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Too Much Information

November 3, 2011, 1:59 pm

By Eliana Osborn

This summer, my fellow blogger, Isaac Sweeney, wrote about discussing his personal life in his English classroom. I think that is a particularly challenging issue for those of us in the humanities, where we read, write, and delve into the minds of students and society as a whole.

I’m comfortable with my level of personal disclosure as a professor. I am less comfortable with my role as confidant, the person who reads the deep thoughts of dozens of undergraduates. The over-sharing seems to come in waves, some semesters more than others.

I’m in the midst of one over-sharing semester right now. Some students write about their personal lives with only marginal attention to what the assignment really was supposed to be; others tastefully enhance their academic essays with personal experiences. In the latter case, it is easy to give constructive feedback including positive comments about how they have brought the essay to life with relevant examples. In the case of journal entries thinly veiled as critical essays, it is harder.

For example, I read an essay this past week that mostly discussed a student’s suicide attempt from some past date. I am sorry that the student went through that experience. I am glad he felt comfortable sharing with me. But the essay did not fulfill the requirements of the assignment — at all.

I struggle with how to phrase my comments in a situation like that. I focus on what I had requested, such as a thesis and a certain format. I feel like I should say something about the content though. But what? Something like, “I hope you are doing better, but you will need to redo this assignment?” It feels callous, if technically accurate.

How do you handle the students who share very personal information in the very worst ways?

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  • http://twitter.com/InfoGrind ChristopherGalluzzo

    Good idea, but so far a bad implementation. Both example citations are riddled with errors. Here are the ones I found:

    According to the APA manual, “Robert” should be “R.” (see section 6.27), the book title should be italicized (see 7.02), and “Cambridge Univ Pr” should be written as “Cambridge University Press” (see 6.30.)

    For the MLA example, the title is not capitalized properly (see 3.6.1) and should be italicized (see 3.6.2), “Cambridge Univ Pr” should be “Cambridge UP” (see 7.4), a city of publication is not provided (see 5.5.2), and the citation does not provide a medium of publication, “Print” in this case (see 5.4.1.)

    Probably a helpful app for quick finds at bookstores but not much more.

  • http://www.facebook.com/mr.rossrobinson Ross Robinson

    Hey,

    So I pushed an update to the app that tells you what type of citation that you have made.

    As far as the errors in the citation style, we should be pushing out updates soon.

    Thanks for the feedback

  • isalaur

    I echo Christopher Galluzzo’s post and add the following:

    In APA format the title of a book (or article) is not capitalized. Also, in the case of a book, the city should be included (not just in MLA). Generally a first and middle initial is used for the author.

    But I agree a good idea…though the “teacher” in me thinks that they should learn the rules to citations and not just rely on technology!! Then again, how many of our students today can do math without a calculator…the forward march of progress I guess…

  • http://twitter.com/gailgolderman Gail Golderman

    obviously has some bugs to work out. should be free!

  • alexsim

    You should fix the typo – “Chigaco” should be Chicago. I fixated on that more than the article.

  • kimszath

    Sadly, few folks are citing books these days. Make me an app that gives the correct citation for online articles/websites, and I’ll advertise it to my students! But yes, I’d rather they just learn it. Like any computer, BS in, BS out.

  • http://twitter.com/nicolaziady Nicola Ziady

    Great tool for academicians … thank you for sharing. Kind regards, Nicola Ziady

  • davnagle

    This is a great idea, though the bugs do need to be worked out. The comment is well taken that few books are cited anymore. Most of the citations in my dissertation were for journal articles and for online sources. Since these have no bar codes, I don’t see any way to expand the app to cover the majority of what is cited these days.

  • tbdiscovery

    Please remember the BlackBerry users. You too, ProfHacker!

  • http://www.facebook.com/staffordg Stafford Gregoire

    One more reason to trade in my Crackberry, but I will suggest it to my CC students, many of whom have iPhones and Androids. (But not until they’ve done a works cited list the old fashioned way first.)

  • isalaur

    I was thinking the exact same thing when I composed my original post! Nearly all the research my students are doing is with academic journals now.

  • http://ProfHacker.com George H. Williams

    Hey, at ProfHacker we’ve published a bunch of posts relevant to Blackberry users!

  • internationalprof

    Endnote now imports using DOI’s on PDF files. It would be great if this app could do that too either by taking a picture of the number or by entering it in manually.

  • tbdiscovery

    George:

    Thank you for replying, but look at the dates! There seem to be i-Anything posts daily. I understand that Apple is the leader, but I’ll stick to the BB.

  • ufenglish

    It won’t work with my iphone. You need the 4.0 Software. : /

  • drgunn

    LibraryThing also has an app that will scan barcodes.

