{"id":24057,"date":"2015-04-09T13:37:24","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T17:37:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=24057"},"modified":"2015-04-09T13:37:24","modified_gmt":"2015-04-09T17:37:24","slug":"to-share-or-not-to-share","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2015\/04\/09\/to-share-or-not-to-share\/","title":{"rendered":"To Share or Not to Share"},"content":{"rendered":"Exams are upon us again, which means that a flood of emails is almost certainly bound to be upon us as well.\r\n\r\nOur classmates, many of whom we have never met, will use the email system on Blackboard to request notes and lecture audio. Sometimes they\u2019ll be a desperate plea for someone who\u2019s missed most of the term; other times they\u2019ll be someone who\u2019s noticed their notes aren\u2019t as complete as they thought they were.\r\n\r\n
\"Photo<\/a>
Rennett Stowe<\/a> (CC BY 2.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nThese notes will range from a two-sentence request to a lengthy explanation. And every time we receive these notes we are faced with an ethical dilemma.\r\n\r\nDo we share notes, altruistically or because we hope the person requesting our notes has notes from another lecture we need, or do we keep our notes to ourselves, because we did the work for them and should therefore not be obliged to assist those who didn\u2019t?\r\n\r\nAs someone who\u2019s been on both sides of the request, I understand the desperation sometimes required in requesting notes. A volunteer note taker may not have posted their notes for the same lecture in which my note taking device died. Or it\u2019s the end of term and I not only don\u2019t know where the 13 weeks have gone, but how I\u2019ve fallen so behind. Or illness has kept me out of class.\r\n\r\nOr any number of things. I don\u2019t know my classmates\u2019 life stories and I certainly have it easier than many with long commutes, more courses, and generally more responsibilities.\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, I\u2019ve seen tens of these requests, and some of those with whom I\u2019ve shared notes haven\u2019t reciprocated in the way they claimed they could. The notes they promised seldom arrived or sometimes I never received even a \u201cthank you\u201d. I know it\u2019s shallow to want even a little acknowledgement for my efforts, but a \u201cthanks! Want to review the course over email so we can both prepare?\u201d would go a long way.\r\n\r\nThis has meant my heart has hardened somewhat to these requests. I know what it feels like to be in their position, but I don\u2019t want to feel taken advantage of either. I also know I've done the\r\n\r\nWhich doesn\u2019t do much for my self-image as a giving person.\r\n\r\nOn the contrary again, I\u2019ve had fantastic study groups and study buddies in classes who have been more than willing to discuss material and share notes if need be. And with these folks I\u2019ve been more than willing to go the extra mile. And, for the record, my default position is to share notes with my \u201cunknown\u201d classmates too, just perhaps not as readily as I once did.\r\n\r\nIn short, I\u2019d suggest sharing one\u2019s notes is a decent thing to do, but if you\u2019re asking for notes, be willing to give a little as well. Even if it\u2019s not in the moment (stress can make a mockery of one\u2019s non-exam brain function), a quick thanks weeks afterwards will never go unappreciated. Academia can be a team sport, and we\u2019re all better if we help each other out.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\nExams are upon us again, which means that a flood of emails is almost certainly bound to be upon us as well. Our classmates, many of whom we have never met, will use the email system on Blackboard to request…\n<\/div>
Continue reading “To Share or Not to Share”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>
Continue reading “To Share or Not to Share”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6669,1],"tags":[193],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24057"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24057"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24063,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24057\/revisions\/24063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}