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Technology is a pivotal aspect of the modern collegiate experience, especially in the realm of communication. At the University of Maine, administrators vehemently embrace the emerging gadgets of our ever-evolving cyber world, but in regards to the grandiose amounts of information technologies simultaneously employed on this campus, the university seriously needs to consider cleaning out its hard drive.
A week in the virtual academic life of the average UMaine student commonly consists of four portals — MaineStreet, Blackboard, FirstClass and WebCT. Each system was comprised and adopted because of their differing and necessary capabilities. For example, where one program could provide a service of instant communication with all those affiliated with the university, it could not schedule classes or offer learning modules with automatic grading aptitudes.
Hence, the introduction of the four fantastic learning technologies, each with its own unique superpowers to rescue college students and professors campus-wide from the frustration of the hard-copied, handwritten curriculum that plagued the better part of academia before 1998.
But where at one point in time each system was imperative to scholastics at UMaine, today one program in particular proves useful in fighting against the future, rather than for it.
The vitality of WebCT, which places $45,600 on the university’s tab every year, has come into question recently when it was uncovered that the new Blackboard 9.0 system offers the same exact proficiencies. In an interview with The Maine Campus, (“UMaine to ditch WebCT for Blackboard, citing cost savings,” A1)Executive Director of Information Technologies John Gregory, confirmed that not only do Blackboard and WebCT function “very much the same,” but that WebCT, since 2006, is in fact under the ownership of Blackboard.
Even though WebCT has been slated to make its exit before this time next year, it’s hard to ignore the blatant disregard of fiscal responsibility allowed through the co-existence of two costly programs for years. Educators, who could have transferred their class modules over to Blackboard manually at a much earlier dates with a bit of overtime, chose instead to take the lazy route and waited for Blackboard 9.0 to do the transfer for them.
Obviously, the lethargic choices of a few have cost the university, and therein its hardworking students, far more than it should have.
Although the damage has already been done, there is a lesson to be learned about excess — everyone is subject to its allure, but only the foolish continue along its path.
If this university wishes to conserve its image as an intellectual institution, it should not follow blindly behind the fool, which revels in the mistakes of the past.