  • arc99999

    I am SO happy to see someone tackling this! I believe that students should learn proper citation formats much earlier in their education than they currently do (and I’m no master of citation – I curse every time I have citations to reformat and was probably lucky not to have professors who were true sticklers on citation Ps and Qs). However, I firmly believe that we need technology that simplifies citation. For an academic researcher, the ability to automate the citation process would liberate massive amounts of time that are much better spent on the creative process.

  • gladden

    The MLA citation is incorrect: it is incomplete, not only in terms of basic content, but also in terms of the most recent HANDBOOK and STYLE MANUAL requirements for specifying the form of the work. Students, beware!

  • molivas

    either of the two basic law citation formats would also be popular–Blue book or Maroon book.

  • k_thomaswhiteside

    One thing that was mentioned in the comments was the need for online journal articles to have this form of a resource. Most of the larger database manufacturers (EBSCO, Gale, ProQuest, etc.) already provide this in the tools sections for each article accessed. Many academic eBooks have this feature as well.

  • delfields

    After 30+ years in the classroom, I have witnessed a steady slide into laziness on the part of students where citation and documentation of sources in academic is concerned. Short of doing it for them, my students have been provided with where to find information regarding source documentation. All of the gifts in the world is not going to help if the student has little or no clue in terms of what, when, where and what documentation style to apply –the last time I counted, there were some 20 documentation styles. I think I will forward the above article to my students. (My courses blended and/or online)
    As distance (online) courses are student centered as opposed to instructor centered, my 13 years with this form of education is the source of my views of today’s students and their failure to take what is provided and apply it. I hope I am proven wrong–time will tell.

  • ivanacg

    The formatting of citations is different from knowing how to cite. *Knowing how to cite* would also reduce unintentional plagiarisms.

    I also strongly agree that students should start much earlier to acknowledge their sources. As soon as somebody is asked to collect information (4th grade?) they should be asked to note from *where* they’ve got the information and *who* wrote it. So no big citation formatting at this point but an awareness that one should keep track where the information comes from and distinguish it from one’s own ideas, comments, etc. The next 8 years the students can work on developing this concept. It does take time!

    I welcome software that helps in formatting citations — i.e. keeping the dots and the commas and the order in place. Middle school students actually don’t mind playing with such software.

    Considering how often one sees unacknowledged ideas/images, etc from all levels of school officials, it is not surprising that students at university level are still unaware of these academic rules.

  • chriskox

    Yet again the citation as vehicle for knowledge building gets crushed by the tank treads of the policing drive. If the scan encourages the former, it is good, if the latter, less so.

  • sand6432

    Bar codes didn’t become common on scholarly books until much later, in the 1990s, when B&N’s Steve Riggio went on a campaign to get university presses to use them.

  • http://twitter.com/rdlln Robert Dillon

    New app uses smartphone 2 scan bar code on back of book. It e-mails u a bblgrphy-rdy citation in APA, MLA, Chigaco, or IEEE #edtech

  • http://twitter.com/takebay1 shuichi takebayashi

    iPhone, Android用文献アプリ。本のバーコードをカメラで撮影して、メール転送すると、指定のスタイルのフォーマットに変換してくれる。

  • zachary_schrag

    The citation does not provide the year of original publication. Thus, the citation for a 2009 edition of a book first published in 2001 appears only with 2009.

    The app may be useful for scanning books at conference displays, but I would not recommend it to my students.

  • http://twitter.com/bcollinsmaster Bryce Collins

    I would agree it’s still not up to par completely yet good idea though.

  • yellow1

    I think writing instructors have to push concrete uses of process in class (online or on ground). I am not saying you weren’t doing this, and this final draft may have been the only bit of work you ever saw (so it’s after the fact) from the student. If possible, you would want to see topics and planning as early as possible. I always found that the selection and planning of topics was often more work for the students (at least mentally) than the actual writing, drafts, peer review.

    When it happens, and I think all of us who ever taught writing have a story like this, I think you have to do more than ask for the assignment to be redone. What if your policies don’t allow that rewrite? What if your rubric specifically deals with off topic papers?

    My advice/former practice would be to assign journals. Half or more of those assigned were open topics or prompts that were often personal. Give students the chance to work through these things, in writing, in a setting where topics have more latitude (and mechanics + format most likely) than the 4-6 “major” final papers.

  • musicfordeckchairs

    I’m sorry, but I have a startled question: is the illlustration that you give of the student and the suicide experience a hypothetical one?  Or is it really something you read this past week?

    Because if it is, isn’t it possible that he might not feel comfortable sharing it quite so widely?

    (This is my answer to your question, by the way.)

