Tool of the Devil

tool of the devil
what is happening here?
this was a rant about the joys of blackboard - but Hindi got in the way, and its lost, lost, lost, but then that is also part of the life online....
my frustration was palpable, and I deserted the activity
I frequently want to post but things get in the way - the fabric has rips in it
lets have a list of those rips....

1. I can't get online
2. I can get online but then the line gets dropped
3. I get online but feel that the post is stupid because its not very professional
4. I get online but something goes weird with what I am doing, and because I work in zillions of different environments I don't get to sort out/work out how the problem has been caused...
   

- now I am thinking about learners

1. they may or may not get online - if you lead an orderly life you may be online more than if your life is chaotic, the life of many students is chaotic.
2. they want to get online, but find they are fighting for space, and having had that demoralising expience once or twice give up
3. when they do their work they have emotions about it....
4. they have places they hang out, virtually and actually, they like to hang out where they are comfortable

Emotions....

• hightly motivated, rushed, don't understand it, angry because they don't understand it, demotivated because they don't understand it, frightened because they feel stupid

And now I am thinking about blackboard

1. its the tool of the devil (evil vibes)
   
2. it forces me to do things in ways which I don't feel comfortable with (bad mooder)
   
3. it forces me to do things in ways which are just plain inefficient (time eater)
   
4. I use many different environments and the cognitive load to master that on top of the others is not what I choose to exercise (load toad)
   
5. it orders information in such a way that I cannot provide links to the information (links jinx)
6. it costs the university vast amounts of money - which I would like to spend in other ways
7. it costs the university vast amounts of money - when there are open source alternatives
8. its embodied paradigm of 'learning' is constraining - and does not fit the model which I choose to use with my students
9. it is culturally alien to our education system - vocabulary does not match ours
10. sometimes it is not there (imagine a lecture theatre which disappeared from time to time!