Although I am not in college myself, I do have a son who will be registering for classes in the blink of an eye.
Several of my friends and kids of friends who are currently enrolled are bemoaning the frustrations they are feeling as they deal with computer generated assignments, return work and messages that allegedly substitute for actual face time in the teacher's presence and butt time in a classroom seat.
While I believe technology can broaden our reach in helping elevate educational opportunity, it can also be stretched to the breaking point by making what should help ease educational burdens become heavier to bear.
If you have trouble with the subject matter, it takes email, Blackboard, cellphone apps and a zillion other ways to beg, borrow and steal the time to acquire understanding that is no longer available in a brick and mortar classroom setting.
Some teachers conduct entire classes via the Internet. Okay.
But what if a student struggles?
They don't know their cyber buddies well enough to know who can help them get access to the materials to pass the class.
Is this just another technological upgrade that is turning into a boondoggle?
Now, the delightful people who are large and in charge in campuses across the nation are saying they need more money for the tuition and fees for classes that never actually meet.
Do what???
Call me stupid, but if you can't even get the teacher's attention IN a regular crowded classroom, how, pray tell, can you get it over a cable modem? If I wave real big here at my desk will my teacher miles away FEEL the vibration in the air?
I worry that we have become so addicted to our technology that we have lost our humanity and the blessing of looking someone right in the eyes. How do I know if they are teaching relevant information or just some crap from Wikipedia if I never see 'the whites of their eyes', as Daddy is fond of saying...?
Gasoline is expensive, but dang it, so is tuition!!
If my son is attending a class through cyberspace, can I be assured that his work is really being approved because it's correct or simply because he took the time to email it in?
I'd hate to think a doctor was about to cut into me who took all of his human anatomy courses via the Internet and had never actually touched a body that wasn't a drunken coed at the frat house bash.
All I'm saying is that there should be a disclaimer in every course that reads something like this: "I'm a tenured professor who can't be fired even if I set the room off in an explosion that makes the Bikini Atoll look like a backyard fireworks display. So I don't do classroom teaching any more. All correspondence will go through my secretary who just happens to be my tech savvy 11-year old daughter. She will determine which random emails I will actually answer. I give credit for all assignments turned in and only occasionally test on the material I told you to study. Good luck and pray for a solid "C" in my class."
That would at least make me feel like there was some truth in advertising.
It won't alleviate the frustration, but at least you'd know the source of what you will soon be experiencing at the get go.
Meanwhile, think of all the time you will be saving by not having to sharpen any #2 pencils for your coursework.
