<p>I'm just wondering, do any of you have teachers that assume every one in class has a computer at home? Many of mine do, and since I have a laptop I can get most of it done, save I have to print something. Some teachers just deny credit to assignments that are handwritten. I've talked to teachers about it, they just say "Go to the library!". But what about people with busy sports schedules and what not-those with computers at home can access them at any time, while I've never heard of a library that is open past 9.
Am I the only one that's seriously irked by this? It is inconvenient and downright unfair to people who might not be able to afford a computer & printer.</p>
<p>Can you email your assignments to teachers? A lot of my teachers accept that.</p>
<p>Low-quality printers are pretty cheap.</p>
<p>that’s sort of what I do (print assignments out on the teacher’s computer). however, I’m only able to type stuff up in the first place when I have a laptop, and this past month I was without one, and I had to type stuff up on the computer at my grandparent’s house. It was extremely inconvenient and stressful to constantly go back and forth between my house and theirs, so now I’m worried what I’ll do if I’m without a laptop again, and am wondering if anybody else has this kind of problem.</p>
<p>@halcyon wi-fi printers normally aren’t.</p>
<p>You can’t plug a printer’s USB cord into your laptop?</p>
<p>@halcyon Sorry that I’m not completely familiar with how that works. Anyway it doesn’t matter for me since I print stuff I typed on the teacher’s computer. But, when I didn’t have my laptop, I wouldn’t have been able to do that or use a printer at home at all. Fortunately I was able to use the computer at my grandparent’s house but what if I didn’t have relatives or friends in the area with computers?</p>
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<p>I’m an idiot and I do it all the time, so it must be really easy. Any old cheap printer will probably come with a USB cord…you plug one end into the printer and one end into the laptop, and then you can install the printer and print stuff off the laptop whenever you plug it into the printer.</p>
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<p>Library. Academics > extracurriculars, in general. I know there might be other reasons why someone couldn’t get to the library, though, like having to work or not having transportation.
In this day and age it might be reasonable to assume everyone has access to a computer, but I’m not sure. They should do a study on it.</p>
<p>No, I mean why don’t you email your teacher with the file attachment and then he/she grades it from her computer?</p>
<p>I really doubt there are many families who cannot obtain a printer. If you search on inkjet printer, you can see top brands being advertised for $40, and printers last for years; one printer will probably see all the kids through high school. Any family whose teen can afford to be out playing sports instead of working can presumably afford to buy one. A family for whom that would pose a hardship might be able to get a donated one for free through some social service agency, or else buy one used, I am sure you could find something dirt cheap. The same thing goes for computers. We have several old ones in our house that I’m sure we couldn’t give away, but they would work fine for typing papers. Ink is expensive, but the printing needs of one high school student wouldn’t cost all that much.</p>
<p>Students can also arrange to use the computers at school. I know it’s possible for kids to print things out at our school, although obviously the school discourages this due to cost. But I expect if a kid on free school lunch spoke to the administration about hardship they would be able to arrange to do the printing at school.</p>
<p>@mathyone thats seems like a good solution but requires awful amount of fuss over something so miniscule. Why can’t teachers accept handwritten assignments? If they were perfectly acceptable 10 years ago, what’s so bad about having to read a few occassionally today?</p>
<p>Actually, some of my daughter’s teachers required assignments to be handwritten. Since she touch types at 85 wpm, this slowed her down considerably, and I felt very bad watching her shaking the cramps out of her hand during the several hours it took to hand write these long assignments. </p>
<p>If you ever had to grade a lot of papers, I think you would understand why some teachers would prefer typed. But I agree that if it represents a hardship for some student that the school should be willing to find a workable solution. </p>
<p>Many of my kids’ assignments require internet access, and that is a much larger problem anyhow, since you could buy a cheap computer and printer for what we pay for just a year’s worth of the cheapest internet available in our area.</p>
<p>Teachers are still requiring take-home assignments to be written by hand? In class essays, sure, but what are they hoping to accomplish with handwritten homework instead of typed? (Aside from illegibility.) Trying to stop plagiarism?</p>
<p>When I was a junior I bought myself a netbook with my babysitting money. Great investment. My teachers let me take notes on it. (May have violated school policy. The handbook was ambiguous. But I could get away with anything at my school. Including rollerblading past the principal on the second floor of school.) I also didn’t have to worry about needing to use the family computer at the same time as my parents or brother.</p>
<p>As for printing, we were able to print at school in the library. Really ****ed off the librarian when I had to print 3 copies of my IB Psych internal assessment, each 20 pages long. :)</p>
<p>Yes, the handwritten assignments were done to fight plagiarism. I thought it was stupid because these were just extremely long detailed outlines of the reading, assigned to help the kids learn the material. Since they were being assessed on the material on exams anyhow, I didn’t think it was appropriate for the teacher to micromanage how they prepared for those exams. And those who plagiarized the outlines were rewarded with lousy exam scores. It’s not as though their plagiarism would earn them an undeserved A as it might have for a plagiarized paper.</p>
<p>We have to handwrite assignments sometimes as practice for exams and so the teachers can check that our handwriting is legible enough.</p>
<p>My English teacher requires all assignments to be typed. We have a library at the school so you can print the morning of. Also if you tell her ahead of time you can email things to her. </p>
<p>For students who don’t have a computer at home they’ll usually told to use the school library. School comes before sports and clubs. Also you can use the school library from six in the morning to eight at night. </p>
<p>There are very few cases where a student really isn’t able to get something typed and printed. If a student had some really specific situation I’m sure teachers would understand. But unless you say so ahead of time, I had a game doesn’t cut it.</p>