Re: [Phys-l] Cheating, a great argument against online courses.

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

Unfortunately this doesn't work for all.  There are people like me who can't
remember names.  Actually in my HS class of 20 I had trouble remembering the
names of fellow students.  Pictures do help.  I have a great memory for
faces, but the names don't connect well.  I have tried everything, and
nothing works.  But I do know the faces of my students so ghost test taking,
except by identical twins would be impossible.

Actually I did have a pair of identical twins in the same class, but they
had different personalities which was immediately evident from facial
expressions, and I remembered their names.  I connect names with
personalities, and not with faces.  They were exact mirrors physically, and
one was a lefty, while the other was a righty.  The lefty seemed to have
some dyslexia and was known to not perform as well, but in my class the two
were equal.  PER does help many types of LD as well as promoting better
understanding of physics and gain on the Lawson test.

One administrator considered that my inability to remember names was
laziness on my part.  But it really is where my LD comes out strongly.  They
would take great pity on an LD student, but god forbid they would do this
for a teacher.  This is one reason why I have learned to spot LD problems
and actually to a certain extent diagnose them.  You really do not
understand how people feel, and how they hide this type of problem if you
don't have some LD yourself.  The US Army sows this negative attitude by
denying medical help to soldiers who have had brain damage from concussive
blasts.  If you can't see the wound they deny it exists!  Here again you
have an example of how people's paradigms prevent them from paying attention
to the research and the evidence.  If you personally can't see the problem,
it doesn't exist!

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

> I take pictures of all my students on the first day of class. It allows me
> to connect the face with the name as I grade homework. It also helps jog
> my memory when one of them asks for a recommendation 5 years later. Using
> this method I get all the names down in about two weeks. Many students
> remark how they appreciate it and how they have gone entire semesters
> without instructors knowing their name.
>
> Bob at PC