Friday, July 06, 2007

Desi Stockton's Tips for Classroom Management

Well, ok, I have no tips to share. I am usually busy helping students rez things and balance text on lap and keyboard in hand...

But, this week - my BEST student (excellent writer, diligent, yadda yadda) was being all GRIEFY is class! OMG!

How does a professor respond? Um, in Real Life class, I said "Joe...cut it out" and in open chat I said "Joe...cut it out" and in IM I said "cut it out." He didn't cut it out. Any advice out there?

A few days ago, I hosted some trainings on ethical use of Flickr, YouTube, and Vixy. In one class, I had an ACADEMIC being absolutely disruptive (acting like it was a social affair and not an actual class). I immed her (nicely) and said "cut it out" and, guess what, she didn't.

In thinking about it and chatting with friends, they suggested I charge for these lessons to prevent people from being moronic. But, charging for education is against the mission of Literature Alive! So, I am not doing that. Another friend suggested I use the EJECT button, but, I don't own any of my land, you see, so I don't have those yummy powers.

So....what to do? Someone send xanax or a tazer? How do others handle this?

7 comments:

Jean-Claude Bradley said...

Well you could contact the land owner for some help with eviction...

AJ said...

As a means of last resort, when all diplomacy has failed, even if you are on land that is not your own, I think you can use your MystiTool. I don't have it here in front of me, but the command is something like /1 TP Home (name of person to send home). This returns them to the spot indicated as their "home".

As a shameless plug, both the free and full-version MystiTool are available in the CHSS Instructor Resource Room on the Montclair State CHSS Island - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Montclair%20State%20CHSS/226/213/23

Anonymous said...

Beth- I too have had a similar experience. In my rented space I had people just chatting in my place. I was trying to have a presentation upstairs, I asked them to go elsewhere they did not. I have been thinking of getting locks for my doors and talking to my landlord about eject options. I think I will check out the MystiTool.

One of the first things I will teach new people is some SL etiquette and maybe pass a note card with expected behaviors for participation in classes.

Eloise said...

Sadly llTeleportAgentHome, the function that the MystiTool uses, relies on being over the owner's land. Check out http://www.lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=llTeleportAgentHome

Anonymous said...

Hey Beth,

I don't understand ... you said you hosted the event ... which means you should have had BAN rights ... and since you are now on EduIsland II, right next door, I can assure you that Fleet will hook you up, if he hasn't already, and give you the power to ban. I've got it and tried it with my alt, it worked wonderfully. They are bounced and cannot return until you "unban" them. Of course, they can come back as a new avatar, in which case you ban them again, but ... it's still effective.

The MystiTool "cage" module also works wonderfully, you could try that, and you can do it anywhere, if you own the land or not.

Also, you said this was a student, which means you control at least a portion of their grade in the course, correct? Is that not the case?

-kj-

Beth Ritter-Guth said...

This didn't happen on Edu Island II (I use about 12 different properties in SL for Ltierature Alive!).

you are right, KJ; this student SHOULD receive some sort of grade deducation for being obnoxious? The problem? I didn't place rule about virtual conduct in my syllabus :-(

Beth Ritter-Guth said...

Opps, send SEND too quicly; your suggestion is a good one (even if you dont make it directly). I should think about where classes are held and what rights I have to the land. Drexel and EI2 are two places that have given me full perms to use the tazer. I need to check perms on the others.