I think my teacher's crazy.
Aug. 27th, 2007 02:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladylucklessI managed to get logged on to Vista and find all of my classes, which is good. I also found out I have access to a folklore class I took over a year ago. At least it was one of the interesting online classes.
But I've been going throughout the syllabi and course materials getting an idea of how much "fun" the semester will be and what weeks I should plan on hiding from the world as I type out many many essays. During the process I managed to discover that my anthropology 104 professor is insane--and not in the good "I'm an anthropologist let's build yurts and hold office hour in them and end up debating if it would have been more culturally sound to build" way. The first lesson in the online course is how to log in and get to the online course that you have to be logged into to read the assignment. This would also be the first, in a long list of occasions, where the instructor confuses 'jan IDs' and 'dana IDs'. I'm thinking of e-mailing her to prevent confusion that would come from a million freshmen logging in and trying to figure out what their jan account is.
The next bit of potential insanity is the 'clicker system'. I'm reserving judgment on this until I actually experience it but am inclined to think of it as stupid. We get little machines that remind me of the things they use to take audience polls on shows like Who Wants to be a Millionaire and America's Funniest Home Videos. These are supposed to be fostering class participation and allowing the teacher to take attendance. I am usually annoyed by the attendance requirements of classes--not because I don't show up but because I think I've gotten to the point where if I can do the work without sitting through your boring and stupid lecture and get excellent grades on all of it I shouldn't be penalized for not sitting through the lectures. These clickers are supposed to be registered online and the teacher told us to wait to do this because she has a coupon. I'm guessing this means that not only do I have to buy an overpriced electronic gadget I can only use once I have to pay to register the damn thing.
The next crazy thing is our first quiz. This is essentially a "getting to know the students" survey. Most of the questions are fairly straightforward. Have you used Vista before? What features are you familiar with? Then it takes a turn for the slightly insane. Asking questions like "How many credit hours have you completed at the college level (including courses from this and any other institution you have attended, but not including your current courses)? (write your response in the spaces provided)" which is kinda a pain to look up. Especially since I know the teacher already knows what level all the students are as they get that with their roster. Even more fun are the questions about how much time I spend on campus not at class or work. I tried to write something that was both snarky and let me show my dislike of stupid questions that don't have anything to do with the class but the field demands an exact number.
Why do I think I'm going to end up pointing out a lot of stupid in this class?
But I've been going throughout the syllabi and course materials getting an idea of how much "fun" the semester will be and what weeks I should plan on hiding from the world as I type out many many essays. During the process I managed to discover that my anthropology 104 professor is insane--and not in the good "I'm an anthropologist let's build yurts and hold office hour in them and end up debating if it would have been more culturally sound to build
The next bit of potential insanity is the 'clicker system'. I'm reserving judgment on this until I actually experience it but am inclined to think of it as stupid. We get little machines that remind me of the things they use to take audience polls on shows like Who Wants to be a Millionaire and America's Funniest Home Videos. These are supposed to be fostering class participation and allowing the teacher to take attendance. I am usually annoyed by the attendance requirements of classes--not because I don't show up but because I think I've gotten to the point where if I can do the work without sitting through your boring and stupid lecture and get excellent grades on all of it I shouldn't be penalized for not sitting through the lectures. These clickers are supposed to be registered online and the teacher told us to wait to do this because she has a coupon. I'm guessing this means that not only do I have to buy an overpriced electronic gadget I can only use once I have to pay to register the damn thing.
The next crazy thing is our first quiz. This is essentially a "getting to know the students" survey. Most of the questions are fairly straightforward. Have you used Vista before? What features are you familiar with? Then it takes a turn for the slightly insane. Asking questions like "How many credit hours have you completed at the college level (including courses from this and any other institution you have attended, but not including your current courses)? (write your response in the spaces provided)" which is kinda a pain to look up. Especially since I know the teacher already knows what level all the students are as they get that with their roster. Even more fun are the questions about how much time I spend on campus not at class or work. I tried to write something that was both snarky and let me show my dislike of stupid questions that don't have anything to do with the class but the field demands an exact number.
Why do I think I'm going to end up pointing out a lot of stupid in this class?
