sielwolf's Journal: Reliable Communication on Unreliable Networks

I had the strangest event during the lab I TA yesterday. It works like this: our class is trying to instill engineering work ethic in the kids. To do this we do group work. The groups are assigned randomly into packs of 3 or 4 kids.

As you can guess this makes for a somewhat messy process. Kids drop, groups have to be divided or merged, and then there is the important X-factor of "What will be the determining dynamic of the group?" Some groups develop great work ethics even when it is least expected. Other times they degenerate into that "We are waaay too cool for this class." This is when you can just tell by the questions they ask that they have no fucking clue what is going on (litmus test: Should they have learned this for the last exam?).

Probably the worst (for the kids anyway) is the combination of the two above extremes: some of the kids are industrious, some are slack-offs. And this is what happened to me.

Two weeks ago: A group of three comes up and says their third member hasn't a) shown up to any of the group meetings and b) hasn't helped on four group assignments. Needless to say they are pissed off. I tell them to go to the Prof (who, despite our spats is pretty good about this stuff) since this is bigger than just a re-org.

Last Weekend: I get an email from the Prof explaining that the rogue member of the above group is now "on his own". The other two member will have extra time to complete their group work (since it is too late in the semester to re-org) while this lone jack-off will have no such benefit.

An Aside: Now, if you got this email, what would you assume? I know that the two "good" students went to talk to the Prof. And I know that he contacted me. Is there anyone out of the loop?

Anyway, I graded the the two seperately. No surprise when the rogue student turned in nothing. Big fat 0 on the project.

Yesterday: I'm sitting in lab and the rogue student calls me over.

Student: "Why did I get no points?"
Me: "You didn't turn anything in."
Student: "But the rest of my group turned in the assignment."
Me: "Uh, the Prof told me that you were working on your own."
Student: *wierd look*
Me: "Ok, I'll check what the Prof sent me and I'll forward what I find out."

In the meantime he goes over and (for probably the first time in five weeks) sits down with his group and says "So what are we working on?"
Rest of his team: "Uh... you aren't in our group any more."
Student: "What?!?"
Team: "Yeah, the Prof put you in your own group."

Naturally you can see where this is going. The rogue student picks up his jacket, curses "The Prof fucked me over!", and storms out of the lab.

Team: "Hey Man, you didn't show up to any of our group meetings, and didn't do any work on the last four group work assignments. Don't act surprised..."

It's true. It wasn't hard to see that it was coming. The fact was that of all the people (his team, the Prof, or myself), no one told him. I rechecked my email and no where did it say that I needed to inform him of his new status.

My conclusion: he doesn't check his campus email. He probably uses MSN or Hotmail or something and is too dense (or tricky) to check his campus account. Naturally since we can't guess his actual account we just send it off to the uni one and assume he must be checking it. And since he was wise enough to not show up to lab for about five weeks straight, it wasn't like his team was going to get some Real World(TM) communication.

Considering my own miscommunication problems as a TA this isn't too big of a shock. I do feel bad for the kid since it was a social humiliation. It wasn't like we all stood up and had a good ol' Point n' Laugh. But getting shown as a parasite, getting dressed down by both his team and the Prof and then not being told... it's no small deal.

Overall it was a strange experience.

Wow...

[eugene ts wong]

Everytime I think that I've seen it all, along comes something that truly surprises me. Thanks for the story.

SUCKER!

[mekkab]

I've done dumb, slacker stuff and had to pay the piper. Whine all you want, but you know you totally deserve it. This will make a man out of him.

The best was when I slept through my Integrated Electronics I final exam. I emailed the professor and his reponse was "You are in trouble. You got a C on the first test, never handed in any homework, and never did a project. Even if you get an A on the test, you'll only get a D in the class. So there's no point in wasting time."

How can you argue with logic

ahh, undergraduates

[brkello]

I am sure he will do one of three things a) like one of your other replies, actually get it in gear the next time around b) drop out or c) become a business major and make more money than all of us combined. I always hated having people like that...but then again, I am the type who in most projects (excluding our AI project beacuse, let's face it, I didn't have a clue what the heck was going on and your project was cool) would rather work with fewer or alone. I usually end up carrying the dumb students I

Re: an update

[sielwolf]

I was talking to my Prof today and supposedly he got an "interesting" email from this kid yesterday. Of course the Prof didn't decide to respond in kind so the kid cooled down and actually decided to maybe play well. Of course he's pretty much screwed now. He has a whole group project to do by himself. Well, I don't care. 4 weeks and I'm done!

Re: an update

[brkello]

Man, if you could only get a hold of that e-mail and post it...that would be fun:)

Re:ahh, undergraduates

[bowronch]

i do like beer.

It looks like what were my thesis credits are now going to be converted into 2 independent studies... so i will be doing similar project that i was going to do for the thesis, i just wont be writing the thesis... i should be done this summer...