrespectful, no idea of appropriateness or boundaries etc.) it is a high percentage, verging on a majority, and this is why the changes had to be made.

As I say, again, I blame this on the google generation. In addition to the symptoms I already pointed out, the students' attention spans are all over the place, honestly it is hard to get many to focus on many subjects for more than ten minutes at a time, or to foster any inclination / motivation to want to go beneath the surface and do any disciplined self study to learn a subject in depth...

University should be about much more than just going to tick a box and to learn a subject purely to the extent that you can recall a certain amount of informtion for a short period of time then forget it all again by the time you graduate. University should be because you want to go, and you want to learn about both your specialist subject relating to your degree, and indeed increase your breadth of knowledge and understanding in complex areas in general. Students should be there because they want to learn and to understand about their subject, and they should during that time be considering where their future lies in relation to that subject, and planning how they can meet their goals.

In contrast, a sizeable number come, sit in a class, choose to learn nothing (the key here is 'choose') or the bare minimum to scrape a pass or pass on their resit attempt, then leave with a poor overall pass, graduate if they're lucky, having planned nothing, then assume that the world owes them a job because they're a graduate. Of course, this is by no means all - but it IS a growing number and a big problem.

And now in the UK we have this ridiculous scenario with the implementation of massive fees to enter Higher Education, creating an almost pure consumer based approach. This is hugely damaging, and will lead to a blame culture for students that fail, wanting to blame the staff that teach them, and saying that they have paid and so have a 'right' to pass. Thing is, I can guarantee you that close to 100% of those that will do badly and then complain WILL be the very types of student I have highlighted in both this post and my previous one.

It's a horrible era in the ongoing history and future of Higher Education we're currently in, and will likely continue to be in for some time to come...

That said - I do love my job / chosen profession! Strange to say after all of that....

[geetface9]

I think if kids wanna sit in the very back, be quiet, and be on facebook, that's cool with me as long as they already paid me LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

[darwin dali]

Yes I agree with you. When I was in school and even 27yrs later while in the police academy I had respect for the rules/guidelines setforth because I was raised to respect authority. The 'battery' charge kind of reminds me of one of our state laws, specifically:

Section 22.01 of the Texas Penal code subsection C:

Assualt by Contact:
1. Person, county, and date
2. Intentionally or knowingly
3. Causes physical contact with another
4. When actor ie offender knows or should reasonably believe that the other will regard contact as offensive or provocative

Not really the same but #4 is the point I'm refering too.

[vaptin]

I think alot of it is to do with how going to university has become an automatic route for many. Which means they don't truly value it. And of course there's the party image of university, I think thats a fairly new thing.

The education system (in the UK at least) has tended to simply learning the mark scheme and passing exams, and there's so much pressure on that now (see first sentence) that they get loads of pushing from parents and teachers. They don't really learn self discipline.

The result is students who don't really perform so well academically when they're not being pushed.

Although some kids come from backgrounds where they've really chosen to go to university and the course for themselves, and worked themselves to get there; i.e. they didn't do it just because it was expected of them - even subconsciously .

Plus how accessible distractions are, its tempting to play a game on their phone or something, rather than pay attention in class.