Musings spurred by the Chronicle of Higher Education

I read an article on the online version of the Chronicle today about how graduate programs have automated letters of recommendation, and how that has been problematic for professors who'd rather write the actual letters than toil through the Web sites.

Huh. And I thought the computer was supposed to make our work easier for us ... you know, I'm so not anti-technology, but this class has forced me to realize that I probably am a dissenting factor when it comes to teaching freshman composition with technology. I wanted to think it could be advantageous, and in some ways it probably is, but in other ways I think I know now why I'll largely continue teaching the way I have been. It's not that I don't like technology or that I'm uncomfortable with it, it's that I realize that there are so many added complications that it causes. We can shrug them off in class, but ... well, for me, I'm realizing that technology probably is just a tool, and that's where I'll keep it. To teach with it or to expect other students to maneuver through it takes more work than just teaching them strategies to write, which is what we should be doing.