Attention, Attention

We're fully in summative mode in ICS3M. E/one is working on it in class. One thing that all levels of the summative can use (as a bonus) is the ability to write text to files. So, I spent about 10 mins in class today going over how to do this. What surprised me was the number of students who didn't even bother to pay attention and this was even though I'd told then that it would only take about 10 minutes and that they would need this if they were to go for the bonuse marks on any of the summative levels.

What is perplexing me about this? That it is so clearly in their interest to listen so that they know how to do it and that they aren't? Is it the case that it's not clear to them that it's in their interest?

I'm inclined to think that they are assuming that they don't need to listen now. That they'll be able to get this info from me later when the information will be immediately useful. If I thought this behaviour just came under the heading of general rudeness, that would be one thing. But one student that I particularly singled out for not listening was quite open and nice with me afterwards. It's not intentional rudeness however much it might incidentally be rude.

Perhaps it's the internet generation (Gen I) thing. They're used to information on demand so they just assume that that's how it will be with what I was giving them today.