Hi Tess,
Hope your class on SF and gender is fun. Don't be surprised, however,
and I'm going on my experience last year in a similar class, if your
students are a lot more conservative than you dreamed was possible.
I have no objection whatsoever to students listening and even
participating in this list, but, again based on experience with other
lists--most notably in children's literature--I'd suggest that they not
only have to know standard netiquette, but a couple of other things as
well.
First, it has to be made very clear to them that this list should not be
used as a substitute for doing research. A question like "What did Elizabeth
Cummins mean in her book on Ursula K. LeGuin when she said (whatever)?" is
likely to be treated with more respect, than a question like "Are there any
good books out there on Ursula K. Le Guin?" (although that one isn't really
all that bad) or, worse yet "Why aren't there any good books on Ursula K.
LeGuin?" (a question a student once asked on a children's lit list I'm on,
believe it or not).
Other bad questions I've seen asked by students who are on an academic or
sercon list because they're taking a class in the subject include "Why do
you guys have to take things so seriously?" "Why do you have to dig so
deep into stuff? Why can't you just enjoy it?" "Don't you guys have any sense
of humor?" (usually asked after the student, speaking out of ignornace, has
said something incredibly insulting).
Other problems:
Students will occasionally ask questions that go beyond what's allowable in
terms of getting help on their papers.
Students will ask genuinely basic questions, that show that they haven't
read the assigned readings for the class. This may even include a request
for plot summaries, believe it or not.
Students will occasionally quote material from the list verbatim in their
own papers (plagarism), often without permission or documentation.
Students who discover that a well-known author can be reached through the
list, will occasionally bug that author well-beyond good manners. (You're
famous, after all. What right do you have to privacy?)
Tess, please note, I'm not trying to discourage you from signing up your
students, but I've seen all these things happen, some of them quite
frequentlym even after students have been warned about how to behave. The
Child-Lit listserv had a very unpleasant experience with a class of students
this past Spring, many of whom committed the above mentioned errors in great
numbers.
Mike Levy
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:06:25 PDT