Sorry pen and paper, your golden age has come to an end. Taking notes is faster with a computer, and researching and writing papers can be done simultaneously. The only trouble is all this technology can be a real problem for professors.

Professors often find themselves vying for the attention of their students during class period. Facebook chatting, emailing, playing games, or watching silly video clips is normal behavior I’ve noticed as a college student. I don’t think it’s fair to the college professors to prepare a lecture only to have a dead audience, so I’m going to spill the beans. I’ll reveal some ways to help you know what your class is really up to.

Often times it’s obvious when students aren’t paying attention. You can almost predict whether they will be listening or not depending on the class and the hour. If you teach an early morning class or a difficult subject, you will have a harder time keeping an attentive audience. Also, if you don’t have strict computer policies, you are more likely to have students using their computers for other purposes.

Now, for the actual giveaways. When students giggle even though you’ve said nothing humorous, click a lot, have glazed eyes, or keep up a constant stream of typing when no one else in the class is typing, they’re probably not listening. Also, little or no eye contact and sighs or expressions of frustration can be indicators of gaming. For those of you with Mac users in the class don’t let them fool you. Macs have a setting called hot corners that serves as short cuts when the user positions the mouse in one of the four corners of the screen. One setting can enable everything pulled up, all documents, chats, or online screens to disappear. Another setting allows the computer to go to sleep. Many college students will use these features when they see their professor approaching. It takes one second so Mac users are very hard to catch red-handed. The trick with the first setting is to know that as soon as you place the mouse back in that corner, all the things hidden will instantly reappear. In the case of sending the computer to sleep, if you’re fast enough, it won’t have time to go to sleep. Of course you’ll have to figure out which corner was used, since the students can set up their computers differently, but you should be able to figure it out.

With these tips, hopefully your class won’t get the best of you. Speaking of letting people get the best of you, technology doesn’t have to be your enemy. As a matter of fact, technology can be your friend. Take home security systems as an example. Installing a security monitoring system can keep your home safe and prevent thieves from taking advantage of you.

To get more information on Home Security Alarm Systems, please visit www.smithmonitoring.com to get the best advice on Atlanta Home Security Alarms available.

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Filed under: PC Security

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