At Penn, we value our technology. We use clickers to answer questions in class. We Facebook stalk. We even tackle tough technology-related bioethical issues.
So why can’t half our profs check their email without crashing the system?
In my almost-two years at Penn, I’ve taken four language courses in the Department of Romance Languages. I’ve also watched four professors waste class time - that could be better spent mispronouncing the names of primary colors - engaging in a futile battle with such overly complicated technologies as BlackBoard, Windows, and the touch-screen insanity that lurks in every Williams classroom.
Similarly, a professor from another department once accidentally clicked on an ad of questionable nature during a lecture, which resulted in general hilarity and a lot of blushing from both sides of the classroom. It was like watching porn with your mom on a big screen — wildly uncomfortable and really, really easily avoided.
Having spent whole semesters listening to these profs lecture, I know that they’re a hell of a lot smarter than I am. But spending 20 minutes observing the process of finding the “Course Documents” section on BlackBoard is not an efficient use of my precious time, just like walking from McNeill to the Chem Labs to wait 15 minutes for a professor who didn’t think to send an email about canceling class seemed pretty unnecessary a few weeks ago.
It’s ridiculous that almost every semester one of my friends takes a class with a professor who “hates computers.” It’s 2008 here, not 1975. Give up; IBM won! Lay down your abacus and come over to the dark side.
Mandatory computer training for profs. Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, BlackBoard, Google. Someone, somewhere, please make this happen.
It’s for the children.
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April 2nd, 2008 at 3:04 pm
[...] Professor couples will only admit their marriage when cornered, and even then they’ll do so gruffly, as if confessing to a drinking problem. Husband and wife might be working three doors down from each other, but for all anyone else knows, they’re total strangers. As for PDA? Forget it. All that means to professor couples is some kind gadget that’s too hard to use. [...]