  • graddirector

    While I don’t get this in class assignments since I am a science professor, as an academic advisor, I have been in the situation of dealing with too much information on many occasions ranging from angst over the decision to have an abortion due to accidental pregnancy or unfavorable prenatal diagnosis results, bedbug blooms, mold blooms and apartment fires, a whole host of mental illness treatments, broken relationships etc.

    One needs to realize that students sometimes need to talk to someone about personal things that they can not share with friends/family and often I just provide a sympathetic ear and can in some cases reduce their academic stress level some while they are going through the personal stress. Also, I am in a position to help in ways that such  family can not, I have the number of our campus mental health clinic on speed dial and such interventions have helped many of my students over the years stay in school and finish their degrees.

    In the case of the student suicide attempt mentioned above, I would definitely talk to the student to make sure that they are in a good place now and if not, get them hooked up with mental health care.  This could be the classic “cry for help”, or just something the student felt was interesting to write about.  Please don’t just give the student a bad grade and move on.  If it is a cry for help with an ongoing problem, I would refer the student to mental health help while also giving them a chance to rewrite the assignment to fit the requirements.  Think about the shooting of the Arizona congresswoman last year.  I seem to remember that the shooter was a community college student whose mindset was apparent from his class assignment writings.  While he probably would have resisted mental health care, a suicidal student who is sharing will probably accept help.

  • johnbarnes

    And if it’s not a cry for help, just something the student felt was interesting, then the shortest way to back on track is probably a long conversation, in which you need to be prepared (mostly by being relaxed and open-minded) to deal with an immense range of possibilities.  The student may have been taught or believe (or not been taught or believe) all sorts of things to produce that particular behavior; in general, because most students want to do well and want to understand how the world imposed on them works, if you can figure out the incorrect thought/belief/idea behind this, which might be anything, you can talk about it with the student and move them along.  (This is one more reason why comp classes need to be small).

    But first establish the student is out of danger.  (As a side benefit, if the student is not, the student will at least be able to see that you care about the student: once you have gone to some effort to know he’s doing better, the request to redo the assignment is less likely to appear callous).

  • http://stevenlberg.wordpress.com/ Steven L. Berg

    There are two ways I deal with too much information:
     
    First, I discuss in class that everything we write in class is public to the class and we must therefore decide what is an appropriate amount of information to share.  I provide examples and class exercises to help them make this decision.
     
    Second, I generally conference papers.  In these one-on-one discussions it is easier to show the type of concern that John Barnes (above) suggests; the type that gets help for the student and/or shows the student you care.
     
    In my first semester of teaching, a student wrote a heart wrenching essay that was of “D” quality.  Since then, I have tried to be very sensitive with the types of assignments I give.  I also have developed better skills to handle such situations.

  • girl37

    This was my exact thought too. This is a public forum.

  • beedhamm

    “ I generally conference papers”
    I read that sentence about five times trying to figure out what the missing verb was: discuss? give? go to? Thank you for the example of a verbing that interferes with the reading process.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RSRD4KFLLVQHEM4QYHLLFBQR6M chaz

    Oh, the irony.

  • stephaniemz

    I think “conferencing papers” means to discuss them individually with students.

    To the columnist–obviously an in-person discussion is a must. But you might want to think about the assignment and how the student strayed so far from your original intent. 

  • juliewhite

    As a counselor on our community college campus, I can say that we get frequent referrals from faculty based on just this kind of scenario.  Although I agree with many of the previous commenters in terms of being thoughtful about how assignments are structured, I also believe that there are students who are so troubled that this would happen nonetheless.  Sometimes all it takes is a kind-hearted person that the student looks up to, and all the troubles come pouring out.  Please try to connect this student with the counseling center on your campus (if you haven’t already!).

  • Guest

    You ask how we handle students who share a lot of personal information. My answer is simply this: I am a person and the student is a person. I react the way I react when other people are going through hard times — give them a pep talk, have a spare box of Kleenex at my desk, ask if he has access to counseling. Most of all, I listen. I just stay quiet while the troubled individual talks and unloads. I go easy on the grade for that assignment, then expect the next assignment to adhere to instructions. I try to get the student connected to some form of help. For the rest of the semester, I make myself accessible and supportive, and then when the semester’s over, I tell the student I wish him the best and encourage him to seek help.

    One thing I don’t do is pathologize the incident or make the student feel weird or embarrassed about the paper. 

    Another thing I don’t do is offer the anecdote up for the judgment and ridicule of others, which I am sorry to say you have done with this column.

    Another thing I don’t do is refer to institutional roles. I won’t be the Stepford professor and he can’t be the Stepford student. Keep your humanity with you and have an open mind.

