Thursday, September 30, 2004
Not So Hot


What I need in class to make things more interesting.

So far, second year university has hardly been enlightening and only somewhat interesting. With classes like Sociological Theory and Research Methods, I didn't quite expect it to be enthralling, but I think there was a sliver of hope in there somewhere.

I have often said that it hardly matters whether or not the class material is interesting; I think that the success of the course always lies in the professor. Par exemple: my Research Methods prof.

She takes 10 to 15 minutes every morning to try and figure out how to work her PowerPoint presentation. She inserts the disk, opens up D drive and finds nothing there. Checks the actual physical drive. Yes, CD is in. Opens up the folder, checks again, folder is empty. Checks the CD. Checks the folder. Checks the CD. Checks the folder. Again and again and again. Meanwhile, I'm sitting in the 3rd row, my mind just screaming at her, "Just check the other folder for goodness' sake! It's in E drive woman! E DRIIIIIIVE!!"

So then she calls in the guy from the IT department who's been dealing with her every lecture, showing her how to work the microphone and dim the potlights. Is it just me or do professors have a certain repsonsibility to learn things like PowerPoint and how to use simple machines? Granted, she's of the generation that didn't grow up with computers so it's understandable that she doesn't know how they work blah blah blah. But if you're going to use it as part of your lecture, don't expect us to sit around and watch you fiddle with things you should really have a grasp on. Didn't we just pump a crap load of money into the education system a few years ago with the promise that teachers would be better trained and junk like that? Well, I think they should seriously introduce things like How to Use PowerPoint and Light Dimming 101.

To make matters worse, she spends whatever time we have left treating us like 5th graders, repeating everything she says twice and saying it s l o w e r the second time around to make sure we all wrote it down. Are you serious?? And I know I'm not the only one; every time that I walk into that lecture hall, I see fewer people and more empty seats. Prediction: course will not be good. Duh.

Personally, I see two options right now, shoot myself or shoot the prof.