I have been feeling kinda old recently. Starting back to school with all these 18 year olds around will do that.
I'm taking an undergrad calc class this semester because the prof in charge of my secondary field told me that I really should. The jury is still out on whether this is a good thing or a waste of time, but hey, at least it means a slightly lighter courseload for me this semester.
Anyways, we have homework every week and we have to submit it online. Of course, to access the website, you have to buy a brand spanking new $300 textbook with access code. What ever happened to just turning in assignments to your TA? Apparently this program will allow you to try to input the right answer 3 times...after that it gets marked wrong. And then the TA doesn't even have to grade it since the program did it already...and they get sent a full grading history report on each student.
Sadly for us polisci TA's, all of our assignments that we have to grade are tests and papers...no fancy technology can help us out...though I do use excel to keep track of my students and their grades and we also do use Blackboard to get info to students.
When I was an undergrad things were still pretty low tech. I can't ever remember turning in homework online. We had email and I did design a few prof's websites, but that's about it. We didn't even have facebook.
This has nothing to do with this entry. It's more of a random question. Is there any reason that hearing Al Dexter sing "Pistol Packin' Mama" should make me think of you?? I'm serious. This isn't a joke, it's just really weird.
ReplyDelete"...lay that pistol down, babe..."
Haha.