To laugh or not to laugh!
Originally Posted Wednesday, July 27, 2005
There are a few things that happen throughout the course of the day that can cause you to either laugh or cry depending on the situation. Let me give you a few examples.
“Can you help me with a lab?” a student asks
“Sure, let’s take a look” I say.
“I’m supposed to set up certain permissions and groups according to the lab, then create a dummy web site and restrict who can see the main page.”
“Ok” I say “Sounds simple enough, where are you stuck?” I ask
“Well I setup the permissions like it says and then the groups, and then the web site”
“And den?”
“And then it doesn’t work” he explains.
“Can I take a look at the lab?” Grabbing his book I take a quick scan over the current lab he is working on, I then proceed to check over all the settings to make sure they are the same as the lab. Sure enough they are all the same. I then log into his fake website to see if the proper people are denied access. At this point I see the failure; everyone has access to his website. Interestingly enough after turning the page in his lab book I can see that this is exactly what the lab wanted in order to teach the student about permissions. This student has been struggling with the lab for well over an hour now.
“Interesting” I say. “Have you turned the page yet?”
“No, was I supposed to?” he asks.
“Well that would be the next logical step” I hand his book back to him “read the first paragraph on the next page for me please.”
He takes the book from me and begins mumbling under his breath, his eyes darting back and forth over each line.
“Oh….” He says aloud “Oh….OH…..I see, well that’s really funny” He laughs.
Yeah funny that’s exactly what I was thinking of. Who would have thought you needed to turn the page to figure out what the problem was.
Now this is a situation where you just want to cry. It’s an honest mistake you say! Yes I would agree, if it was a one-time event, but this is the most common event to plague the students. Maybe we need to write to the publishers and have them include a statement at the bottom of each page “SEE NEXT PAGE!” I do believe these people are the for most cause of why we have such labels as “Caution, content in cup maybe hot” or “do not point air nozzle at eyes”
Let’s move onto our next example shall we?
“So how did your student do on his final exam?” I ask a fellow teacher.
“He failed”
“Well, the tests can be difficult; they cause a person to learn a lot of useless terminology and not a lot of real life situations”
“I think the tests are very accurate” he says sounding offended by my last comment.
“So you’re telling me that out in the real world you will have no outside influence, no outside resources, and that the CEO you’re explaining the situation to really cares about the difference between Winblows DOS, and a DoS attack, or any of the other technical jargon that makes up over 40% of each test? Or do you think he just cares if you can get the job done?”
“I don’t think you should take a job unless you know every single thing that might come up while on that job,” (yeah good luck with that one) “and I think the tests do a damn good job at that.” He says puffing out his chest at me.
“Really, answer me this” trying to stay as calm as I possibly can while asking this “How long have you worked out in the field”
“About 3 months after graduating here, and I didn’t come across anything that wasn’t covered in the course or test”
“Wow that’s a long time out in the field you must know everything about Microsoft administration.” (He thinks he is an MCSE God) “look” I say “It’s impossible to know everything about something, and sooner or later your going to need someone’s help even if that means doing some research on the internet”
“Well I haven’t yet?”
I ended the conversation there, but I wouldn’t have to wait long before my theory would be proven. The teacher in question also thinks he is an expert at computer repair in every aspect.
Moments later a student who had been sitting at one of the computer stations preparing to do a lab was having some difficulty trying to get into the bios of an old Compaq Presario desktop computer. His teacher happened to be the so-called “expert”.
I watch as he approaches his teacher and begins to ask questions. I can’t hear the exchange but I can see the student pointing at the computer and making odd hand gestures trying to relay what he has already tried in remedying the situation. I then see the teacher exchange words also with several hand gestures. It’s starting to look like the monkey cage at the zoo. Before long both of them return to the suspect machine which happens to be right in front of my desk. I listen in as the teacher tells the student that Compaq’s are proprietary systems and that includes the way you enter the bios. This statement is true, one point teacher.
