English Composition
I believe that so called “canned notes” should not be allowed for college classes. Canned notes are for lazy people that don’t want to have to work for a good grade. They are for people that just want to cheat their way through life. The whole point of college is learning to think for yourself and how to excel in life. Having canned notes available to students defeats the whole purpose.
Professor Todd Gitlin wrote an article on his experience with canned notes. When he was teaching a class at Berkley University in 1980 the student government started a program called black lightning. This was where a graduate student would sit in on lectures, take notes on it, and then sell the notes to the students. Professor Gitlin allowed one of these students to sit in on his class for a semester. At first he was impressed with the notes from black lightning. Then he started to notice that attendence and class participation were starting to decline. Most students still showed up but weren’t there in “spirit”. They were just there to be there. So at the end of the semester Professor Gitlin stopped giving black lightning permission to take notes in his class.
Based on the information provided by the students comments I would have to agree with the majority of them, that canned notes should not be allowed. They should not be allowed simply by the fact that you are paying for your hard work and for good professors. If things were that easy then you wouldn’t have to pay so much for an education. You could just pick up your canned notes with your groceries at Albertsons and then show up for a test every once in a while and get handed a diploma at some point. Instead you have to work for an education by showing up to your classes and take notes so that you can better understand the material. You learn a lot more by taking your own notes and you appreciate the money you spent for a proper education.
Although canned notes would come in handy for those students who have hardly any note taking ability, they would still be more likely to succeed if they took their own notes. If the notes were just given away these students would most likely start to question if they even needed to go to class. Also if the student has bad comprehension; reading someone elses notes on the lecture wouldn’t help them understand it any better. In fact, they would be less likely to understand it at all.
The most important thing about lectures is deciding for yourself what information is important and writing that information down so that you can remember it easier when you review it later.
In conclusion, although I believe that canned notes should not be allowed, it is up to the student to decide which is best for them. In the end it is which ever learning method that works best for the student. If they learn better by attending lectures and taking their own notes or if they are better at skipping out on lectures and taking advantage of someone else’s work.
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