I have two iPhones, an iPad, an iPod, a MacBook, a desktop, and several other internet-connected things. They let me do lots of things that someone a hundred years ago would have had to have hired numerous people to do. In this competitive environment, I don't feel like I can afford not to use the technology. Lots of wealthy and knowledgeable people know the technology is putting people out of work and will continue to do so--and this has led some of them to espouse universal basic income.I'm sorry the technology is putting many people out of work. It hurts me, too, on that front. It is an enormous fucking challenge. I'm in there struggling and desperately hoping not to be totally outsourced to the bots myself--to the MOOCs or apps or AI or whatever will one day take over my job.
That said. . . .
What's the app or software you use to make yourself a more productive and better proffie (or just a better person)?
Lately, I've been using WhatsApp quite a bit to talk with a couple of colleagues on the other side of the planet. Also, I still often use TurboScan immediately after committee meetings to magically turn the paper agenda and documents (and my scribbles) into pdf files with useful names (and immediately throw the paper into the recycling bins). And I've been using QuickTapSurvey to collect hamster fur data to try to generate a theory about hamsterfurology. Those are a few that have made a difference in the last week.
ReplyDeleteSimply put, when I could email ALL of my students at any time of the day or night, everything changed. Most of it for the worst, because that pipe runs both ways, baby!
ReplyDeleteBut I love being able to get messages to them, updates, etc., with just a click.
That's definitely a huge change since I was in college myself, and since I started teaching (email really came into use sometime during my adjuncting/early full-time years; it wasn't part of my student teaching, and I know I was still giving out a home phone # early in my adjuncting years, because I remember being a bit worried when the irate father of a student who had plagiarized called me at home, since, even without the internet, I knew phone #s and addresses could be connected. I think I really started using email with students about when I became full-time, i.e. around the turn of the century. LMSs came a bit after that.)
DeleteOne thing I haven't done, but should, due to changed expectations: I haven't yet installed the LMS app on my phone, making it possible/easy for me to email an entire class from my phone (if, for instance, I were stuck in a major traffic backup on my way to campus, which does happen ever few years).
I very definitely like not having to photocopy and carry syllabi, handouts, etc. I'm less certain whether the constant updates, reminders, etc. are really useful, or just part of an arms race in which we all (proffies as well as students) tend to ignore things about which we're not reminded multiple times.
And yes, the pipe running the other way can be a bit of a problem (though it's also essential to online teaching, which is now at least 50% of my load).
I'm not too worried about being replace by bots/AI. I do worry more than a bit about ending up "facilitating" students' progress through a standardized curriculum over which I have no control (or, not quite as bad, but still not at all what I want, ending up as the person who creates and revises the curriculum and supervises the "facilitators," but does little actual teaching myself). I also worry a bit about the "big brother" factor -- my own and my students' performance being measured by interaction on an LMS,measured in the most one-size-fits-all way possible.
ReplyDeleteAll that said, my most essential "app" is a very old one, which I need to update/replace sometime soon: I use Bonsai, which was originally created for the Palm platform but also exists in a Windows version (which I currently use) to plan and keep track of tasks, especially the ever-proliferating creation of small online "scaffolding" activities, and the grading thereof. There are Android (and Windows/Android) programs that do similar things (and that can even sync with Bonsai), but I haven't sat down and figured them out yet, and at this point I'm dependent enough on the ability to offload reminders to an "external memory" *and* trust that they will be there when I need them that I'm a bit nervous about making any change. Maybe this summer (except that I'm teaching this summer, again, so the summer isn't really all that different from the rest of the year).
In 2067, I'll be 108 years old. If I become public enemy number one, since I still can't retire, may I have a Thompson submachine gun? That would be FUN!!!
ReplyDeleteInasmuch as going bonkers would certainly make me a worse proffie, remaining somewhat sane helps me be a better proffie. The Google calendar app helps keep me sane, and it auto-syncs between my desktop and phone (unlike when I had a Palm that would periodically lose things because I'd forget to sync it and the battery would go dead).
ReplyDelete