In Psych 144, I always emphasize the importance of distinguishing phenomena (things that we observe) from theories (explanations for those phenomena). For example, there are sex differences in scores on the math portion of the SAT. No question about it. But there are many different ways to explain this fact that might involve biased tests, a biased society, genetics, and so on.
But this blog has nothing to do with sex differences. What it does have to do with, though, is the fact that no one has commented on any of my blogs. That's the phenomenon of interest for today. And in an exercise straight out of Psych 144, I'm going to generate as many theories to explain this phenomenon as I can. I'll worry about which ones are correct later.
1. Students never look at blog.
2. Students do not know how to post comments.
3. Blogs are too boring to comment on.
4. Blogs are incomprehensible.
5. Students are too dense to think up comments.
6. Settings do not allow comments (because blogger is too dense).
7. Students are afraid to interact with instructor.
8. Students are afraid of appearing to be apple polishers.
9. Students find topics uninteresting.
Other suggestions?
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10 comments:
I may appear to be 'polishing your apples,' as you put it, but I feel that the students in our class might not getting enough encouragement. It's just an idea, but perhaps people would be more inclined to take part in discussions on these topics if it were a small part of the grade for the course.
I find it disappointing and not at all surprising that students take little interest in the course material, let alone outside assignments and discussion. It is a symptom of the times we're living in. Short attention spans and little self-motivation thrives in this age of instant gratification and any form of entertainment at our fingertips. Half the class is probably sitting on Myspace as I type this.
I really look forward to more participation. I love your class, and like the idea of this blog. It could be a hub for lots of interesting discussion if people would just put in a little effort.
I'm too dense to think up comments.
Very interesting! Does this mean I am not dense? ;-) LB
well, i think this is more accurate.
6. Settings do not allow comments (because blogger is too dense).
because sometimes i really dunno what to say after reading the blog.
if i just simply say something like "oh, that's great!", "Wow, i never heard of it", "yeah, i agreed with that too.", it obviously show that i really have nothing to comment about and makes me look stupid...
Dr. Price,
hhaha..that's interesting how you actually blogged about us (students) not commenting on your blogs. hey, I have a suggestion. You should get a tracker or a site counter for your site to track and keep count of how many people log on your site. I'm not sure if there is a tracker for this particular site, but I do know that sites such as xanga and myspace have trackers. You should seriously consider getting a site tracker or counter and put it on your page -- then you'll know if we visit your site. :)
Just for the record, I came on your site once and read a few of your blogs, but I didn't leave any comments. Maybe I should have. :) Well, I really liked your blog about majoring in psychology. Interesting views. :)
Mee
10. Students have become such efficient "scan" or speed readers that they not notice the blog link, which has been pushed off of the main page by newer announcements.
The location problem can be fixed of course, which may lead to high occurances of situations 5, 7, and 9.
But that's another theory for another blog!
=)
Ouch! number 5 is pretty harsh Dr. Price. I do read your blogs, however I did not notice the comment link. Perhaps most students skim through the readings and are not aware of the link. But I can assure you that while this comment is late, I did read your Blog.
Adela
Here can be your first comment, granted it has nothing to do with the post, I just found it interesting because I think this can be the first study that you may not be able to say that there was an outside influence.
http://discovermagazine.com/2008/feb/hope-may-be-useless-against-cancer
All right, thanks everyone. I feel better now. Sort of.
Fascia gets directly at one of the hard things about college level teaching ... and maybe I'll address it in a later blog.
Michael's comment is a kind of paradox, isn't it? And neither he nor acorean is dense.
Toh19444 shares my own feelings about commenting on blogs and such. If I don't think I have something insightful to say, I don't say anything. (I hate those people on Yahoo! Answers who "answer" a question by saying, "Hey, that's a great question!)
Mee is right that I should get a tracker ... but then I would have objective evidence of how irrelevant my blog is.
Andrew and Adela are also right about the non-obviousness of the comment link.
And Scoda89 ... that link wouldn't let me see the article!
I clicked on "comment" with the idea that I would make an account, pick specifically the one entry that people commented most on, which just so happens to be the one calling them out on not commenting(damn apple-polishers), and leave the comment that "some of us don't have a blogspot account and don't want to make one just to comment you stuff because then we'd have to admit that we have a blog account", irony fully intended.
However, that all came crashing down in a glorious hail of burning "ha-ha" when I clicked comment to find that I apparently not only HAD a blogger.com account but that I was also logged into it.
"huh?"
yeah, sounds about right.
I guess this goes off of gmail/google account information as well?
That's not creepy, that's not creepy at all.
Anyway - long story short, most students are probably too used to the lecture model in which you throw info at us and we just suck it up like really crappy sponges and then don't ask questions about it.
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