Two weeks ago, The Pacer looked at how your student fees were being spent on campus. One area we didn’t cover was the line item that already appears on your Banner account, $100 for the Technology Fee.

Are you getting your hundred dollars’ worth?

We pay for Blackboard, a classroom collaboration and resource system, but far too few instructors utilize it. Of those that do, many are not well versed in how to use advanced functions, such as the Electric Blackboard (chat discussions) or the grade book.

We have student e-mail, but many do not stumble upon it until their first or second semester is nearly over. Some even forget their e-mail address, because we still have “mars.utm.edu” instead of “utm.edu.” Isn’t it time to finally abandon that dinosaur?

Cumbersome setup and even more difficult management of Web sites has left many student organizations opting for Yahoo! Geocities. Should we really have to telnet in to the server just to upload a new file?

To be fair, there have been great advances in student services as well. Wireless access points across campus has helped keep a small number of students with laptops stay connected across campus. The myUTMartin portal project promises to alleviate some of these issues, but there is still work to be done.