Three months ago, I eagerly anticipated my grades as I sought to boost my CGPA so that I might participate in the co-op program this fall


By Sarshar Hosseinnia
Published: March 16, 2009

I was pleased with the outcome of three of my courses, but intrigued as to why it was taking so long to get a mark for Philosophy 241: Philosophy in Literature.

To be fair, I think the course was a joke; the professor barely showed up, and when he did, his teaching was questionable, to say the least.

A course that was supposed to be about literary icons such as Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, et cetera, soon turned into piffle about whether or not we should kill ourselves, and the role of apes in Early-Modern society.

Fair enough; the reason for debate about where humans originated is parallel to numerous theories regarding man’s existence. But really, the title of the course is, “in literature.”

As if the communication breakdown didn’t cause the class enough confusion, we were also subjected to films that most students were shown in high school.

Again, I agree that Lord of the Flies and The Lives of Others are key films in any argument of morality, but did it really need to take up 12 of our lectures? . . . --NewsHammer 3/19/2009

Continue reading the March 16, 2009 article from Simon Fraser University's The Peak.

Surfing the Web may soon disappear entirely from Georgetown classrooms, as a growing number of professors enact policies either banning or discouraging laptop use during lectures and discussion sections


By Kevin Suyo
Published: February 9, 2009

For David Goldfrank, a professor in the department of history, the turning point came at the beginning of a World History II discussion section in 2007.

“I started with a directed question, and the student replied, ‘Wait a minute, please. I need to turn on my computer where I have my notes,’” Goldfrank said. “[ … As a professor,] I don’t want to know what is in your computer; I want to know what is in your head.”

From then on, Goldfrank said, he has banned laptops from all of his classes.

With these sorts of policies, Georgetown follows an increasingly popular trend that has been documented at colleges nationwide, including Yale University and The George Washington University.

Georgetown Law Professor David Cole conducted a test in one of his courses that resulted in 80 percent of students stating that they are more engaged without their computers in class, 70 percent of students liking his no-laptop policy, and 95 percent of students confessing that they had used their laptop for purposes not relating to the course material, he said in a recent Op-Ed in The Washington Post. . . . --NewsHammer 2/15/2009

Continue reading the Feb 9, 2009 article from Georgetown University's The Hoya.