Technology and teachers: Get on our level

Old farts are always baffled with the way we shred college — submitting papers via Blackboard, online class registration and Wikipedia use are just a few of my favorite examples. I’m sorry Gramps, but compared to the college experience of yesteryear, we, proud members of Generation Y, have access to more information at a freakishly faster rate, and we aren’t slowing down.

With its advanced information technology and extensive research networks, the university deserves to give itself a solid pat on the back for its digital endeavors. Let’s be real — even though we all whine and complain about insignificant university expenditures, I’ve always thought of this school as the “Q” to my James Bond.

However, just because we have the means to accommodate the techno-intellectual student does not mean we are doing a fantastic job. In fact, our resources are damn near useless if the people using this technology to instruct us are not adequately prepared to do so.

This is why I propose that every professor, both future and incumbent, be required to take a technology proficiency assessment prior to the start of the semester to make sure he or she understands the use and functionality of the technology used both in and out of the classroom. This assessment will ensure professors are well informed of these technologies and can easily navigate through multimedia extensions — a Professor 2.0, if you will.

Before Dr. Stonewall Jackson has a heart attack, this assessment will in no way prevent a professor from lecturing; failing the assessment will simply result in a mandatory classroom technology workshop. That is all. No gimmicks, no nothing. Just pure technological fun, something I’ve been doing ever since my middle school fired Father Time and sold the shop class equipment for shiny boxes of joy called computers. 

Let’s not get too excited. This is just an idea I have that will resolve many of the frustrations encountered by students who sit idly in their seats while their professor attempts to do a Google search in the URL bar for the fourth time. If administrators are serious about boosting the university’s reputation as a technology-sufficient institution, they need to focus less on the hardware and more on the hands behind the hardware.

Now, I’m not suggesting that all professors are inferior users of technology when compared to students, but some definitely are. Most of my professors this year have impressed me with their technological capabilities (feel free to award extra credit). And a professor’s technological ineptitude does not necessarily map to a poor lecture. I would gladly take a class from any of our Pulitzer Prize-winning professors, even if they’ve never touched a computer. But for them, the technology assessment will only improve their teaching skills.

However, I have been known to land those few professors who think a PowerPoint is when you call on a student with all four fingers. I’m pretty sure that for these extreme cases, an assessment is deeply warranted.

Jason Kramer is a junior history major. He can be reached at kramer at umdbk dot com.