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Proyecto Visión 21

How long before they find a cure for extreme nonsense?

Francisco Miraval

One of my students recently asked for my help, indicating that he was experiencing problems when trying to upload his assignments to the web site for our course. He also said he unsuccessfully tried several times to contact the IT department to solve the issue. Hoping to help,

I sent a message to the IT department explaining the problem my student had.

Soon after that, I received a message from the IT department telling me that, in case I was unfamiliar with the software we were using, there would be some seminars I could attend to learn how to use that software.

I replied saying I did not have any problem. I asked them to get in touch with my students, not with me. In addition, I told them I would not attend any seminar, because there was no need to do so.

I then received another message, telling me that because I was unable to attend the seminars, I should bring my own laptop to the IT department office where somebody would explain to me how to use the software.

I sent a message telling them that neither I nor my laptop had any kind of problems with the software being used for this class. I was clear one student was unable to upload his assignments. I told them to contact the student, not me.

As expected, I got another message, in this case telling me that, because I was unable to go to the IT department office, they would come to my classroom with their laptop before my class to explain to me how to use the software that was giving me so much trouble.

I could not take it anymore and I told them to forget about the issue because the problem had been solved. However, that same day -just a few minutes before the class began- somebody from the IT department came to my classroom with his laptop to “teach” me how to use the software. I told him face to face that I knew how to use the program and that it was my student, not me, who needed the IT department help to solve one issue.

Then, I said, “I will pretend I am student So and So. This is my problem.” The technician seemed to understand the problem. He reviewed the settings of the software and changed some options. Then, he said, “Other students have the same problem. We still do not know how to fix it.”

In spite of my frustration, I asked the technician to stay for a few more minutes, because the class was about to start and the student with the problem should arrive shortly. The technician said he had to go, but he asked me for the name of the student, promising to solve the issue.

The next day, I discovered my student had been removed from the class roster. I was told it was just a mistake that it will be corrected “as soon as we can.”

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