Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

Yesterday I received e-mail from one of the College of Computer Science students doing their undergraduate thesis in astronomy software. She asked, using text message shorthand (or should I say short-type?) if the text that was supposed to accompany the graphics for the tilt of Saturn was correct.

First of all, it’s e-mail. There are no restrictions for the number of characters like in text messages, nor are there extra keystrokes for getting certain letters. Why can’t she spell out the whole words? Just for that I made my reply to her letter as curt as possible, although in proper grammar and spelling.

Second, I’m not sure if I want to set a precedent that they can just consult by e-mail all the literature in their work that they’re not sure of. If they got it from the same websites that I pointed them to anyway, they should take is as reliable.

As an aside, it’s highly doubtful that their panelists would know more about those topics than them anyway. The panel would probably concentrate on the parts of the presentation that they DO understand, like the shortcuts and/or enhancements they could have used in the animation and in the screen transitions.

So I just replied that as far as I could compare with the references I gave them, it was correct. I also asked if there was any particular word or phrase in the explanation that they were unsure or unclear about?

I would have been more receptive to a specific question about the alignment of the angles of the orbits of the Earth and Saturn or some such point that will tell me at least they know the other parts of their write-up are satisfactory.

This (I think I’ve mentioned here before) is also my attitude towards students who consult on the subjects I teach: they have to show me that they’ve made an effort to understand the lesson beyond the lecture.

When I’m faced with a student who asks to speak to me outside the classroom and says that he or she cannot comprehend anything, that’s when I tend to clam up and resist answering.

This is especially true if I know the student was present during the lecture. Why didn’t they clear up their confusion then? Do they think so low of themselves that they believe their classmates would be inconvenienced if they asked for a certain concept to be cleared up? It would probably be helpful to their classmates also.

Besides, they ought to look at it from my point of view when I’m giving them very opportunity to clarify the lesson and they don’t take it. Therefore I can only conclude that they weren’t paying attention in class instead of being ashamed to speak up.

Tomorrow is our workshop in Quezon, on a beach facing the southwest, I found out. It’s in the town of Unisan, which I was able to find in Microsoft Encarta’s World Altas online. It has a view of Marinduque Island across the water, and maybe Mindoro farther off.

That means no posts for Thursday and Friday. Saturday is also iffy, depending on whether I’ll be going to school, staying in Quezon during the staff workshop, or resting for the start of classes on Monday.