So, having put up my anonymous student comment form a couple of weeks ago, I have received a smattering of comments/questions since then, and, as I threatened then, I figure it is time to open up the mailbag and address a few of the comments I received…mostly for my own amusement. The selection below is actually not the only comments I received, but these are the only ones I choose to address right now — it is, after all, my prerogative. So here, in no particular order:
why did you feel the need to create your teaching hub instead of just sticking with blackboard?
Well, I figure I have addressed this question adequately in this post, “Opening the Mystery Box: (aka The Raison d’être of this Website),” but perhaps something less high concept would help? It basically comes down to three main factors: I hate the Blackboard CMS and its closed system architecture; the Teaching Hub helps me keep my teaching materials better organized; and the Teaching Hub is a helpful networking tool in the academy. Remember, one of the goals of higher education is to produce and distribute information to established scholars and students alike. That goal is pretty difficult to achieve on the teaching side of things with so much course ephemera trapped behind the Blackboard/Moodle/Other Cheap CMS trifecta. If I meet a fellow academic at a conference and we get talking about teaching, it’s much easier for me to point them to the Teaching Hub to see what I’m doing than to negotiate the logistics of sharing pdfs, Word files, whatever. At least, that’s my thinking anyway…
And now for some ridiculousness:
i bet you’re one of those guys that has his nipples pierced aren’t you?
I would answer yes to this except I’m a little unsure by what “one of those guys” means exactly? So, no comment…
Back to less frivolous affairs:
I just wanted to let you now that I personally prefer the outline to the slides for the lecture materials. I usually find that I would be more inclined to print an outline than a powerpoint because it uses less ink.
First, I completely understand, and I’m sorry I have been somewhat lax in putting the outlines up this semester. I blame the busy summer mostly. That said, no one should feel pressured to print off the PowerPoint slides if they do not want to do so. One can get by just fine with having the pdf open on their laptop in class instead, as well as not even looking at the pdf handouts at all. After all, I do show you the slides in class and <omg> explain them (this is where class attendance is a plus)! I believe you should also be able to print them as a collection of slides instead of slide per page, which saves ink in the long run (pretty sure you can do this, but don’t quote me on this).
Lastly, we have:
would you have a beer, smoke, or some brownies with a student at the end of the last day of classes?
I have no problem socializing with students after a semester is over, if they are so inclined. I have a good friend of over ten years right now that I met when I was his TA in a Western Civ course at Central Michigan University (Jesus, Spring of 1999, I think), so such things are not unheard of. But I’m not scoring booze for anyone under 21.
And brownies? What kind of brownies are you talking about exactly? </sarcasm>
HST203.FA11: Technology is Fun!
A couple of anonymous comments came in today that I figure I’ll address here. Here’s the first:
On the one hand, I’ll simply say that I share your frustrations when it comes to the crap-tacularness of using e-books through the university library (what with all the limitations, restrictions, and other stupid DRM crap they try to foster on you). This is one of the reasons I tried to purge as many of them from the list of course readings as possible over the summer. On the other hand, I’m not exactly sure what you want me to do about it. I don’t run Course Reserves at the library. I didn’t write the coding for or manage the uploading of material to the ARES system. If you have complaints about ARES and its applicability to tablets and whatnot, talk to them. Other than the current set-up, my only other option was to make you buy all these books. Which would you prefer in the long run? I think I know the answer to that one already.
And here is comment two:
This is the sort of message I would prefer you contact me directly about, as I cannot really help you more unless I know who you are. That said, if you are having problems accessing the Wengrow e-book, you need to contact the library IT people. Other than telling you to try it on a different computer, I’ve got nothing.
Stuff like this and the few problems with e-books from the summer course pretty much guarantees that I will be requiring students to purchase the Wengrow book in the future.
Meanwhile, to distract you, I give you techno dancing robots!