  • beedhamm

    Thanks stephaniemz. As I wrote, I figured out that he was verbing “conference,” so I got there but it took a while and I couldn’t figure out why someone would do that to readers. There is the verb “confer,” or the more idiomatic/explicit, “meet with students individually to discuss …” Note also, that using conference as a verb does not specify a one-on-one meeting as you’ve assumed.

  • pakalolo

    That’s a tough one, although I would focus on the task first and tell the student why s/he did not meet the expectations of the assignment. Those are different issues. Then, I’d add that, nevertheless, the content of her work had made me worry and, while I’d love to help, she should ask someone more professionally prepared to help. I would then try to help her/him find help within the school (student support, social work staff member, if available, etc.). I don’t think I would just wash my hands and tell her “good luck with that”. If the school cannot help, then the “professional” on staff would refer her to the services of a medical/pshych doctor.

    On another note, I once had a student who told me her assignment was late because she had had intestinal problems a few days before her work was due. I’m using an euphemism here; she actually described her intestinal experience in gruesome details. I’m just not paid enough to hear that kind of thing. :-)

  • misstrudy

    I have had to deal with situations such as students coming to my office to talk to me about issues such as being pregnant and ambivalent about an abortion, about having returned from war and having flashbacks and other emotional issues, etc.  Not being trained in mental health, my advise could cause more harm than good, so I listen sympathetically, tell them I am sorry that they are going through them and then provide them with a card for the school’s mental health service and urge them to please consider going there, as they may be able to help them with better guidance and strategies. Usually that works.  I tend to get a “thanks for listening, I feel a bit better now”.  In class, a student wrote about a rape experience and her paper did not fulfill the assignment. I wrote a note thanking her for sharing this experience and that I felt sorry she had suffered it.  Then I proceeded to write way sin which the paper could have better fulfilled the requirements.  I don’t know if that was the right way of handling it, but I certainly hope so.

  • http://stevenlberg.wordpress.com/ Steven L. Berg

    I am sorry that I missed your comment and did not reply sooner. 

    In our area, to conference a paper is a common way to refer to one-on-one meetings with students.  I first encountered the term in the late 1970s and have seen it commonly used at the one unversity and three colleges at which I have taught.  Unfortunately, regional expressions can cause unintended confusion.

  • http://twitter.com/RobinSelzer Robin Selzer

    Embarassing…

  • rtmyers

    What the H—!  What were the sanctions? A game or 2 in the stands.  This was an embarrassment to the entire city of Cincinnati and two respected universities.  This should never happen and if we can’t play with control we should not play.  I am sure that we can someone who wants to represent our university without being violent. 

  • droslovinia

    Don’t place too much stock in “ugly incidents” that the media cannot seem to move past. They tend to get more “ugly” over time, as that self-same media works to sensationalize things in their pathetic drive to attract attention.

    Perhaps this just sells better than talking about Bernie Fine? I guess that images of young black men fighting are a lot more “newsworthy” than seeing a white man investigated for molesting children. Or is this a confrontation really that much more embarrassing than allegations of molestation, years of failed drug tests, and a starting player who is dropped for being academically ineligible?

    I’m not saying this just to bash another school in the Sweet 16, so much as to point out that the media has a choice as to what it is going to toss in front of us, just as we have a choice to be offended and/or embarrassed by it. So what is the motivation in dragging this back up again?

  • dpcowboy

    I loved the post game interview(s).  Considering that both schools are considered to be relatively good academic institutions, I am sure that the players on both teams are there for the academic excellence and are majoring in BioChemistry or Physics.  Yaknowhaddeyemean?

  • old nassau’67

     The further each team goes in the tournament, the more the fight will be forgotten, the greater the coach’s (s’) bonuses, and the better the recruiting. As Vince Lombardi said, “Winning isn’t everything: It’s the only thing.”

  • _perplexed_

    I assumed the motivation was to point out that this kind of misbehavior has no serious consequences.  The NCAA seems either uninterested or powerless to restore something resembling “sportsmanship” to college athletics.  Had this happened on the street, arrests and criminal charges would have been real possibilites.  Why is assualt legal on the basketball court?  Where were the police?  

  • droslovinia

    I was more interested in pointing out how the unholy alliance of college sports and Big Media leads to a situation where our sense of disdain can be deliberately manipulated to make a quick buck, rather than to take needed actions. On the other hand, your points are well-taken. How can any serious consequences occur when we make misconduct more a matter of “entertainment” than symptoms of a badly skewed value system?

  • http://twitter.com/TamaraKrause1 Tamara Krause

    It seems to mirror much of the content and ideas behind WiseChoice.com, which has been out for a few years now. My daughter is in high school and uses both WiseChioce and Zinch. She definitely prefers to watch the short video segments over reading the content articles. Anything that helps students plan and pay for college is a welcome addition to the web.

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