I was asked about my experience with IT by UW—Milwaukee (they sent out a survey) and I had a few thoughts that I figured I’d share about the matter. This is what wrote in the survey verbatim:
On the whole, learning management software (i.e. Blackboard, Desire 2 Learn) is incredibly dated and frustrating applications of information technology for students. The methods of access that students are able to use are as important if not more so than the content on the applications contain. If course materials or information are difficult to access, I’m less inclined to use them than I would if they were well organized and constructed. Developing features such as apps for the iOS or Android ecosystems would come a long way to increase the desire to use learning management software.
Instructors also need to have regular training on using the technology that their classes employ. Far too often, valuable class time is wasted by instructors attempting to use a piece of technology with which they are unfamiliar. Confidence in an instructor is also not maintained by students when instruction is interrupted and they are required to assist the instructor with the use of technology which has been in use for many years but with which they are somehow still unfamiliar. It should be a generally accepted fact by university faculty and staff that student bodies are highly tech-savvy and that we at the very least, expect our instructors to, if they choose, employ technology in the classroom in an experience that is both seamless with the rest of instruction and also provides an insight to the instruction that would otherwise not exist without the use of technology.
