A few days ago I gave the first homework assignment of the year to my AP Music Theory students. As I said the words "Homework, due Tuesday, page..." I observed all ten students pull out the planners they were given on the first day of school. Pencils poised, eyes alert, ready to write. I started to say "I'll post this on FirstClass" (our school email system), but stopped myself. I simply gave the assignment. They wrote it down, several asked questions, I clarified and had them say it back to me. "What page numbers? Due when?" All assignments were turned in completed and on time.
In years past I have set up a conference on FirstClass. The students had an AP Music Theory icon that had a little flag pop up when I posted something. I would post assignments, and just to make sure they got it I would email the group the message "Check class conference." Once I set up this fairly high tech system, any breakdown in the system was used against me.
"You didn't send an email, so I didn't check the conference."(Then why have an icon with a little flag?)
"You sent an email but didn't post in the conference so I wasn't sure..." (That was so lame the student looked embarrassed, but it didn't keep him from trying)
And my favorite - "There were extra spaces between one assignment and the next, so I thought only the first one was due today." (The words "Due Thursday" at the top of the message were obviously canceled out by an extra tap on space bar.)
All of the students in that class were bright, well-intentioned kids. They also heard me repeatedly say that they were responsible for assignments as soon as the information came out of my mouth. All this emailing and posting was to help them remember and make good use of the wonderful technology at our fingertips and make life easier for us all. But it actually complicated things and helped turn smart AP students into whiny excuse-makers, and it put the responsibility of homework on my communication system instead of the ability of the students to follow directions.
I have continued with the low-tech system of assigning homework, and so far so good. There has been one breakdown in communication. A student didn't write "odd numbers only"for an assignment, so he did twice the required work. When he arrived to class and realized his mistake, he exclaimed, "I am so bad at following directions!"
He was responsible, not me and my message system. As soon as others in the class told him only odd problems were required, he remembered hearing it. He had forgotten to write it down.
One of the amazing, counter-intuitive results of computer technology and the internet revolution is how it connects people in unusual ways. I find I am able to use the internet to keep up with students on Facebook better than I am able to use it to assign homework. I was so touched by messages on my birthday that I purposed to check Facebook every day during Lent so I could keep up with birthdays, prayer needs, and other pertinent information such as life changes and what people are eating. (Check right now if you don't believe me. Somewhere on your Facebook feed is a photo of food on a plate or someone eating. I don't know why this is, but it is true.) I have not kept up the daily check, but I am on Facebook now more frequently than my former once-every-two-week checks. I love connecting with old friends, but it can be a time-consuming distraction that leads down a maze of rabbit trails. Before I know it, an hour has gone by, and I've forgotten the original reason I turned on the computer.
The rabbit trail effect may be the reason why my high-tech homework reminders didn't work as well as a plain old pencil and a calendar. Do students have so many computer windows open while checking assignment posts that they lose track of their original destinations and get lost in a delightful maze of information? Spiral-bound student planners may be embarrassingly old-fashioned, but once opened the students have few choices other than reading what they have written. They offer no portal to Wonderland.
