It is a fairly safe assumption that most students do not enroll at the University in pursuit of a carpentry degree. Then why is it that almost every course requires a toolkit?
As the second semester of the school year unfolds and students at Mr. Jefferson's University once again set their alarm clocks and wear shoes in the shower, they find themselves constantly in need of a toolkit.
In this digital day and age, a "toolkit" is no longer a slightly rusted, red metal box wedged between last year's lawn mower and the recently retired Christmas tree stand in the garage. Thanks to the innovators of the Information Age, namely Al Gore for his hand in inventing the Internet, toolkits have headed into cyberspace. And it's a good thing, too - the majority of college students have an easier time identifying a World-Wide-Web address than a Phillip's screwdriver. (No, that's not the kind with orange juice.)
At the University, "Toolkit" is the name given to the online resource centers for individual courses. Your Psych 101 professor has a place to post the syllabus for the course, along with reading materials not found in your textbook. In an attempt to be sneaky, the course may require the purchase of just two books from the Student Bookstore, but ask you to print 25 articles from its Toolkit site on the topic of the behavior of post-adolescents. Fortunately, it will allow you to bemoan this fate with fellow classmates through the course's Toolkit e-mail address. But be careful - using the e-mail address to split up the reading of the 25 articles between the 25 students might not work: The e-mail also goes to the professor.
If the simple objective of any toolkit is providing the means to "fix it yourself," the Toolkit site is up to par. In many areas of study, the decree handed down from the great Mount Olympus known as the "The Department" said all professors should make their syllabus and other course material available on Toolkit for the students to print out themselves. Some professors now seem to feel that Toolkit is our home away from home, and they decide to put up everything from lecture notes to Web page links. And to top off this lovely correspondence, they enjoy sending e-mails informing us when we can access new materials they have posted on Toolkit. You can just imagine the traffic jam that follows; it's something similar to the line for the elliptical machines at the AFC come 5 o'clock.
However, there are some professors who seem to view Toolkit the same way everyone else views the Hokies: as an archenemy. Take for instance the professor of one of the courses I attended last week. While talking about the requirements and content of the class, he seemed like a nice, normal man, despite the fact that he thought it permissible to wear a jacket, tie and slacks all in contrasting patterns and shades of brown. While Joan Rivers may have gone into hysterics over this ensemble, I overlooked it and was genuinely enjoying his introduction.
That is, until he came to the topic of Internet use in his class. The sweet, poorly dressed man slowly evolved into a larger-than-life monster. Think Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith. His voice dropped 12 octaves as he bellowed,
"You will not use the computer to communicate with me! All requests made in this manner will be DENIED!" At this point, I did not bother asking for a Toolkit address.
Needless to say, I dropped that course.
However, this remains an extreme example of professor reaction. Most faculty members appreciate Toolkit's ability to simplify and facilitate communication. It only gets complicated when students are asked to enter a special password to access certain information from a course's Toolkit. This adds to the long list of IDs and passwords we must already remember. When prompted for a password, do we type our Simeon password? Our Social Security number? Our University Computing ID? The professor's maiden name? Just when you had mastered ISIS registration, they throw you a curve ball.
Maybe I should have stuck with a degree in carpentry.
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