Aw, Professor: Campus Computing
In honor of instructional support systems that interfere with instruction. As with many memes in this series, this one has been percolating for some while. At the beginning of the Fall 2024 semester, however, it comes to a head as I hear the frustration of a growing number of colleagues. Those who teach are increasingly assessed and managed by those who do not -- and none of that assessment asks US what would allow us to be more effective. In short it would be this: leave our teaching tools alone. From email to blackboard to simply viewing a web site, everything we touch comes with more features and less reliability -- more safeguards and less access. I am no Luddite in this arena. I was the first person to offer a fully online course on my campus -- and the first to win an online teaching award, and the second. I taught workshops statewide, and I consulted for Blackboard. And yet ...