What it's like to teach on Discord | Hacker News Reader

What it's like to teach on Discord

daniilp2.web.illinois.edu

12 pointsdplyukhin11 comments

> The Ugly.

> I don't think the situation would have played out this way if I hadn't used Discord.

I have to disagree. Your students probably would have connected on Discord or another chat service anyways (even before the pandemic/lockdowns!), and they would have made the same comments, except you would not have heard them.

Source: current student (though not in university).

The CS students in my University had an unofficial Discord server even before covid and I saw what happened in the story play out many times in that server.

Probably true! Maybe it’s a good thing that I could see the controversy and try to reassure them. Would be even better if I could have prevented the panic cascade in the first place.

From your post:

> Nevertheless, this experience took a pretty serious emotional toll on me. It's hard to feel like you're letting your students down.

I want you to know that especially among younger people such as myself, complaining (or "venting") is often used as a way of releasing stress after an exam. I don't think you should take it personally. Frankly, you sound like an incredible teacher for caring about your students' feedback about the exam, however misguided.

EDIT: I should add, the fact that your students felt comfortable complaining about your exam on your server, and not elsewhere, is a result of your inclusiveness (which is apparent in the actions detailed in your post).

I hadn’t considered that! So there’s a kind of emotional discussion students need to have, that usually would take place without me knowing it. By using Discord for the class, I merged the “official” discussion (which is my responsibility) with the rest of the discussion (which maybe isn’t). I can’t decide whether that’s a desirable outcome.

Behavior and professionalism should be a class day 1 in any university. Students do not know what that is, and therefore they don't understand how to conduct themselves on this discord. They think it's like text messaging - a place to complain and talk drama - but it's not. Sadly universities are wholey occupied in politically aligning themselves blue with focusing on progressive topics before the basics.

People are growing up with the internet, but theyre only seeing Twitter or Reddit drama. Comment sections. They have to be told that's not what a professional forum is and how to conduct productively in a collaboration.

> Sadly universities are wholey occupied in politically aligning themselves blue with focusing on progressive topics before the basics.

this is not an educated opinion in any way.

go live overseas, in a 1st world nation, by yourself, for any amount of time greater than a year, learn the the basics of the politics of that country, then come back to the US, go to college here, and tell anyone honestly that colleges in the US focus on 'being blue' before "the basics".

if you can do that without lying, you didn't do the homework of actually living overseas alone (away from echo chambers and US media influence).

laughable

The left-wing of the US is more right-wing than any other 1st world country, except MAYBE the UK and Australia. Maybe, depending on what you learn about social programs in the country you choose to live.

The US is so unbelievably red compared to anywhere else. it is insane to me to hear anyone complain that anything in the US is "blue" at all.

Where overseas exactly? I don't recall any international students having to take classes on sensitivity to other cultures, their privilege, and how everything has to be non offensive and accepting. Where disagreement is viewed as hostile.

Day 1 as a uni student that's what U.S. universities continually go over for a whole semester. It's driven to the point of propaganda, and is clearly messaging that is coming from political sources, not academic ones.

It’s really not that deep. I’ve been on good amount of class discords these past few years, and the culture of each discord is set by the class.

Students may sometimes talk more freely on discord, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. People are more willing to ask “stupid” questions, which is usually a good thing.

> Behavior and professionalism should be a class day 1 in any university. Students do not know what that is, and therefore they don't understand how to conduct themselves on this discord.

> Sadly universities are wholey occupied in politically aligning themselves blue with focusing on progressive topics before the basics.

I fail to see the cause and effect here. Care to elaborate?

> Sadly universities are wholey occupied in politically aligning themselves blue with focusing on progressive topics before the basics.

Actually, we badly need a class dedicated to the software engineer’s role in perpetuating racist, sexist, and classist systems. I’ve seen nothing of the sort at three different schools. You could even throw in a lecture on professionalism in the workplace!

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