“You need to press the F10 key on Compaq’s to enter the bios”
“Actually” I interject “depending on the Compaq model, the way you enter the bios can vary, we wouldn’t want the student to be led to believe that it’s always going to be F10”
“Well yeah, but for this model its F10”
WRONG, two points me.
I sit back and enjoy the monkey half time show being presented to me. If only I had a banana, video camera, and a midget clown I might actually be amused by all of this. After several reboots and attempts to enter the bios, I can see that the teacher is getting a little frustrated.
“Need any help?” I ask with a smug face.
“Ah…..no……um, I don’t know what is going on, I think the system is hosed” he says.
“Why do you say that?”
“Well the book says to enter the bios to hit the F10 key repeatedly”
Trying not to laugh in his face I say “And it’s not working, what will we do now?”
He now tells the student to hold on, he then proceeds to sit down at a working station and open Internet Explorer.
Using outside sources to help your feeble mind, two more points to me.
“Tap….tap…tap….”
“Excuse me…..but are you so stumped that you’re looking on the internet for the answer?”
Two more points, me.
“Well there is obviously something wrong with the machine because I am hitting the correct key at the correct time.”
“True” I say “but on the older models you also needed the diagnostic tools loaded in order to access the bios. Are you sure those are loaded?”
“That’s ridiculous……I’ve never heard of that.”
After several minutes of him clicking through countless web pages I see him get a puzzled look on his face.
“hmmmmm…….funny” he says “looks like that model needs some sort of diagnostic tools loaded to enter the bios”
Gets the rebound, shoots, and boom goes the dynamite.
“Really, how odd that information wasn’t in a book or on any test. Instead you needed outside information to find your answer. I guess if you were out in the field working on a client’s machine with no outside help, you would be screwed right now”
He says not a word but only gives me a glare, the student who had also heard the earlier conversation looks over at me and smiles. I begin to laugh hysterically out loud.
If you don’t understand the above story, try turning the page.
There are a few things that happen throughout the course of the day that can cause you to either laugh or cry depending on the situation. Let me give you a few examples.
“Can you help me with a lab?” a student asks
“Sure, let’s take a look” I say.
“I’m supposed to set up certain permissions and groups according to the lab, then create a dummy web site and restrict who can see the main page.”
“Ok” I say “Sounds simple enough, where are you stuck?” I ask
“Well I setup the permissions like it says and then the groups, and then the web site”
“And den?”
“And then it doesn’t work” he explains.
“Can I take a look at the lab?” Grabbing his book I take a quick scan over the current lab he is working on, I then proceed to check over all the settings to make sure they are the same as the lab. Sure enough they are all the same. I then log into his fake website to see if the proper people are denied access. At this point I see the failure; everyone has access to his website. Interestingly enough after turning the page in his lab book I can see that this is exactly what the lab wanted in order to teach the student about permissions. This student has been struggling with the lab for well over an hour now.
“Interesting” I say. “Have you turned the page yet?”
“No, was I supposed to?” he asks.
“Well that would be the next logical step” I hand his book back to him “read the first paragraph on the next page for me please.”
He takes the book from me and begins mumbling under his breath, his eyes darting back and forth over each line.
“Oh….” He says aloud “Oh….OH…..I see, well that’s really funny” He laughs.
Yeah funny that’s exactly what I was thinking of. Who would have thought you needed to turn the page to figure out what the problem was.
Now this is a situation where you just want to cry. It’s an honest mistake you say! Yes I would agree, if it was a one-time event, but this is the most common event to plague the students. Maybe we need to write to the publishers and have them include a statement at the bottom of each page “SEE NEXT PAGE!” I do believe these people are the for most cause of why we have such labels as “Caution, content in cup maybe hot” or “do not point air nozzle at eyes”
Let’s move onto our next example shall we?
“So how did your student do on his final exam?” I ask a fellow teacher.
