New Column 4-17-2009

http://www.technicianonline.com/viewpoint/remember-technology-when-doing-course-evaluations-1.1719705



Published: Thursday, April 16, 2009
Updated: Thursday, April 16, 2009

© NCSU Student Media 2009
Jake Goldbas
Course evaluations are going on right now and many of us are stumped for what to write. We need to tell every professor in the course evaluation to get a Web site if they don’t have one. If they do have one, those Web sites should be upgraded, and kept informed for better programs out there. By programs I mean learning tools and assignments.To know the reading schedule for that overly simple class with one professor, one essay, and one set of readings, some of us have to go digging through piles of e-mails to find a syllabus instead of getting the file straight from Vista or Webassign. This means putting up the syllabus online will make things easier. Class discussions, the good type of class interactions, can many times just as easily be taken to a discussion board without any harm to the single text or single assignment the professor wants to teach. Only good can come out of continuing discussion outside of class. Likewise, people should tell their teachers that participation on the discussion boards can be graded, too.If we checked our classes and relevant material as much as we checked our Facebook and Myspace accounts, our grades would be better, guaranteed. For example, the library’s Web site offers widgets for cell phones and Facebook. Instead of researching or stalking your latest crush, you can research and stalk at the same time. Tell your professors to point out the appropriate widgets or make a widget-program for the classes you are taking. (If they aren’t savvy they should ask the engineering school).We should build better digital learning selves online ­ and here I mean on Vista, on course Web sites, on Webassign, on Maple and so on. Our digital identity is much larger than Myspace would have us believe. For example, why can’t professors start a Ning group Web site or have students as a group Twitter about the assignments?Many of the old sites that professors use need to be refurbished. Did you know every course has an automatically generated research-Web site from our Library-Sciences department? Neither did your professors. You just go onto the school library page, click on library tools, and select the course. The Library sciences people have already listed your course reserves, helpful databases, some digital research tools on the computer and some concrete (like calculators and GPS systems) hardware that they think you might need. They even have live chat with people who have masters in library science. Remember that 1873 leather bound textbook that’s only available in UNC-Greensboro that your professor was talking about? You and your professor can find it through D.H. Hill, and generally speaking, neither of you know this.And I don’t even have to mention how unappealing and not user-friendly MyPack Portal is. MyPack Portal is truly too hard to use and obviously professors have no contact with it whatsoever. But this is poor judgment because the whole point of the school is the professors. Professors who do not understand technology or do not post syllabi and relevant content on their pages should be urged to take a class on technology from our Engineering school. They need to be respectfully told this through course evaluations.Let Jake know your thoughts at letters@technicianonline.com.
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