Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The first ten days blues

Of adds and drops I'm not entitled to rant
For under the rules and regulations it's not that students can't.

Though for the campus as a whole I'd like of the practice cessation
Generalizing from my own experience where there's lots of frustration.

As an instructor I do try to toe the line
While wondering what's the real goal behind this design.

Is it simply a holdover from when we did registration with paper
When getting into an oversubscribed class was like pulling off a caper?

But now that's not hard, instead what we have is excessive churn
Causing an instructor trying to enthuse students to do a slow burn.

I'd rather see all students start at the same time.
When a common bond takes hold in the classroom that is sublime.

Campus and instructors both need to vigorously interact
And then agree the main goal is to end the Disengagement Pact.

The way the technology is used now it's actually making matters worse.
It lowers instructor and student commitment and in that sense is a curse.

What if instead each class had a before semester open house?
Students would get an idea of the course and later not grouse.

Students would learn that taking a course is different from getting a Christmas present
Where it is okay to do an exchange or get a refund with that process rather pleasant.

It's an important lesson to learn to live with your choices,
When people have done that it turns out we respect their voices.

So with University technology it's not convenience we should be selling.
Especially when that undermines core principles - that's the message I'm telling.

What I'd like to see is a permanent fix
That got rid of all these student registration tricks.

And returned to the idea that on semester day one
That's was the day that learning had begun.

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