“He failed”
“Well, the tests can be difficult; they cause a person to learn a lot of useless terminology and not a lot of real life situations”
“I think the tests are very accurate” he says sounding offended by my last comment.
“So you’re telling me that out in the real world you will have no outside influence, no outside resources, and that the CEO you’re explaining the situation to really cares about the difference between Winblows DOS, and a DoS attack, or any of the other technical jargon that makes up over 40% of each test? Or do you think he just cares if you can get the job done?”
“I don’t think you should take a job unless you know every single thing that might come up while on that job,” (yeah good luck with that one) “and I think the tests do a damn good job at that.” He says puffing out his chest at me.
“Really, answer me this” trying to stay as calm as I possibly can while asking this “How long have you worked out in the field”
“About 3 months after graduating here, and I didn’t come across anything that wasn’t covered in the course or test”
“Wow that’s a long time out in the field you must know everything about Microsoft administration.” (He thinks he is an MCSE God) “look” I say “It’s impossible to know everything about something, and sooner or later your going to need someone’s help even if that means doing some research on the internet”
“Well I haven’t yet?”
I ended the conversation there, but I wouldn’t have to wait long before my theory would be proven. The teacher in question also thinks he is an expert at computer repair in every aspect.
Moments later a student who had been sitting at one of the computer stations preparing to do a lab was having some difficulty trying to get into the bios of an old Compaq Presario desktop computer. His teacher happened to be the so-called “expert”.
I watch as he approaches his teacher and begins to ask questions. I can’t hear the exchange but I can see the student pointing at the computer and making odd hand gestures trying to relay what he has already tried in remedying the situation. I then see the teacher exchange words also with several hand gestures. It’s starting to look like the monkey cage at the zoo. Before long both of them return to the suspect machine which happens to be right in front of my desk. I listen in as the teacher tells the student that Compaq’s are proprietary systems and that includes the way you enter the bios. This statement is true, one point teacher.
“You need to press the F10 key on Compaq’s to enter the bios”
“Actually” I interject “depending on the Compaq model, the way you enter the bios can vary, we wouldn’t want the student to be led to believe that it’s always going to be F10”
“Well yeah, but for this model its F10”
WRONG, two points me.
I sit back and enjoy the monkey half time show being presented to me. If only I had a banana, video camera, and a midget clown I might actually be amused by all of this. After several reboots and attempts to enter the bios, I can see that the teacher is getting a little frustrated.
“Need any help?” I ask with a smug face.
“Ah…..no……um, I don’t know what is going on, I think the system is hosed” he says.
“Why do you say that?”
“Well the book says to enter the bios to hit the F10 key repeatedly”
Trying not to laugh in his face I say “And it’s not working, what will we do now?”
He now tells the student to hold on, he then proceeds to sit down at a working station and open Internet Explorer.
Using outside sources to help your feeble mind, two more points to me.
“Tap….tap…tap….”
“Excuse me…..but are you so stumped that you’re looking on the internet for the answer?”
Two more points, me.
“Well there is obviously something wrong with the machine because I am hitting the correct key at the correct time.”
“True” I say “but on the older models you also needed the diagnostic tools loaded in order to access the bios. Are you sure those are loaded?”
“That’s ridiculous……I’ve never heard of that.”
After several minutes of him clicking through countless web pages I see him get a puzzled look on his face.
“hmmmmm…….funny” he says “looks like that model needs some sort of diagnostic tools loaded to enter the bios”
Gets the rebound, shoots, and boom goes the dynamite.
“Really, how odd that information wasn’t in a book or on any test. Instead you needed outside information to find your answer. I guess if you were out in the field working on a client’s machine with no outside help, you would be screwed right now”
He says not a word but only gives me a glare, the student who had also heard the earlier conversation looks over at me and smiles. I begin to laugh hysterically out loud.
If you don’t understand the above story, try turning the page.
posted by Mr. Cheese @ 10:36 PM
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