“And don’t give me “the modern students are visual learners” nonsense. When they eventually have to get a job, they aren’t going to get a Powerpoint presentation at the job interview.”
Your attitude is typical of my professors. I process auditory very slowly, and I am bipolar. Plenty of finals were my funeral since I was likely to have a manic or depressive episode. But I adapted by finding professors that were lenient towards attendance and willing to work with me. My GPA was a 2.04 but on the ETS exit field test I scored in the 93rd percentile thanks to the few compassionate professors that recognized I needed help. And, as a matter of fact, my current job does not require my attendance. It turns out that employers can make allowances for handicaps. So, when you provide alternate methods of instruction for students, you are doing any impaired student a favor, and they might not want to disclose to you their disability.
Now, you seem to think that you are really smart and prepared. Yet you have this problem that you can’t solve. You’ve whined that you can’t tell if students are IMing or emailing or whether they are paying any attention to your lectures at all.
Get a remote control mouse and lecture from the back of the room.
Free yourself from the podium and walk amongst your students.
