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One of those classic examples of technology making our lives more difficult...
I'm a Teaching Assistant for a course; there are two other TA's, a part-time 'tech wizard', and the professor. The professor is, to put it charitably, technophobic. It's a miracle that she knows how to use Powerpoint. (Actually, I think she's just one of those people who wants to wake up, and it's 1969 again.) So, of course, last summer she decided that our course would use iClicker. The iClicker is a remote that each student buys at the bookstore, and they can be used for administering quizzes and exams in lectures. The software records each student's answer, compares it to the correct answer (programmed in by the instructor), and compiles it all in a neat little report. Ideally, this can be easily plugged into the course's grade center on Blackboard (the online course management software used by most US universities). The quiz scores were to be added to exam grades, and used as a kind of extra credit.
Of course, it doesn't really work. After last semester's fiasco, I suggested that we switch to paper quizzes given in discussion on Friday. Each TA could make their own. It would take, tops, 30 minutes of work each week to create and grade these. Then we would manually add up quiz scores, which would take all of a minute to set up in Excel. But, no. That would take too much time. She didn't want to give us extra work. (Bull, she doesn't want us writing the questions. She wants to give deliberately confusing trick questions because she hates students.) So, we went with iClicker again this semester. And, surprisingly, it doesn't work.
The 'tech' TA has spent hours this semester, tweaking the iClicker settings and Blackboard's grade center, so that the quiz points are automatically added to the mid-term grade. I spent 2-3 hours e-mailing and meeting with a few students who couldn't get their damn Clickers to even work. We had to re-enter mid-term grades three times because it wasn't adding up correctly. A giant pain in the ass that could have been avoided, but of course the professor doesn't have to deal with this shit, so why should she care?
arrrrrrrggghhhh.
When my semester is up, there will be a *massive* post about the professor I've had to work for this year. She is a stunning example of everything that most people hate about higher education.
(Sorry if any of this is confusing. I have to rush off to a performance, plus I have a splitting migraine.)
I'm a Teaching Assistant for a course; there are two other TA's, a part-time 'tech wizard', and the professor. The professor is, to put it charitably, technophobic. It's a miracle that she knows how to use Powerpoint. (Actually, I think she's just one of those people who wants to wake up, and it's 1969 again.) So, of course, last summer she decided that our course would use iClicker. The iClicker is a remote that each student buys at the bookstore, and they can be used for administering quizzes and exams in lectures. The software records each student's answer, compares it to the correct answer (programmed in by the instructor), and compiles it all in a neat little report. Ideally, this can be easily plugged into the course's grade center on Blackboard (the online course management software used by most US universities). The quiz scores were to be added to exam grades, and used as a kind of extra credit.
Of course, it doesn't really work. After last semester's fiasco, I suggested that we switch to paper quizzes given in discussion on Friday. Each TA could make their own. It would take, tops, 30 minutes of work each week to create and grade these. Then we would manually add up quiz scores, which would take all of a minute to set up in Excel. But, no. That would take too much time. She didn't want to give us extra work. (Bull, she doesn't want us writing the questions. She wants to give deliberately confusing trick questions because she hates students.) So, we went with iClicker again this semester. And, surprisingly, it doesn't work.
The 'tech' TA has spent hours this semester, tweaking the iClicker settings and Blackboard's grade center, so that the quiz points are automatically added to the mid-term grade. I spent 2-3 hours e-mailing and meeting with a few students who couldn't get their damn Clickers to even work. We had to re-enter mid-term grades three times because it wasn't adding up correctly. A giant pain in the ass that could have been avoided, but of course the professor doesn't have to deal with this shit, so why should she care?
arrrrrrrggghhhh.
When my semester is up, there will be a *massive* post about the professor I've had to work for this year. She is a stunning example of everything that most people hate about higher education.
(Sorry if any of this is confusing. I have to rush off to a performance, plus I have a splitting migraine.)
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