I am NOT a Luddite

The title should give you fair warning on my defensiveness, right? Here are a couple of recent examples that made me shake my head.

1.My department bought those of us who wanted one an iPad. No training, no account setup (and Academic Computing is really PO'ed that we have them without being part of a coordinated effort run by THEM. They are so proud that THEY just got iPads and they are running a pilot this fall in a different department. Nothing like my department trying to steal their thunder!).

Nevertheless, Academic Computing has some really nice, helpful staff, and they tried to get me started. We looked at the features of the device (Wow! I can change the wallpaper! - if you know me in the slightest you know that how the display is is about one-millionth on my list of things to care about) and they tried and failed to end-run the system to get me an account without giving up a credit card number.

So B got me the account and I've looked at some free or cheap apps. Either they are things I do competently other ways already (I still use a paper calendar; I can't bear to switch to device-based as long as I can scribble a quick note) or things I have no use for. I don't need an iPad stopwatch (try dragging THAT on a long walk) when I have a perfectly fine free one on the laptop, which I use for timing presentations. I don't need two cameras on one machine (although the res is pretty good and I could probably figure out how to email the files to myself). Bottom line: the iPad has not yet demonstrated its value and I'm not willing to spend countless more hours "playing" to see if I can wrest value out of it.

2. Steve Jobs and his iCloud. I like my programs and my documents right where I know where they always are: on my laptop, which I back up reasonably conscientiously. I don't like being dependent on some infrastructure "out there" in the ether to do every single thing that I do and manage all the information I manage. I know that the Internet is redundantly structured, but it seems like there are a LOT of things that could go wrong between me sitting here (wherever "here" is) and my information: ISP breakdown; telecomm overload (every time there is a "natural" disaster the cell network is the first casualty); even terrorism.

3. At one of the workshops in the previous entry, one of our tech people suggested we deal with banning cell phones in the classroom by allowing students a start-up reward at the beginning of class, which is to use polldaddy to answer a question. And then make them put the cellphones away. Seems ass-backwards to me. How about a reward at the END of class? Why give them license for cell phones at the BEGINNING, when they have just seconds ago checked for new texts?

4.On the other hand, why isn't our campus working on ways to let us text students, since that is "meeting them where they are," which is always touted as our go-to strategy?

5. I am really tired once again of hearing about "digital natives" who take to any technology and dive right in. Here is the technology our students hate most and seem to need the most help with: the Learning Management System (LMS) for which we make them buy laptops. It's a clunky system to be sure - but they just try one thing and can't do it (which apparently absolves them of any responsibility of completing the relevant assignment) or whine that they couldn't find what you wanted them to read, or it wouldn't load, or they couldn't print it, or whatever.

In better news, I've finished the first of six modules of my online course, all but testing the links. It looks my course at the other college may not run, although I won't know for sure for another 3-4 weeks, and I'm only short one student for their minimum enrollment. There is significant start-up for THAT class so it won't be the worst thing if it doesn't run.