2008 Woodie Awards
Youtube.com Users Targets Professors
Scott Jaschik/for insidehighered.com/AcademicImpressions
Issue date: 10/5/06 Section: Features
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If you don't like what RateMyProfessors.com has done for the image of professors, get ready for the YouTube effect.
YouTube is the immensely popular Web site where people post videos of themselves and their friends hanging out, doing mock television shows, watching television, or just about anything you can imagine in front of a video camera of some sort.
Because YouTube is very popular with college students, it should probably come as no surprise that they are posting videos of course scenes on the Web site - and judging from interviews with the "stars" of these postings, the professors aren't being asked or giving permission for the filming.
Nonetheless, some of the videos feature professors' names, disciplines and institutions.
Judith Thorpe, who just retired from teaching at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, had no idea that someone had filmed her class and posted it, with her name.
Matt Kearly had no idea that what claims to be a biology lecture he gave this month at Auburn University had been posted.
In other cases, professors aren't named, but they are clearly visible and held up to ridicule - as in the video of a professor who is not a native speaker of English mispronouncing a word repeatedly, and made fun of by the student who posted the video. The word is "glucocorticoids" - not a word many non-experts would necessarily use with ease.
To be sure, many of the videos of campus scenes are from public events - protests, strikes, inaugurations. And many more are just silly and don't invade anyone's privacy. But many others involve filming courses, or staging events in courses.
The boredom of lectures is a frequent theme, with audio of a professor talking while students look bored - or in the case of one student at Southern Methodist University, fight a losing battle to stay awake.
Hijinks are also common, in many cases interrupting classes. There's the student who talks about honoring his great grandfather's birthday by mooning a large lecture class. (Warning/spoiler: He goes through with it, so the link may be more detail than you want.) Indiana University students revel at Halloween by interrupting classes as the Village People or portraying scenes from Ghostbusters.
YouTube is the immensely popular Web site where people post videos of themselves and their friends hanging out, doing mock television shows, watching television, or just about anything you can imagine in front of a video camera of some sort.
Because YouTube is very popular with college students, it should probably come as no surprise that they are posting videos of course scenes on the Web site - and judging from interviews with the "stars" of these postings, the professors aren't being asked or giving permission for the filming.
Nonetheless, some of the videos feature professors' names, disciplines and institutions.
Judith Thorpe, who just retired from teaching at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, had no idea that someone had filmed her class and posted it, with her name.
Matt Kearly had no idea that what claims to be a biology lecture he gave this month at Auburn University had been posted.
In other cases, professors aren't named, but they are clearly visible and held up to ridicule - as in the video of a professor who is not a native speaker of English mispronouncing a word repeatedly, and made fun of by the student who posted the video. The word is "glucocorticoids" - not a word many non-experts would necessarily use with ease.
To be sure, many of the videos of campus scenes are from public events - protests, strikes, inaugurations. And many more are just silly and don't invade anyone's privacy. But many others involve filming courses, or staging events in courses.
The boredom of lectures is a frequent theme, with audio of a professor talking while students look bored - or in the case of one student at Southern Methodist University, fight a losing battle to stay awake.
Hijinks are also common, in many cases interrupting classes. There's the student who talks about honoring his great grandfather's birthday by mooning a large lecture class. (Warning/spoiler: He goes through with it, so the link may be more detail than you want.) Indiana University students revel at Halloween by interrupting classes as the Village People or portraying scenes from Ghostbusters.
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