:: Searching for Puck... ::

:: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 ::

Well, today was mixed.

I got a 92 on a Communiations test I completely forgot was today, but he gave me back my Unit Application Assignment with the literate version of "this is complete crap" written neatly on it.

I'm really pissed off about it, in general. The man asks WAY too much of us for being a community college communications 101 class. I'll give a rundown.

The class is given once a week, for 2 hours and 50 minutes. It is broken up into "units", which essentially are two weekly classes apiece. For said units, we have to:

Go physically to the library and check out the required reading, which we are supposed to sit down, read there, and fill out a "study guide" of 15-20 questions there. You can photocopy it and bring it home with you, but copies are 10 cents a page, and the articles run 2-3 pages, so if you don't have a copy card, or a dollar (you can only buy/charge the copy cards in dollar increments and the dollar change machine has been broken for two weeks now) you're kind of screwed in that aspect if you don't have the time. The study guide is later read over and questions given in class and tests, so it's both obvious that you haven't done it, and you get marks off class participation.

You also have to read at least 1 chapter in the textbook per unit. The textbook is this hideously outdated P.O.S. from the mid 60s-early 70's that cites "holopictures" as the up-and-coming technology. The reading is both dry and humorless, as well as tedious. There is also a "study guide" to fill out on the chapters, consisting of 15-20 questions on the text.

There are videos to watch in class for each "unit" - we are to take unstructured and structured notes on this video, the likes of which appear on the unit test. The videos are also horribly outdated and dry, the last one actually dating itself only 9 years after the movie "Tron" came out - the year that I was born (1982). Call me crazy, but a video on the "future of communication" probably shouldn't be 12 years old.

3 "UAAs" or Unit Application Assignments have to be done for the class, with only 6 units to the class, one must be done every other week. These are two-to-three page papers on an article that we must find ourselves that pertains directly to the unit. The articles can't be more than a year old, evidently (mine was from 2000 - I find the time limiting painfully ironic given our teaching materials) and no inclusion of personal knowledge is, evidently, allowed. They are expected to be presented with a small oral presentation, and discussion of the topic afterwards.

A "sythesis paper", a 6-to-7 page paper on a topic of communication covered by the book, that must have at least 6 sources, none of which can be a dictionary or encyclopedia. Due in May. Meetings with the instructor are required 3 times - to approve the topic, to approve the sources, and one other thing I can't recall right now.

I mean, this combined with intensive classes, a test every 3 weeks, and the fact that many of us have full courseloads or part time/full time jobs, or children....it's asking a bit too much, in my opinon. I can't even imagine what state of sanity I'd be in if all my classes demanded so much.

In other news, I'm working on a headache, and I think I'm hungry.

~Fox
Penny for your thoughts?



:: Fox 3/12/2003 01:30:00 PM [Say what?] ::
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